To hang my matriculation photo up in the toilet?

[Pluckedpencil]

I saw it at an old friend's house once and it made me smile. Just considering it as I have no space for it anywhere else since we moved house! Is anyone else encumbered with an Oxford/Cambridge matriculation photo? Where do you hang it or do you just stick it in a cupboard? DH thinks it's interesting but I can't think of where it should go! It's not like a graduation photo that your parents keep. It is the group one of the whole college matriculating in that year. Daft problem I know but DH is poised with a nail...

My friend has her DH's Oxford matriculation photo in their downstairs loo - it's never occurred to me that it's pretentious?

Gardenista I get why you wouldn't display it and why you would. I just think putting it in the loo is a kind of fake dismissal that is really irritating. Like using your Oscar as a doorstop. Implying that it's not valuable - obviously you want people to see it but they shouldn't think you care about it or that it took any effort to acquire . Or possibly even worse 'this is what people like us do with our matriculation photographs'.

Not having a go at you OP by the way, I see you've put it in the hall. I think I might be too invested in this subject for a lockdown Wednesday I think I'll go away now.

@ThePlantsitter

Gardenista I get why you wouldn't display it and why you would. I just think putting it in the loo is a kind of fake dismissal that is really irritating. Like using your Oscar as a doorstop. Implying that it's not valuable - obviously you want people to see it but they shouldn't think you care about it or that it took any effort to acquire . Or possibly even worse 'this is what people like us do with our matriculation photographs'.

Not having a go at you OP by the way, I see you've put it in the hall. I think I might be too invested in this subject for a lockdown Wednesday I think I'll go away now.

@ThePlantsitter - I agree displaying it in the downstairs loo is a bit naff. I haven't displayed mine at all - it's in a cupboard. I regret buying it because it was extortionate - I think £100 in 1995 and I paid for it as my parents weren't in a position to. If it was of my friends I would - my sister has hers in her hallway.

I agree it is a massive privilege to attend Oxbridge - my point is that not all Oxbridge students are from a privilege background (although I will concede the vast majority are)

Yep, the downstair loo is the traditional place to hang your matriculation photo BUT never on its own. That's far too ostentatious.

It needs to share the wall with daddy's house photo at Eton, your brother's passing out at Sandhurst, mummy's graduation at Cambridge, your great-grandmama's coming out and a cartoon of your grandfather. Or a cutting from the local paper when your nan won the knobbly knees competition at Butlins, your employee of the month award when you worked at Maccie D's, and your partner's 20m swimming award.

I agree it is a massive privilege to attend Oxbridge - my point is that not all Oxbridge students are from a privilege background (although I will concede the vast majority are)

I totally agree with you. I don't think you get to Oxbridge from a not-privileged background without working really hard though. Putting the photo in the loo suggests the Oxbridge place is of no value because it's simply what's expected of you. Either that or you're trying to appear like somebody who would think it was what was expected of you because you had to do that in order to fit in at Oxford. I mean obviously that is all in my rather chippy opinion not fact.

Mine's back in my childhood bedroom along with my certificate.

Graduands photo is in the loo with lots of dusty germy books. No loo brush though.

I don't think you get to Oxbridge from a not-privileged background without working really hard though. Putting the photo in the loo suggests the Oxbridge place is of no value because it's simply what's expected of you. Either that or you're trying to appear like somebody who would think it was what was expected of you because you had to do that in order to fit in at Oxford. I mean obviously that is all in my rather chippy opinion not fact.

I don't think it's just an Oxbridge thing though. It applies to any graduation photo.

It's not very "British" to shout about your achievements. Look at how many threads there are on here about whether it's acceptable to use the title Dr outside of work. Showing off is frowned upon and self deprecation is lauded, hence hanging your matriculation photo over the mantlepiece is naff but demoting it to the loo is okay.

Nobody would bat an eyelid at your parents displaying your graduation photo on the sideboard along with family wedding photos, holiday snaps, baby pics. It's just one of many family memories and milestones. On the other hand, if you hang your own massive graduation photo on the wall, it's a bit vain...

And in 30 years you may realise that the person behind you with the odd haircut is now really well known

Happened to BF as was stood behind David Cameron - had her head cropped off but her bust plastered all over the papers a few times

I read this as "micuration"

Mine originally hung in the hallway at my parent's house (I was the first person in my family to get a uni degree and they were all v proud of me), then after they died I took it home but never hung it up, felt a bit embarrassed by it I guess.

I think it got put in the loft years ago. Will ask DC to have a look for it when they're putting away the Christmas decs later. I'd quite like to put it up in my study now, especially as it's 30 years since it was taken :)

@Londonmummy66

And in 30 years you may realise that the person behind you with the odd haircut is now really well known

Happened to BF as was stood behind David Cameron - had her head cropped off but her bust plastered all over the papers a few times

what a claim to fame.

This thread does touch on some rather depressing attitudes towards Oxbridge that still persist.

In plenty of other countries it would be an achievement to be proud of and not hide but in the UK the tendency is to be self deprecating (I used to hate admitting I went to Oxford because of this attitude). And the persistence (even jokingly) of the idea we are all privileged and private school educated. Yes the percentage of privileged backgrounds is still high but it has evened out a lot recently. Most of my friends went to Oxbridge from northern state schools. Some were first generation uni attendees. Privilege was often parents who valued and supported education (yes that is a privilege in itself but hardly old boys network). If I displayed my school photos too they would be of me in a state school sweatshirt with frayed cuffs (I used chew my sleeves when concentrating...).

Sorry bit of a rant on a innocuous thread about where to hang a photo

Mine have been in the loft since moving house. We aren't any kind of Oxbridge family with rowing oars on the study wall etc. Its the kind of thing you buy as a student without any idea of what you will do with it later. I sort of feel if I throw it away it will break the spell and the whole gown punt choir thing will turn out to have been a dream.

Yes, that's exactly the reason whenever we move house I still make a point of putting it up, because my life has gone a fair way away from Oxford and Oxford friends, but the photo is a little piece of that actually rather a cumbersome and yet fragile piece of that which I refuse to relegate to the garage. I am so glad I didn't win blades, that would have been a real bugger to move overseas!
I've never read the Sloane handbook....but the "loo" that gave me this idea did indeed offer a rich array of reading matter and a solid wall of cartoons (professor of astrophysics with a fairly well-attuned sense of humour for a scientist). I watched Harry Potter tonight. I need a room of requirement!