Phobia drives woman to become too attached to bathroom

Rarely do headlines scare me, but when I read headlines such as “Woman spent 2 years sitting on boyfriend’s toilet,” I get frightened.

I do my fair share of sitting on the toilet because I like to read while taking care of business, but even I wouldn’t hang out for two years.

One would think it would be a bit painful to sit on a toilet for any extended period of time, and according to Associated Press reports, it had to be because she sat still for long enough to have the her skin grow and attach to the toilet seat.

Doctors had to remove it.

The woman, 35-year-old Pam Babcock, lives with her boyfriend, 36-year-old Kory McFarren, in Ness City, Kan.

According to the AP, McFarren said Babcock didn’t just sit on the toilet for two years. She roamed around the bathroom and lived in it like a quasi-normal person. McFarren said he took food, water and changes of clothes to her, and he said they had conversations in the lavatory.

Weird.

McFarren told the AP that Babcock wouldn’t go out of the bathroom because she had a phobia about leaving. He said this was due to beatings she received as a child.

Even so, why would she choose the bathroom as, what McFarren said was, “a safe place for her”?

Very strange.

I would love to know how long it took for her body to become physically attached to the toilet seat.

How many days, or months for that matter, did she have to sit with pants around her thighs for her butt to become one with the porcelain throne?

Of course, one of the most ironic pieces to this strange little episode of excellent Kansas attention in the media is the Ness County Sheriff.

His name is Bryan Whipple.

He shares the same last name as Dick Wilson’s infamous Charmin toilet paper character “Mr. Whipple.”

See, the Sheriff handling a case about a bathroom has the same last name of a pitchman that helped sell a product used in the bathroom.

That is absolutely hilarious. I love the irony.

I suppose the whole situation is a bit sad, even if the actual events that unfolded do seem kind of humorous.

The woman clearly was suffering from an illness, and she should have received help long before she became inseparable from the toilet.

McFarren should have called someone to assist his troubled girlfriend, and the AP has reported that the county attorney will be deciding if charges need to be brought against McFarren, who insisted that everyday he attempted to convince Babcock to leave the bathroom.

However, I don’t think McFarren should be charged with anything.

Sure, he should have done the right thing and got some help, but Babcock is 36 years old.

A phobia does not mean she is mentally incapable of coherent and rational thought. As an adult, she should have been able to understand that living in the bathroom, even if she felt safest there, was not a good idea, especially with McFarren trying to convince her of such an obvious fact.

With all that has happened in this situation, one question still remains heavy in the air:

Will Babcock now develop a phobia of porcelain or toilet seats?

I guess only time will tell.

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About toddvogts 833 Articles
Todd R. Vogts, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of media at Sterling College in Kansas. Previously, he taught yearbook, newspaper, newsmagazine, and online journalism in various Kansas high schools, and he ran a weekly newspaper in rural Kansas. He continues to freelance as a professional journalist from time to time. Also, Vogts is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), the Journalism Education Association (JEA), and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), among others. He earned his Master Journalism Educator (MJE) certification from JEA in 2022. When he’s not teaching or writing, he runs his mobile disk jockey service and takes part in other entrepreneurial ventures. He can be reached at twitter.com/toddvogts or via his website at www.toddvogts.com.

4 Comments

  1. Interesting. But even I wouldn’t hangout should be hang out. Verb = two words, Noun = one word.

  2. Imagine this situation from Pam-the-Victim’s point of view. In your mind’s eye, live for two years in a tiny bathroom and sit for 30 days on a toilet until you, literally, become one with the seat. A guard (Kory McFarren) brings you food and water every day, but you do not get periodic medical check ups. You do not get daily exercise. You live with the smells produced by normal body functioning.
    Speaking of smells, Sheriff Whipple said the smell was terrible. Malodorous smells are difficult, if not impossible, for humans to ignore. Kory left the house every day and came home to this nasal nastiness, and he ate and slept among all those fetid fragrances. How can a normal human being do that? How did he justify that?
    Kory lacks intelligence and empathy. This is comparable to child abuse and spousal battering. I hope the County removes Pam Babcock from Kory permanently and places her with caring professionals who will treat her with the human dignity she deserves.

  3. Ness City is the closest town to my little hometown, Bazine. As you probably know with small towns, all teens from one town know all teens from the nearby town. Kory was two years older than I, so I knew him. I can assure you he’s playing with FAR from a full deck — a strange, strange bird.

  4. Dick Wilson is best known for Charmin Commercials. He is from Britain, but his family name came from Scotland from Will Gunn from AD 895.

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