A Comparison of Graffiti in Male and Female Restrooms at the UHH Library

Bathroom graffiti is commonplace among many of the restrooms at the university of Hawaii at Hilo Campus. You can find at least one example of graffiti in each of the restrooms. For this paper, I will be comparing the graffiti in the men's and women's restrooms in the campus library.

Before I began my examination of the library's restrooms, I spoke to Robert Yogi, the student supervisor for the UHH Library. Of the four years that he has been an employee at the library, there has only been one or two complaints about graffiti in the restrooms. He told me that the majority of the graffiti is not found in the restrooms, but actually on the desks in the first and third floor; places that have the least student traffic. When asked about which genders' restrooms has the most instances of graffiti, "Boys, definitely the boys," he replied.

"It's actually not really too big a deal," Yogi says. "A majority of the time that graffiti get reported, we clean it that day. It'll be as simple as rubbing off pencil scratches. The only thing that gives us a problem is when the students mark up the grout. We're not able to clean that off unless we replace the grout."

And so began my examination of the restrooms. I began with the third floor restrooms and worked my way to the bottom floor. For the women's restrooms, I had a female friend photograph any instance of graffiti.

In the library's third floor men's restroom (Fig. 1), I found graffiti next to the toilet paper dispenser in the handicap stall. I have been unable to translate the phrase or discover it's significance.
Fig. 1

In the second floor men's restroom (Fig. 2), I found another instance of graffiti, next to the toilet paper dispenser in the handicap stall. Written in pencil was, "Tap Feet 4 BJ." However, tapping one's feet did not summon anyone with the initials of BJ.

Fig. 2.

On a more serious note however, I was shocked to find graffiti advertising a sexual act on the second floor of the library. The second floor has the most student traffic and faculty. There is a greater risk of being caught.

In the first floor men's restroom (Fig. 3), someone had taken a pencil and shaded in a bit of grout on the wall in the handicap stall. What is particularly interesting to me about the first floor restroom is that of all the bathrooms, it has the least amount of graffiti. Because of the library's student supervisor's observation of desk graffiti, I had predicted that the first and third floor restrooms would have the most graffiti.

Fig. 3.

As I also predicted, there was no bathroom graffiti in the any of the women's restrooms. However, of interest, someone in the women's restroom had taken a sign asking users, "Please do not flush pads and tampons... Dispose in trash can" and ripped it in half and folded it up (Fig. 4). Maybe someone was having a bad day?


Fig. 4.

Only the men's restrooms had graffiti. In all of the cases, graffiti was located in the handicap stalls, near the toilet paper dispensers. What does the provenience of the graffiti tell us? One way to interpret the placement of graffiti is that the males who use the restroom and participate in graffiti, do so while sitting on the toilet. Handicap stalls may be chosen because of the amount of space available.

What does the lack of graffiti in female restroom's tell us about female restroom habits. It is obvious that females do not have the same thing in mind as males while they are sitting on the toilet, or that they forget to bring a pencil with them every time they go the handicap stall.

The next step would be to survey students and get their responses about restroom graffiti. It would be interesting to see what the demographics are for people who participate in restroom graffiti, but for now, I can only speculate as to what processes are involved in restroom graffiti.