The panopticon references the idea that we always feel watched, and thus regulate our behaviour accordingly. But do we feel watched in the bathroom where we should feel confident in our privacy?
We may feel less regulated inside a bathroom stall, and therefore our interaction with the text of the advertisements may be different in the absence of the social gaze. We may take more time to examine the advertisement and negotiate its meaning for ourselves, or take down a number in privacy without the fear of being judged for looking at an advertisement such as this Sexual Assault one.
On the same line, advertisements are generally taken as being an annoyance, bombarding us in every which way. In the bathroom especially they are seen as a pure invasion of privacy. However, if we step back for a second to try to see the positive side of ads in our bathroom stalls, we may realize that some of them can in fact be really useful in our everyday lives, whether it is for writing down that one number away from the public gaze, or to find an apartment - that personal ad shows that the students themselves are mimicking the ad companies. We know that bathroom ads are very efficient and that they will be best viewed in the stalls where it is just us and the ad - whether for useful services such as Safewalk, or to get a student deal with a new phone company! It all depends on the perspective we take as bathroom users!
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