Heh, if you thought my deodorant reminiscences were TMI, you should check out Kutitots’ thoughts on constipation.

It’s one of the fun things about Filipino culture (and East Asian culture in general, I guess, with the possible exception of Japan) — our conversational frankness about the grossly biological facts of life. I remember newspaper columnist Hilarion Henares writing a full column a long time ago about the texture differences between Filipino and American toilet paper and how to wash one’s, er, nether regions.

So a lot of us can talk about urine and feces and periods and toilets. It’s not a loud, boisterous, brazen thing, and not something you should be constantly steering conversation towards, but it’s something the common Pinoy or Pinay is able to discuss offhand without too much embarassment. (Sex is another matter, though, since the Philippines is still a largely conservative Catholic culture. Hushed whispers.)