The love stall
Dan DaranciangThe writing on the wall reads like signs from a protest march.
“Stop hating! Quit repainting!”
“You’re fighting a losing battle!”
“Stop censoring the love stall!”
Washington University women are protective of their bathroom graffiti, especially when it comes to the “love stall.”
The love stall is aptly named: on the walls of a bathroom stall in Mallinckrodt, women scribble their thoughts on love and romance in permanent marker and various shades of pen.
The stall is the second one in from the door. University maintenance repainted it few weeks ago, but the lovers of the love stall came right back with their inked protests and new thoughts on romance:
“Learn to pretend there’s more than love that matters.”
“Baby girl loves her man.”
“I do not love these self-flushing toilets.”
Sophomore Julie Yoder first learned of the love stall last spring.
“It makes me so happy to go in there and see that people haven’t lost faith in love,” Yoder says. “I love how people refuse to let the Love Stall die because they all want to keep spreading the love. I guess it’s silly that I get so much out of a bathroom stall, but it’s just one of those things that remind you to appreciate the small things.”
Yoder remembers the stall being painted three times.
John Koerkenmeier, the man in charge of assigning the staff to repaint the stall, says he wasn’t aware that the love stall existed.
“When I get a report from the cleaning staff, we go in,” he said. “We do not allow graffiti anywhere on campus. We either try to clean it or paint it over.”
Senior Penny Donkar is also visits the love stall when Mallinckrodt.
“There is something for everyone [in the love stall]” she says. “When you are bitter, like I am so very often, you can go in and find other bitter people. When you are giddy and happy and in love, it’s nice to see that other people feel like you, too. It’s nice to know that you aren’t the only one out there. It’s like group therapy for free.”
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