Masked Metaphor Project

Metaphor Description

The picture above was taken in the second floor of the Proctor library, inside of the bathroom. It is of a clock sitting on a toilet in a bathroom stall. This can be seen as a metaphor for how much time people spend in the bathroom on a regular basis. This is because a clock is an index of time, and a clock sitting on a toilet.  Not only do people regularly have to go to the bathroom to use the toilet, but people also brush their teeth, take showers, and get ready in front of the bathroom mirror. People also use the bathroom to longer now, especially with phones being carried around everywhere, a two minute trip to the bathroom can be changed to five minutes by strolling to Instagram while sitting on the toilet. Half of the time that people spend getting ready in on their phones as well, making the time they spend in the bathroom increase exponentially as their life goes by.

A lot of thought is put into bathrooms as well, to some extent as much as the kitchen of a household. Large bathtubs that people can soak in for hours are a wanted luxury, and quality tile floors as well, making bathrooms time consuming to make, and a lot of money to make and maintain. Bathrooms like these can be a person’s space as well, especially if their house is otherwise a hectic place. There is the common stereotypes of mothers looking forward to when their kids are asleep or out of the house so they can have a nice bubble bath with candles. There are even commercials where a mom hides in the bathroom from her kids to watch some movies on her tablet.

Bathrooms are not only time consuming in the private household, but the public as well. Public bathrooms have to meet a certain criterion and have to be maintained by a janitorial staff. People have to take time out of their outings to use the bathroom, or groups of friends go in the bathroom together to talk to take selfies in the big mirror. In the reading Genealogy of Postmodern Theory, the author talks about semiology and Saussure wanted to analyze culture and the way humans actions may seem natural but will always be dictated by culture and shared conventions. This means that while in America and the places that I have personally been exposed to may treat bathrooms in this light, other places around the world, their bathrooms and meaning around them may hold a completely different meaning than mine.