Gabriel is Hot

Posted by Twelvebit (Victoria, United States) on 29 October 2007 in Cityscape & Urban.

A change of pace. Just a dirty window that has become someone's blackboard. Who is Gabriel? What kind of person do you imagine when asking yourself questions about who wrote this message and who the message is about? Is this message really about Gabriel or is it really about the person who wrote it? Until I began to type this description I was blithely unaware of my own bias. I wondered who Gabriel is, if she really is hot, and if she saw this message written on this window; it never occurred to me that Gabriel might be male instead of female. My next thought is: perhaps the lettering is too polished to be in the hand of some high school male; but I am forced to think again. Is this assumption sexist? Is the author necessarily young? And anyway, does knowing the sex of the author really tell us anything about the sex of Gabriel? Maybe the message is written by a guy about a guy or a girl about a girl and anonymous script on a dirty window is the only safe way for this sentiment to be expressed.

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Comments (4)

Amir from ?, Iran

I think in one way or another all look at things from a sexist point of view. Guys think it about a girl and gals see it as coming from a guy. It's not your fault but how our brains are formed from day one. Sociology, Psychology and Anthropology in action.

P.S. I will reply to you last email shortly

29 Oct 2007 2:02pm

@Amir: Yes, just a reminder of the assumptions that weight our perspectives.

Richard_Irwin from Belper, United Kingdom

Over here we see messages scrawled on the back of dirty trucks and vans. There usually too rude to reproduce here, but make me laugh sometimes. I saw one today that said 'I wish my girlfriend was as dirty as the back of this van'. I think it was definitely scrawled by a male !!

Nice shot BTW, intriguing that I actually think Gabriel more likely to be a male name, and is that 'Leah' that is wriiten then crossed out at the lower left. Anyway, we'll never know, but it makes an intriguing image.

29 Oct 2007 10:58pm

@Richard_Irwin: I like that one. I have to remember it.

I originally just assumed a guy wrote it about a girl. But after thinking about it in the process of posting it, I have to agree with you. It's not conclusive by any means, but the writing says "female" to me. And yes, that's "Leah" crossed out. Another thing that I find interesting is that there is no exclamation mark after "Hot," like you might expect a teenager to add; and what's more, it isn't needed, because the style in which the word is written is itself exclamatory. And this style and restraint is another thing that says "female" to me.

Shar from Regina, SK, Canada

You might be putting a little too much thought into a simple spontaneous moment? Great shot though and thanks for sharing it!

30 Oct 2007 2:20am

@Shar: Thank you. If you thought that when you made your comment, what are you going to think now after Richard and I have expanded the analysis? Still, I find the impetus behind such a spontaneous moment interesting; and I am often accused of being overly analytical --this isn't such a bad thing I suppose, since I'm an engineer.