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Rest Stop: Erotics at Harvard
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43 Rest Stop Erotics at Harvard Bryan Reynolds T H I S WA S N OT the first time that I encountered such an act of architectural intervention. But it was the first time, because of my own pressing need to defecate, that I realized the ironic ramifications of removing the doors from the toilet stalls. The most capacious and centrally located room marked for “Men” in Harvard University’s Science Center is potentially the highest trafficked facility of its kind on the campus. The Science Center is a multifunctional building containing various lecture halls and administrative offices, computer and audiovisual services, and a sizable cafeteria and library. Given the popular utilization of the Science Center, why is its chief men’s room so notoriously unpopular? Simply put, most people would rather defecate in privacy, in a toilet stall with a locking door, than defecate while showcased in a doorless stall before anyone who might happen to be in the room. But the lack of privacy is not all that is signified by the conspicuous absence of the stall doors in this men’s room, doors that obviously were present at some point in history, as indicated by the remaining parts to their hinges. When I inquired about the doorless toilet stalls at the Office of the Director of the Science Center, I was told that the doors were removed to suppress the gay male sexual activity that was taking place in the toilet stalls. So to quell gay male sexual activity, Harvard is willing to expose the most conveniently situated toilet space in the Science Center and consequently make public the traditionally private act of defecating. In fact, Harvard’s effort to suppress gay male sexual 44 Rest Stop: Erotics at Harvard activity is at the ready expense of the purpose for which the toilet space was originally designed. The toilets in this men’s room are used so infrequently now that they might as well have been removed along with their stall doors. The architectural alteration of the toilet stalls has therefore made the atmosphere of this men’s room radically different from that of other men’s rooms. In general, men’s rooms have a similar decorum and ambiance. While in a men’s room, most men behave in an extrahomophobic manner. They go about their operations speedily and in businesslike fashion. Rarely do they communicate or make eye contact with each other. This situation is largely due to the fact that when urinating, without the employment and protection of a locked toilet stall, the phallic symbol of male power and organ for sexual pleasure, the penis, is exposed. Consequently, the penis and its owner are made vulnerable to ridicule, based on the size and shape of the penis, and to direct physical contact between the penis and another man; inasmuch as physical contact may bring about diverse and unanticipated reactions, all of which are troublesome for the heterosexual regime, it is considered taboo. Some men, however, to escape penis exposure—their own and that of other men—urinate in the toilet stalls instead of the allocated urinals. In addition to the socially problematic implication that these men have something embarrassing to hide, there is the less overt implication that these men are purposely making it impossible for themselves to observe the penises of other men. Since the men’s room is culturally constructed as a normative space with regard to sexuality, which is to say that it is constructed as heterosexual space: to be caught seeing or merely looking in the vicinity of another man’s genitalia is to infringe on his private space and risk being identified as a pervert or a gay man. While in the process of urinating in a public men’s room, notwithstanding the often claustrophobic proximity of the urinals, never is one man to look at, speak to, or touch another man, unless it is obvious that the men involved were familiar with each other prior to the men’s room encounter; and even then, penis watching and penis touching are unacceptable and forbidden. Almost any breach of this codified etiquette is likely to result in a hostile, potentially violent, interaction. To be sure, when urinating in a public [18.116.20.177] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 20:59 GMT) Rest Stop: Erotics at Harvard 45 men’s room, a man’s ability to adequately represent conventional masculinity is threatened by almost everything associated with the accessibility of his...