The bottom line

During the Couid pandemic, we were shocked to see people fighting in supermarkets over toilet paper and to see empty shelves that had once held roll after roll. The reasons behind the run for toilet paper during this time reflect the unique place that it holds in our psyche and are deeply rooted in our history.

- Terry Robson

T he societal reverberations of the pandemic were as eerie as they were unexpected. One of the vivid Covid moments that etched itself into my memory came one day when a local music teacher confided to me through a bright blue face mask and behind the back of a conspiratorially raised hand that, "There is going to be a delivery today. Getting there about 11am." Music teachers are not usually clandestine plotters, but the pandemic had made conspirators of us all. He was telling me that the local independent supermarket would be getting a delivery of the commodity that had become like sugar during World War II, something that was rationed due to its rarity: toilet paper. I felt like a Cornish smuggler being told to meet a brigantine at midnight. Sadly, the music teacher's intelligence proved to be faulty, and no toilet paper consignment floated ashore. The whole toilet paper imbroglio during Covid was tragic, yet vaguely comic at the same time, and it raised questions as to what toilet paper means to us and how have we come to use paper to wipe ourselves in the first place.

A human foible

The first thing to acknowledge about the use of toilet paper is that it is a distinctly human thing. An important part of our evolutionary progress was the decision to walk upright. Being able to walk with hands free offered humans advantages, but everything comes at a price. One of the costs of erect posture is that the area used to release faeces is compressed between thighs and fleshy, muscular buttocks meaning that we are more likely than other creatures to foul ourselves when we defecate. Hence, we have come up with the idea of toilet paper but not before a lot of trial and error and, importantly, not universally.

Sticks and sponges, pottery and paper

Cleaning of the bottom can be carried out in numerous ways that have varied according to local customs and climate throughout history.