hahaha!

However, in our part of France, pink toilet paper does not rule -- it is just a Paris thing Kristin!

Here, we seem to have a preponderance of pastels colours embossed and scented on white -- I would give the edge to lavender -- coloured and scented.

This is why we always buy our toilet paper in Switzerland, where you can find white Charmin... (along with yellow, blue, and pink, which do not exist back home).

Hey! But when we were in Paris a couple of weeks ago, we found the most amazing 8 ply white paper, which we can't get here... I think it was at Champion.

what's with the homophobia and promoting of stereotypes in that blog? And why's a quote from it on AT?

I've come across pastel green tp, not sure if that was in France or in Germany though!

give me a break, it's not homophobic.

This has got to be my least favorite post on AT yet.

Who cares what color it is. It all does the same function and all ends up in the same place.

Pink toilet paper means gay? You're right, not homophobic. Just ignorant.

When I was a student in France (in the Loire valley), my host family's house had a separate room for the sink and shower and another one for the toilet. The actual toilet room had no windows and a red chinese globe shade over the lightbulb, so EVERYTHING looked somewhat pinkish. It wasn't until I grabbed some TP and took it into my room to blow my nose that I realized it was all pink!

Nice thread for Earth Day!

There's no homophobia or ignorance here!

"... a pink-toilet-paper-buying secret girlfriend, or a tendency to play for the other team? Or as innocent as a pink dress shirt?"

If she's being homophobic, then she's also being sexist (the girlfriend must have bought it) and elitist (pink dress shirts are not blue collar!).

Melissa82: "Who cares what color it is. It all does the same function and all ends up in the same place."

Some people find it interesting to see what homes in other parts of the world look like - and yes, that includes toilet paper.

It's all pink in the middle.

I think the point of the post was more about this line

"Doesn't seem to me that pink toilet paper is very green."

With the fact that is it Earth Day and why do they have to take the extra effort, time, money, chemicals, and whatever else to dye the TP pink. Seem like white would be a fine color and doesn't require all the extra things. Although it seems like off white TP, although not as appealing, might be more green since then they don't have to bleach it to the white color.

In East Africa, the toilet paper is turquoise. Now you know.

I have seen TP in the same pattern as carpet padding, (greenish with colored bits,) in Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. This TP also had a strange elasticity...

My favorite tp was the kind I used to find in certain public restrooms in Britain. It was shiny and stiff and printed on each sheet was something like 'Property of Her Majesties' Government'. In addition to this, it didn't flush very well. being rather bouyant.

You don't see it anymore, but I'll bet it was greener than the soft stuff you see nowadays.

The US had pastel and patterned toilet paper not that long ago - until the public finally demanded plain white back in the Eco-Conscious 70's

In Paris you are worried about pink toilet paper?
There toilet paper has a perfume scent that is worse than the color pink.
Remember Paris is the perfume capital of the world.

lizk, i lived in Uganda, East Africa, and our toilet paper wasn't turquoise! (It was usually unbleached-ish white-ish.) I did see turquoise now and again, but it was very rare.

Oh gee...some people are surely lacking a sense of humor.

This post was hysterical.

"This post was hysterical"...

I bet everyone that found it funny also loves racist jokes. Laugh it up now, laugh it up.

Super-white toilet paper isn't very green either--it's usually been bleached, if it's manufactured by the big companies, and this is horrible for the environment. If you have a choice, look for unbleached. But if you have no choice, well, pink is pretty. Reminds me of my grandmother's gigantic pink-and-black tiled bathroom.

One word: bidet.

I'm guessing that was a long time ago Dulcibella! I haven't seen it for a few decades now - but I do remember from when I was about four that IZAL toilet paper made great tracing paper but was not so good at doing the business...

i don't think it's a paris thing. i always assumed the reason it was pink was that it was cheaper than making the toilet paper bright white (as the french are generally very cheap!).

you can buy whitish toilet paper at monoprix though (under their "green" brand).

White toilet paper aren't necessary more green than pink ones. They are heavily bleached, which requires more water to manufacture and cause more pollution. Pink ones could be more green, as they are less bleached. The added pink bye is used for covering up the remaining gray/brown and the pulps.

Heehee. I just went for a little walk with a colleague to stretch our legs and she popped into the supermarket to pick up some things for dinner. I hadn't mentioned this post, but quite independently she got all delighted when she managed to find white!! As she said, it's always a real coup when you find tp (or "pq" seeing as we're in France) that's not pink or flowery or perfumed.

So, America is (evidently) NOT the only country whose obsession with style/fad/fashion has a complete disregard for where the stuff comes from, how it's made, and where it goes when we're through with it. Not to mention our own exposure to the product and how it affects US.

This is certainly entertaining, but it seems most are missing the point.

Happy Earth Day:)

i live in the uk, and TP is all shades of pastels, also the other day i was in a shop that stocked damask TP and I have also seen black TP....how fab is that?!

Deeliscious, I did see a little turquoise in Uganda, but you're right...it wasn't exactly everywhere. Kenya on the other hand, it was everywhere!

Whether it was intended to be funny or not, the post is definitely preoccupied with the "meaning" or a man and pink. Lame.

Come on, everyone knows that pink is for girls, blue is for boys. Mattel decided it, and that settles it.

lizk and Deeliscious-

I lived in Kenya for a year (mostly Nairobi) and the only time I ever saw non-turquoise toilet paper was at the Hilton and in the American Ambassador's poolhouse.

How timely this post is. I was just thinking the other day that we all used to have a choice of colors when it came to toilet tissue. Now it's just white which is the way it should be. But I remember my mother buying pink for our pink bathroom.

To Theoj.
Humour is not dumb.
It is funny.

When I was a student in France (in the Loire valley), my host family's house had a separate room for the sink and shower and another one for the toilet. The actual toilet room had no windows and a red chinese globe shade over the lightbulb, so EVERYTHING looked somewhat pinkish. It wasn't until I grabbed some TP and took it into my room to blow my nose that I realized it was all pink!
pink dress

I was told that they due the toilet paper because it is cheaper than bleaching it white but still looks consistent