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Comment by bowsamic | Hacker News Reader

Then why have they mainly been used in developing countries?

I don't think hygiene is necessarily associated to country development. E.g. people in South America tend to shower more often than people in some parts of Europe [1].

[1] https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/bathing-h...

Cultural differences?

America is very backwards and hilariously underdeveloped in some areas especially in day to day life. The fact that the parent comment calls toilet paper "sandpaper" is another example.

> hilariously underdeveloped

That seems quite hyperbolic. It's not as though you can't buy or find a bidet in the US...

You can, but that doesn't mean everyone gets to enjoy it. And I'm not specifically talking about bidets. There are many convenient things used daily in Europe and Asia that are extremely rare in USA.

Can you provide some examples of what you have in mind?

Developing countries like France, where the word bidet comes from? (although to be fair my generation didn't use them, until recently when the Japanese-style bidet started picking up)

The other 2 countries I know of where bidets are widely common are the ultra-modern Korea and Japan.

It's illegal in italy for homes to not have a bidet.

That's not true. It is widely used in developed countries in western Europe and Asia.

It’s a French word?

They haven't

Not really? They're a French invention, Japan and Korea have been using them for ages, and they are fairly popular in Western Europe. All of the above are highly developed.

>French invention

[citation needed]

https://www.brondell.com/healthy-living-blog/who-invented-th...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidet#Etymology

I think they meant the piece of furniture, cleaning with water however, been there for centuries before, I think all cultures and civilizations did it when they can, and only fall back to papers if water wasn’t available.

I've never seen a bidet in France

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