It's bad, but it's good." That's how Allyson Mitchell describes the feeling when she takes a black magic marker to an ad she considered homophobic. In a hurried scrawl she writes,"I love fags" across its face.

    "You feel dangerous," Mitchell says. "It's spontaneous though. I don't plan to deface things. The rush comes from not knowing how people around you are going to react. But I remember when I did it, a girl who was sitting near me was smiling like crazy. It was like a bond between us."

    As a longtime graffitist (she started in junior high), Mitchell, who is enrolled in York's master's program in women's studies, makes no apologies for marking her territory. In fact, she's making the study of lesbian graffiti in the City of Toronto the focus of her thesis.

    Graffiti is unique because it's highly personal and highly public, Mitchell says. It is also a way of marking territory and community which is interesting from a queer perspective, she adds. She says she also wants to explore how personal feelings translate into public messages. "I'm looking at how city spaces get sexualized and gendered. It [graffiti] is something that interrupts the landscape -- which is essentially hetero. It's a clash of two realities."

    She admits to feeling a bit awkward about studying the writings of the culture of which she is a part. "I don't want to be like some visiting anthropologist writing down odd things about the natives. I don't want to exploit the culture. I'm trying for an informed sensitivity."

    Despite problems of conscience, Mitchell says the lesbian graffiti in washrooms, on walls, and posters, and in bars and alleyways does have something to say about how women see themselves."I'm doing this to make sense of my life."