F#@k Your Family

Family stickers are quite popular nowadays. They adorn the rear windows of cars and proudly describe the  composition of the family who presumably rides around in that particular vehicle. The idea is that you find a stick figure sticker that represents a member of your family and stick it on your car window. Add another, different one, for each of your family members until you complete the portrait. It's harmless fun. Some sour doomboosters don't like them for some pathetic reason, but by and large they are inoffensive and they make people smile.        

They aren't like some bumper stickers which are clearly designed to cause offense in their puerile and unambiguously ignorant attempts at humour. Seriously, I read some people's stickers and shake my head as I wonder why they would want to say such things about themselves and other people. Family stickers are nice and wholesome so you can imagine how shocked I was when I saw a sticker which attacked family stickers. Let me describe it. Four stick figure family members with hangman's nooses around their necks and the words F#@k Your Family.

The person who owns that car and put that sticker on the rear window appears not to like family stickers. Was it necessary to go the extreme of depicting them being hanged and to use an expletive? This person probably thinks it's funny. They probably hang out with  people who think it's a funny sticker. They'd probably tell me to f@#k off and mind my own business if I said anything. They'd probably tell me that I had no sense of humour.

The knowledge that there is one single person who finds it amusing to suggest hanging people because they don't like family stickers makes me despair for humanity. I know that, although this person lacks the sensitivity to keep their opinions private or at least publicly respectable, there are many who think the same way. It's a worry.

Windows to the Soul

Everyone has heard the saying that the eyes are the window to the soul but there is another window: bumper stickers. What are people saying about themselves and their view of the world via the stickers they place on, or leave attached to, the rear bumpers or windows of their vehicles?

Some stickers are funny, at least the first two or even three times that you read them. The one that says, "If you can read this, I've lost my caravan", is amusing. Others are more informative, telling you what causes the owner of the car presumably supports, or what footy team they cheer for, or what breed of dog they like. Of course it is not always the case that the sticker on the back of the car in front of you can be used to make an accurate assessment about the owner of the vehicle, but it is natural to make such an assumption. What else would one think?

What am I supposed to think about a man wearing a cowboy hat, and driving a Ford F-350 ute with the following stickers on it: a United States confederate flag, a rodeo sticker, and a sign that says, "keep honking, I'm reloading!" All this paints a pretty clear picture about the bloke and what he's in to, doesn't it?

Some bumper stickers really make you ask the question why. Why would a person put a sticker on their car which says "bad boy" or "bad girl"? Because they are bad and proud of it, or because they want to be bad? What about "zero to bitch in 60 seconds", "no sex, no ride", "gas, grass or ass - no free rides", "get in, sit down, shut up and hang on", or "don't like my driving? dial 1800 eat #@*%" ?

The answer is obvious. The people who put these stickers on their cars, think like that, they identify with the sentiments expressed, they make statements about themselves with those stickers. If you bought a car which had a sticker showing an outline of Australia with the words "*#%@ off we're full", you'd remove the sticker, unless you were a racist like the person who put it there in the first place.

It's hard not to judge people by their bumper stickers, but by plastering their vehicles with such decorations, they are asking for it, aren't they? Inviting judgement. They are not shy or ashamed about having such attitudes. Their bumper stickers are proud declarations, and that's a bit of a worry, don't you think?

Or is it all just harmless fun?