Bathroom Signs have something to do with Culture

Hopefully this ends up on our Community Blog but oh well here it goes…so I didn’t notice the bathroom signs and how culture plays a role into the actual signs until I recently took a trip to the throne…anyway the girls bathrooms always have pictures of stick ladies with a dress on and the boys have stick men with no clothes on (no not even a shirt or pants, nothing!)

So we talked about in class about how signs signify meanings. Well these particular drawings mean ‘girls’ and boys’ or ‘women’ and ‘men’, whichever you prefer. The words ‘girls and boys bathroom’ play the role of the signifier, which means either go in this room or that room depending on your gender (that way you can do your business with other people who have the same parts as you do). So, the room with the toilets and people of the same gender is the signified meaning. The sign itself is just a sign. =]

Getting to my point, culture plays a point in these signs (whether we were aware of it or not). Barthes said that the only reason we act the way we do is because culture says we have to, of course culture stems from the ideas of rich people waaaaaay back when. So really, we’re acting the way we do because old rich people told us that this is how we act. So how far does culture have a role in bathroom signs or bathrooms in general? A lot.

The ladies room has a ‘stick girl with a dress on’, (this is more psychological) and is usually decorated with pink tiles and mirrors all over the place so you can see what you look like (cuz women like to look at themselves and make sure they look good). Psychologically this sign tells us that we have to wear dresses, like pink, have to look good (with what clothes we have on, our makeup has to be perfect, basically be feminine). Yes, a bathroom sign and its interior design tells us to be feminine. And when we think of pink, we think of girls, makeup, victorias secret, save the tatas, etc hence women have to be feminine)

The boys room is basically on the other side of the spectrum. The sign itself and its interior design tells us that boys’ color should be blue, boys should like blue, I have never been inside of a boys bathroom so I can’t tell you too much about it. All I know is that it has urinals in it and not a whole lot of mirrors since boys shouldn’t be vain (cuz culture tells us they can look a lil scruffy just because they’re a man). Psychologically, boys should be dressed in blue, should like blue, etc. The sign itself is interesting enough with the ‘stick man’ having no clothes on, why is he naked for one? No idea.

Culture tells us how to be, bathroom signs and interior decoration being one of them.