Graffito Scratched on a Men’s Room Wall in the Library of Congress.

Jason Kuznicki

Jason Kuznicki is a research fellow at the Cato Institute and contributor of Cato Unbound. He's on twitter as JasonKuznicki. His interests include political theory and history.

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15 Responses

  1. Burt Likko says:

    Sadly, you must also not discount the notion that it was a prank or a cruel joke played on a straight guy. Also Although the markup concerning the size of his manhood rings like “actual gay guy looking for hookup” rather than “straight guy playing cruel joke on straight friend” for me.Report

    • North in reply to Burt Likko says:

      No Burt, I’d give excellent odds it’s genuine. I’ve hung out with plenty of older generation gays who chat/josh about this kind of stuff. “Versatile top” is a dead give away; it means he’s a total bottom. It’s also not something any casual cruel straight guy would ever think to write as a prank.

      But the idea of that pitious little message on a wall being all there was once for people to communicate with each other. That seems so very very sad.Report

      • greginak in reply to North says:

        Yeah i’d think versatile top was some new fangled cap for a mustard bottle that didn’t leak and could be used as a can opener.Report

    • Brandon Berg in reply to Burt Likko says:

      Although the markup concerning the size of his manhood…

      I thought he was talking about his hair.Report

  2. North says:

    There but for the sacrifice of our gay predecessors; the labor of our activists; the support of our increasingly aware straight allies and the open mindedness of the population as a whole go we, Jason.

    If I believed for certain in a god(ess) I’d thank him/her every day I was born when I was rather than a decade or two (or heaven help me, more) earlier.*

    *I suppose I could complain that I wasn’t born later but that’d be churlish and then I’d miss out on Star Trek and 80’s cartoons.Report

  3. Jaybird says:

    It’s so freakin’ hard for heterosexuals to meet people when society is tailor made to assume that pretty much everybody is heterosexual.

    If you’re not married or pretty much engaged by the end of college… shit. You’re toast.

    Now multiply that by 10.Report

  4. Kazzy says:

    You gays have it all. If I were to scrawl a note to interested women on the stall wall, the odds of it being seen are next to nil!Report

  5. dhex says:

    my favorite/least favorite craigslist ad was a few years back when i moved to a new neighborhood in brooklyn. i’ve always found – but especially almost ten years ago – that craigslist gives you a certain flavor for the crazy subliminal life of a neighborhood in ny.

    the m4m ad read: “my wife is going out for milk. can anyone host?” and then listed the usual personal attributes of height, weight, dick size, circumcision status, and his external performance of masculinity.

    presuming this was real and not an elaborate joke, there’s no way the wife would have been gone for more than 20 minutes, unless she was traveling to vermont to milk a cow herself. so while it’s funny, because it’s so outlandish, it’s also incredibly sad and scary. what a shitty life to have, to have to run around like that, and to not only betray but potentially endanger one’s partner.Report

    • Brandon Berg in reply to dhex says:

      The other interpretation is that he’s just a cad. That’s what we say about a man who cheats on his wife with a younger, prettier woman, right? Really, what’s the difference? He liked women enough to marry one. Maybe he likes sex with men better, but most straight men like sex with young, pretty women better than sex with middle-aged women. I’m not so sure that it makes sense to look on one more sympathetically than the other.Report