Graffiti in the most private of public places

Students who desire to express their opinions, regardless of what they may be, usually do so knowing they may offend another student or faculty member.  At a quick glance, the public restroom is the most visible free-speech forum on GCSU’s campus. 
A restroom stall is an odd place to learn about the opinions of the many different people around you.  Across the GCSU campus, it is a nearly everyday experience to sight various rants, raves, and opinions concerning the current times written on the restroom wall.  The restrooms in the Art Department’s Mayfair Hall is the central forum for what one could classify as “bathroom philosophy.”
The first scribble that sticks out is colored with profanity: “F*** Bush,” “F*** liberals,” and alongside these are inscriptions of other obscure forms of crude humor, racism, and political commentary.  A typical GCSU student may find these remarks offensive, humorous or even thought-provoking.  Whatever you think, everyone notices that the writing is on the wall.
Several art students at GCSU, Will Young, Adam Blackmon and Sara Fleetwood, spend a great deal of time in Mayfair Hall. 
“Everyone in the art department has a sense of humor about it.  But I can see how people from other majors who come in here could have a problem.  I know people will find this [writing] offensive,” said Young, a junior.
“If they [students] are offended, they just need to open up their mind a little more.  Apparently, people are offended or they wouldn’t write to respond to someone else’s comments.  I don’t think this needs to be outside, but in an old bathroom in the art building, whatever,” said Blackmon, a senior.
“They [students] may feel it is a safe place to express themselves, because it is anonymous.  I think most of it is for humor,” said Fleetwood, a junior.
Students argue that the graffiti sprawled across the Mayfair Hall restroom, and other restrooms across the campus, are blurring the line between their beliefs concerning free speech and shameless “bathroom humor.” 
“I think graffiti is free speech.  Graffiti is a sort of uninhibited expression of what people want to say.  Of course, I believe there is a difference between graffiti and vandalism, but where do you draw the line?”  Fleetwood said.
That is the question that other students wonder about.  Sybil Zimmerman, a junior majoring in Spanish and creative writing shares Fleetwood’s opinion.
“When you write something just to offend someone or get a rise out of them; that is wrong,”  Zimmerman said.  “But if you are doing it to get someone’s attention or to be informative of a cause, then I think that’s okay.  But where do you draw the line?  This school promotes free speech, but also respect.”
The typical college campus is thought to be an environment where people who hold different beliefs, values and backgrounds can engage in a diverse discourse with one another.  Most students do not feel that “bathroom philosophers” help to facilitate such an environment by communicating their beliefs for the sake of offending others.
“Bigotry and similar statements offend me, but if someone is going to be ignorant enough to make racist comments, I don’t know if I really should be offended by it.  It [censorship] is a touchy subject on a college campus. Who gets to choose what is offensive or what should be censored?  Things I feel very strongly about may offend someone else, but I still want the right to be able to express it or talk about it,” Fleetwood said.
Some students admit to resorting to being a “bathroom philosopher” because of the availability of the location and the exposure it will receive.  They say they there was a feeling of urgency to express a thought or opinion right then and there, and simply acted on an impulse. 
A sophomore business major, Christina Belknap is not surprised by many students’ reactions to these inscriptions, or why they continue to write them.
“People have been writing on bathroom walls since they were in first grade.  Why not write something where others will see it?” Belknap said.
“When someone writes f*** Bush in a bathroom, what are you suppose to do?” said Belknap. “Someone felt compelled to write it, case closed.  You can erase it, but that won’t change the feelings or the issue.  If the college wants to spend money covering the writing on a wall so that it will look better for visitors, so be it.  They have that right.  But it won’t resolve [student’s] communication issues.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 17 2006. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry