We Gotta' Get Rid of this Chick--Forever

There are so many reasons that I hate this girl and everything for which she stands. Generally though, when I see her, she is attached to the back of some redneck/trucker's pickup or long haul trailer, and I just shake my head as I consider the source and send up a little prayer of gratitude that the men in my life are nothing like that. No, the men in my life see me as more than boobs and lipstick and have enough respect for womanhood that their idea of honor is far better than plastering our image on a mudflap, which so clearly smacks of dragging us through the mud that no woman should have anything to do with a man who insists on said behaviour. In any way. Ever.

But the other day was a new experience altogether. While waiting in line to pick up my sweet daughter from kindergarten, I pulled behind a red Malibu and quickly noticed the silver truckergirl license plate holder: two faceless women on either side, on their knees, butts and breasts jutting out, head thrown back, long hair flowing. My blood started to boil, and not because I'm against sex in general. I even consider myself a little sexy, but I am not dumb enough to think that that is all I have to offer the world. What that license plate holder and every trucker girl mudflap says to me is that women are nameless, faceless, objects without meaning beyond their physicality. And that is why I was mortified to realize that the license plate holder in question did not belong to the usual redneck guy, but rather to a woman. And not only a woman, but a mother of at least two adorable little girls whom I've seen her pick up on two occasions now. That is what made me the sickest of all.

Because if that woman values the anonymous sex-kitten image enough to visually promote it to the world, I worry about the subtleties of gender issues she is teaching her girls every day. Will their value be measured by the size of their breasts or the number of men willing to bed them? Will they believe they have gifts of mind and spirit that can bless mankind or will they settle for being a great lay?

Do men suffer the same messaging regarding their sexuality? I don't think so. Chippendale's may be the closest we get, thankfully. I would hate to see a mudflap of a man in profile with a giant erect penis. Gross, right? And yet, that is the only correlation I can draw to the objectification of women we see so often.

There would be many, I guess, who would say I'm blowing this out of proportion, but I think not because women are surrounded by this kind of subtle messaging on every side, and if we don't recognize it, call it out, and name it, our girls will go on absorbing it, digesting it, and allowing it to define them in some way. That definition is dangerous and in some cases an absolute destroyer. If sex is all they are worth, then they will give themselves away a piece at a time hoping to find the love they have never felt for themselves.

I'm not denying the significance of sexuality in the human experience, but it is when we are defined by it that we disregard all of the qualities that give us meaning, that make us unique and worth loving in the first place. That is something the "mudflap girl" will never get.