It’s one of the first things that we Italians we check when we travel abroad: the presence or absence of bidet in the bathroom. Not only that, the sanitary appliance has also become a source of mockery towards the French, who we believe are guilty of having invented it, but of not using it. In fact, the bidet was most likely invented in France In the Middle Ages (although similar devices already existed in Ancient Rome), but it began to spread in some upper-middle-class and noble homes only between 17th and 18th century. His original name, bidetbetrays his initial form and the way in which it was used: in French the word indicated and indicates the pony (or little horse) and in fact originally the bidet was a tub or basin supported by four legs which was filled with water and on which one sat astride to wash.
Il first model of which we have a direct written mention (a memo dating back to 1726) is the one installed inside the house of Madame De Prie, lover of Louis-Henry of Bourbon-Condé, Prime Minister of the King of France Louis XV. Another famous example is the bidet painted by the artist Louis-Leopold Boilly in a portrait of the 1790. Also during the 18th century the bidet was also introduced in Italiainside the Royal Palace of Casertafrom the Queen of Naples, Maria Carolina of Habsburg-Lorraine. But why, despite having invented the bidet, do the French today rarely install and use it?
To answer this question we must briefly look at the use and diffusion that the bidet had between the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The sanitary device, in fact, was not initially very successful due to the poor attention to hygiene lent at the time. In fact, there was a widespread belief that the water brought diseasesso much so that the nobles, rather than washing their hair, wore elaborate wigs.
On the contrary, at the same time, the erroneous belief spread among women (which remained in vogue until the 1900s) that washing one’s private parts after sexual intercourse could avoid becoming pregnant and was therefore a contraceptive method. The bidet was then introduced in the brothels Frenchfor the use of prostituteand became inextricably linked to the idea of something profoundly immoral, especially from a religious point of view. In particular, the world Protestant (Anglo-Saxon and Germanic) came into contact with the bidet in Parisian places of prostitution and developed a profoundly negative cultural sentiment towards the appliance, so much so that even today in countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States of America, the bidet remains an absolute rarity and is sometimes even unknown.
Meanwhile, during the‘800after the first ones were invented and implanted domestic water systemsthe bidet began to transform into a fixed appliance and to be installed in the bathroom. It then spread secretly, starting from Europe, to other parts of the world, such as the South America and the Middle East.
The real one diffusion of the bidet in some countries, particularly those in southern Europe such as Italia, Portugal, Spain e Greece, however, only occurred after the Second World War, with the economic boom and the consolidation of the consumer society. Indeed, consider that in Portugal and Italy (ministerial decree of 5 July 1975), the installation of at least one bidet (or replacement appliance) inside homes is mandatory by law, with a hygienic-sanitary function. In other states, such as Japan, however. the bidet is replaced with other devices or tools (think of hybrid toilets or washlets and hand showers).
And in France? Unlike Italy, the homeland of the bidet since the Second World War (in particular since the 1970s) has progressively abandoned the use of the medical device for medical reasons saving space and moneyespecially inside the apartments of the big cities like Paris. Contrary to popular belief, however, the bidet in France remains quite widespread and used, certainly much more than in other countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom and the USA (where, however, it is slowly spreading).
