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Thursday, January 19, 2012 By Hieu Dennis and Brittany Vardakis
Found in the girls bathroom in the High School. - Brittany Vardakis
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Every artist has their own way of expressing themselves, and some choose to do so in a school bathroom stall. Some may ask “why in the restroom?”, and the answer is simple. Anonymity.
While talking to a student who has participated in bathroom graffiti, or now known to be Latrinalia, (s)he said that “I like the privacy of the bathroom, it allows me to freely express myself, because I know that no one could judge me if they did not know who it was.” By being enclosed in a bathroom stall, one is able to openly speak their mind with absolutely no boundaries because there are not any cameras, or people to watch you while you write or draw.
At this school, typical things found in a stall can differentiate between genders. In the boy’s room, it is mostly swears and inappropriate drawings seen on the walls. In the girl’s, there are inspirational quotes such as, “You’ll see my name in lights,” or “Smile <3 You’re Beautiful”. However, the girls are bigger culprits in this act of graffiti, that is, unless the boy’s rooms were recently cleaned due to the rude language.
Bill Evans, a vice principal at South Hadley High School, claims that bathroom graffiti is not as common as one may think it is. It is rare that it becomes an issue to the point it needs to be tidied immediately, unless of course, it was targeting an individual person in a derogatory way.
When asking a student how he felt about the drawings in the restroom stalls, he said, “It is stupid, I don’t see the point in doing it. Most of the things are really inappropriate and immature. I’ve never done it and never will.” On the other hand, another student claims that when she saw the quote “Smile <3 You’re Beautiful”, she did in fact smile, and it made her day brighter.
The girls rooms aren’t all just sweet sayings and flower doodles. There are also many
“lists” asking whom the “amazing ppl” are, and who is the “hottest guy in the school”. There are also opinions of teachers, some good, and others just the opposite. Another one of the so called “legendary” pieces of bathroom art is the paint chipped away to make the silhouette of a witch brewing over her cauldron on the back of a stall door from the 600 hall’s girl’s bathroom. We found that this particular room was the most vandalized out of all the restrooms in the school.
Each person has their own way of being inspired, for some it is the sound of waves crashing on the beach, and others, its the ambiance only provided by sitting in a bathroom stall.
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