Restroom Symbolism

To get to Amelia Island, we had to fly through Jacksonville airport and I must say, they had fascinating restrooms.

First of all, their sinks were amazing, in that there weren’t any.  I went to wash up, (not because I peed on my hands, but because it’s just the right thing to do), and I saw lots of soap dispensers and spigots, but no sinks.  There was only a long flat countertop.  Upon further review, I noticed that the counter was slanted back towards the wall and between the end of the counter and the wall, there was a long trough for the water to run into.

It really doesn’t take much to amuse me.  I would have taken a picture but then I’d be letting women in on all the secret stuff we have in men’s rooms.*  Luckily I found this one with The Google:

Photo by David King via his Flickr photostream.  Apparently, he thought it was as cool as I did.  More importantly, he avoided showing the secret restroom stuff*.

But the real interesting thing to me was the décor of the restroom entrances.  It seems they put up every existing variation of the restroom symbol of “trouser guy” and “skirt girl” know to mankind.

I stood and stared at it for a while, as ideas began to bubble up.  (Any time you travel with a female in general, or Pinky in particular, there is a lot of time spent standing outside restrooms.)  So of this vast display of manly restroom symbols, I did take a picture, so that I could come home and bring you this:

Click the pic for the full image, which is larger and more readable.

There wasn’t room to describe all the symbols, so I picked my favorites.  I hope you can tell to which symbol each description is pointing.  With one exception, the captions are directly above the arrows that point to the symbol.

I was really intrigued by the one I labeled “WTF?”  I mean, how the hell is that “male”?  I checked the corresponding female one and it was practically the same thing, only the curve was upside down.  What is that?  Bowing dude?  Parenthesis man?  Comma guy?  Scoliosis person?  I give up.

Note: Due to the nature of how I put the picture together, by the time I was done I’d thought of a better one than the one I labeled “Guys w/ T-Rex arms”… I should have labeled it “Jesus.”  (Go look again.)  But I’d have to undo a boatload of other labels and arrows to remove the original label, so I’m left with leaving this anti-climactic and semi-blasphemous note.

*Ok, we really don’t have any secret stuff in the men’s room; I’m just trying to create intrigue.  I know there is secret stuff in the lady’s room.