TDOV: Unicorn Story

31 Mar 2025 - Joyce Laurie

So there’s this mural I pass every day on my commute. I’ve been on the job more than for two years now, and that’s close to coterminous with me being out. I’ve changed a little every day since. And without fail I end every workday by walking down this street, and without slowing down, casting a furtive glance towards this wall.

It used to be a wheatpaste of an illustration: the head of a unicorn, except the unicorn was a skeleton, with a pink white and blue mane. It read “INTROVERTED, BUT WILL STILL FIGHT TERFS!”

There was a little wear on it the first time I saw it. Not the kind of wear that’s intentional, probably just people nicking it as they walk by.

It’s the kind of thing you see in public and go, man. I know whoever pasted this here is my sister, too. But there’s so much hanging out here, for all to see, that shouldn’t be our interface with the public.

The absolutely juvenile and (I’m sorry) tastelessly millenial imagery of the unicorn. But moreover a unicorn that’s like, cool and punk. But moreover a unicorn that, like, has a hard time opening up to people. But moreover a unicorn that is very open about that kind of insecurity to everyone. But moreover a unicorn that invokes ingroup terminology to a busy street in Manhattan as if everyone who walks by is supposed to get it.

I thought, if I don’t like this, imagine how much other people hate it. Every time I passed it, I held my breath before looking, knowing that someone might write something virulent over this tacky shit that’s like, asking for it.

The first time this happened, and to my knowledge the last, it was just two words in angry red crayon: “DYLAN MULVANEY”

This was back when people cared about that, and I found this hilarious. Not “FUCK DYLAN MULVANEY,” just her name. Like I’m supposed to have some kind of visceral reaction. Weak tea for hate speech!

The next few years it wore down significantly and became harder to read. Scratches and random anodyne graffiti.

On my walk last week, I saw it was totally ripped down. Just gone.

I lost a lot of antipathy for whatever meek girl pasted this up. She deserved to be heard.