AI: Pieces of Flair
By Commuting by car on a daily basis is relatively new for me; I used to be able to take the train in to campus (and miss it terribly). Something I’ve been paying more attention to since I started driving a lot more is what people stick on the backs of their cars. The ubiquitous ‘my kid is awesome’ bumper stickers, the political stickers, the little cartoon family member stickers, the endless (serious and snarky) variations on fish symbols… I cheer when I see Flying Spaghetti Monster ‘fishes’ like the one I have and shake my fist at stars-and-stripes tea pots. Sometimes literally.
What are your favorite and/or least favorite types of decorations to spot on cars? How do you feel about them in general? What are some of the most amusing or memorable ones you’ve seen?
The Afternoon Inqueery (or AI) is a question posed to you, the Queereka community. Look for it every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday at 3pm ET.
I love seeing running stickers such as race distances: 13.1, 26.2, and so on. I think, “Hi friend!” when I see them. I also like seeing conservative stickers on cars parked next to mine. I find it amusing and hope that my pro-marriage equality, pro-choice, and “At Gods We Chuckle” stickers offend them. Often on the road I can see people in my mirror reading/mouthing the words on my bumper stickers with either wide grins of amusement or dirty looks, and they all please me.
I have occasionally seen the bumper sticker, “ABORTION CAUSES BREAST CANCER,” which irritates me both as a scientifically literate person and as a pro-choice activist. There is no bumper-sticker soundbite that can be slapped somewhere in reply. “Abortion Opponents Make False Breast Cancer Claims By Cherrypicking Bad Studies”? If only I could nail my 2,000 word response to those stickers in reply.
The FSM always makes me happy, as do pro-equality-of-any-sort stickers. I think I”m the only car in Cincinnati with the NASA meatball so if I saw someone else with that, I would probably follow them home and try to be best friends.
The ones that make the most mad are the “Abortion stops a beating heart” next to pro-gun stickers. What exactly do they think guns do?
I have a happy human on my car, as well as one of those sticker families. I like my sticker family because it’s two big pants-wearing people (meant to represent “male”) and a little pants-wearing person. Queering the sticker family – sukkit, conservatives!