Ladies, Stand Up and Pee!

Photo courtesy of SheWee.com

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Though from the looks of this thing I guess all we ever needed was a funnel. I guess it’s that easy? Fashion a funnel at an angle with a curved shoehorn-like bowl, and presto, women are liberated! It’s true that we gals really, really need an alternative to sitting on (or squatting above) nasty gas-station toilets. It’s a big-time pain in the ass for women to have to sit and squat all the time, same goes for things like menstruating, childbirth, and childrearing; we put up with a lot because of our anatomy. But on the pee front I’m not yet convinced that the Brits’ SheWee has broken the porcelain ceiling.

First off, the physics of it seems really challenging, which is probably why we haven’t seen a SheWee before. I mean, we have a female condom, we have boxer shorts for women, but, like lady Viagra, the bipedal pee has heretofore eluded us. Second, the site insists that you can use the SheWee “without removing your clothes.” Hmm, I’m not trusting that molded funnel to catch everything and keep my clothes, and shoes, wee free. Plus, it’s reusable and is supposed to be put back in a bag between uses, which means you’re carrying around urine between liberated pee stops. The SheWee is perfect, says the site, for so many occasions: in the car, while scuba diving, on Everest. In fact, the SheWee promises that NOW you can “hike/climb/ski/jog off the beaten track, miles from the nearest toilet.” Because women wouldn’t even think of doing any of these things if they didn’t have a plastic urine-covered funnel in their pocket.

It’s the usual feminine hygiene sell, that a device, whether it’s a Swiffer, douching with Lysol (“Still the girl he married“), or NuvaRing (“Let Freedom Ring“), is what’s going to free women from the bonds of their pesky vaginas.

All this said I just might get me a SheWee and give it a try, because how could anyone resist a product that lets you “travel the world with the comfort of home in your pocket.”

WE CAME UP SHORT.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

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