We went to the Natural History Museum yesterday.

[conuly]

Took Elise, who's a kid I've known since she was 3. Nice kid, I like her, she reminds me of myself at her age, but man is it hard spending a whole day with her. She's so... so... well, she's Elise. And she's sweet, and nice, and three steps away from holy terror-dom.

And we got back LATE, we took the 10:30 boat. Okay, that's not LATE, but it's late. Noticed something interesting in the ferry terminal bathroom, though. You know how people write their name and the name of somebody else on walls and tables and other places in the great outdoors? Well, I noticed that something like 80% of such graffiti in the women's bathroom at the manhattan terminal are gay. Seriously. Weird, though, isn't that a bit uneven? You can't tell me that 80% of female Staten Island Ferry riders are gay.

*shrugs* I still prefer the graffiti at the B&N at Union Square. Very political. Several pages worth of discussion on issues such as abortion and the situation in Israel. Hm. That might actually be a way to spark political involvement, vandalise some bathrooms. It'd be more interesting than name + name 4eva, anyway.

Comments

[the-turtle-girl.livejournal.com]

Maybe gay females feel more of an urge to write on walls in the bathroom than straight ones do. Sounds like a study to me.

[conuly]

Thing is, I've never seen gay bathroom graffiti before. That's why I noticed the first one, because usually the "romantic" style of graffiti (hearts and whatnot) is NOT gay. It's always "female name, male name" (almost always in that order, too).

[the-turtle-girl.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, that is rather interesting. I don't think I've ever seen gay graffiti either. That's kind of interesting.

[neurotica0.livejournal.com]

You can't tell me that 80% of female Staten Island Ferry riders are gay.

**Goes into sociology mode.**
That wouldn't tell you that 80% of female Staten Island Ferry riders are gay. It tells you that 80% of female State Island Ferry riders who leave romantic graffiti seem to present themselves in said graffiti as gay.
**Sociology mode off.**

I've never seen gay graffiti and I find that disappointing.

Were there any gender-ambiguous names you saw in this graffiti, because 80% does seem like a lot?
Leslie? Ashley? Other names that may have sounded female to you, but could be male? (This was the reason I had to put "seem to present themselves" rather than just "present themselves.")

[neurotica0.livejournal.com]

Geez, edit.

Staten Island, not State Island.

[conuly]

Yes, you're right. And while there were a FEW ambiguous names, there were far more NON-ambiguous pairings. Including some that clearly said gay pride, so....

[moggymania.livejournal.com]

Political/intellectual-discussion graffiti is the primary sort that used to be at my university. *grin* I used to joke with people that "here at Cal, even our graffiti is intelligent and motivated to change the world."

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

Hey, did you notice the Staten Island Bank & Trust ads yet? I swear one of them is intended to be a lesbian couple. It's very slick, they're just standing together, not hugging like the other ads, but you just get that feeling... It's just ambigous enough to not piss off some more conservative types.

[fjorab-teke.livejournal.com]

*LOL* The best bathroom graffiti I've seen was:

"Don't turn your back on me. I won't be ignored!" (from a song, I forget which)

and under it...

"Wait until you have kids."

I was tempted to put something snarky under that, but I'm not a vandal like that.

[the-turtle-girl.livejournal.com]

Maybe gay females feel more of an urge to write on walls in the bathroom than straight ones do. Sounds like a study to me.

[conuly]

Thing is, I've never seen gay bathroom graffiti before. That's why I noticed the first one, because usually the "romantic" style of graffiti (hearts and whatnot) is NOT gay. It's always "female name, male name" (almost always in that order, too).

[the-turtle-girl.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, that is rather interesting. I don't think I've ever seen gay graffiti either. That's kind of interesting.

[neurotica0.livejournal.com]

You can't tell me that 80% of female Staten Island Ferry riders are gay.

**Goes into sociology mode.**
That wouldn't tell you that 80% of female Staten Island Ferry riders are gay. It tells you that 80% of female State Island Ferry riders who leave romantic graffiti seem to present themselves in said graffiti as gay.
**Sociology mode off.**

I've never seen gay graffiti and I find that disappointing.

Were there any gender-ambiguous names you saw in this graffiti, because 80% does seem like a lot?
Leslie? Ashley? Other names that may have sounded female to you, but could be male? (This was the reason I had to put "seem to present themselves" rather than just "present themselves.")

[neurotica0.livejournal.com]

Geez, edit.

Staten Island, not State Island.

[conuly]

Yes, you're right. And while there were a FEW ambiguous names, there were far more NON-ambiguous pairings. Including some that clearly said gay pride, so....

[moggymania.livejournal.com]

Political/intellectual-discussion graffiti is the primary sort that used to be at my university. *grin* I used to joke with people that "here at Cal, even our graffiti is intelligent and motivated to change the world."

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

Hey, did you notice the Staten Island Bank & Trust ads yet? I swear one of them is intended to be a lesbian couple. It's very slick, they're just standing together, not hugging like the other ads, but you just get that feeling... It's just ambigous enough to not piss off some more conservative types.

[fjorab-teke.livejournal.com]

*LOL* The best bathroom graffiti I've seen was:

"Don't turn your back on me. I won't be ignored!" (from a song, I forget which)

and under it...

"Wait until you have kids."

I was tempted to put something snarky under that, but I'm not a vandal like that.