Until today, I never considered toilet stall writings to be much more than graffiti. But as I sat in a bathroom this morning, reading the writing on the wall, I began to reconsider my opinions on poo talk.
Often the expressions made on the stall doors and walls are nothing but simple rants, declarations of hate, statements of love or lust, or some other voicing of opinion. And nearly always these are done anonymously.
Anonymity lends people the freedom to speak more liberally, and not in the left/right sense, but rather in the sense that one may speak without barrier. That the only thing that cares about what you have to say is that wall that the thought is being written upon. Fuck the SigEps.
Indeed, fuck them.
GDI are gay.
Possibly.
These are things that most people would not normally have the audacity to say to an open audience, yet they write them for an open audience. Poo talk lends itself to being an expression of free opinion. It is difficult to figure out who wrote what, unless there is a distinct style of handwriting, thus the opinion may remain faceless. Yet the opinion is still there, sometimes like the largest trophy in a case, sometimes like a festering wound. And that opinion may be considered by other people, people who may opt to take the message seriously, with good humor, or consider it irrelevant.
Consider the strength of a pen unknown communicating a powerful message that could be subversive, heterodox or otherwise unacceptable. The idea may resonate with the next occupant of the stall.
Poo talk propagates itself.
Who knows who else may be impacted by the writing, whether or not it will or will not drive them into some type of action. Have there been studies on the effect of poo talk?
Poo talk could propagate itself.
Some might call it the new grassroots, but to me... it'll always be number two.
-rl
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