If These Stalls Could Talk

Through depictions of genitalia and solicitations for a “good time,” Latrinalia (restroom graffiti) entice, provoke, and disgust bathroom occupants. Despite the prevalence of latrinalia routinely encountered during daily life, restroom graffiti lacks sufficient scholarly analysis. The history of latrinalia scholarship spans disciplines and generations: from Alfred Kinsey to Alan Dundes, previous scholars analyze restroom writing as revealing inherent masculine and feminine characteristics indicative of a binary sex/gender system. By engaging contemporary theories of gender, this work analyzes latrinalia as potentially deconstructing essentialized gendered identities and reformulating context-specific conceptions of a “gender deviant” subject. By analyzing the types of latrinalia produced in their specific contexts, this work demonstrates how subjects may uphold hegemonic notions of gender or deconstruct these notions by asserting new, potentially resistant queer subjectivities.