My cousin J studied graphic design in college and spent one trip across country comparing the signs on trucks that warned others that they made right turns. He was fascinated by the different ways this information was conveyed visually. I once took a course with Edward Tufte, who specializes in the graphic conveyance of information.
Well, cousin J and Tufte would love this post on the sign (signified? signifier? Oh, it's been so long since Saussure has come up in my life!) of bathroom labels by Marissa on Sociological Images at The Society Pages (thanks to Mombian for posting about it). Her "Go Where? Sex, Gender, and Toilets" collects and categorizes the different ways we label our bathrooms and what that means--the universal male, anatomy, the performance of gender through clothing (and actual pieces of said clothing!), and weird signifiers like chickens and flames. It's a fascinating cross-cultural examination of something very few of us (especially cis people who, unlike trans people, experience a synchronicity of their bodies, identities, and genders assigned at birth) really notice. With lots of great images! (And you can Google "bathroom signs" for even more examples.)
I don't think I'll ever look at bathroom signs indifferently again.
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