What the Writing on the Bathroom Walls and Study of the Graffitis Between Men and Women

Scrawls, doodles and stylized text adorn the walls of public bathrooms in places ranging from elementary schools to dive bars: poems penned by forlorn lovers, pleas for advice and cartoons meant to elicit chuckles. The graffiti is usually anonymous. It’s often personal. While bathroom stalls are spaces of privacy, the graffiti is very much aimed at future occupants. And unlike most forms of written communication that appear in public spaces (books, newspapers, even graffiti on buildings), these images and messages are intended for the eyes of the same sex. As a sociologist, I was curious about the content of the graffiti text and artwork, the patterns in the response and replies – and whether these responses would vary by gender. In this article, people's messages are reviewed, and women's and men's writings are compared, and in the end, solutions are also being made to prevent writing in and walls of public toilets.