What could the silver mudflap girl possibly mean (see details)

Not sure really @JilltheTooth other than to advertise that they objectify women?

What purpose does any art serve? It looks good. The truck owner likes it. Or someone likes it because maybe it just comes with the truck.

If you’re asking why someone would like an image like that—it’s a sexy image. A lot of people like those. I don’t think this is any great mystery.

The coke bottle shaped woman is art itself. It’s not objectifying if you appreciate its beauty lol.

I don’t think it’s objectifying women so much, I think it’s more of an iconic symbol for trucks and truckers. Kind of like the JD green for tractors, or IH red.

@wundayatta : Not why someone would like it, I get that, why would someone who likes it choose to display it in a place he can’t see it? The art I have is in places I can see it, not sort-of under the back of my car.
Can’t bring myself to think of it as “art” anyway…

Why do you have a bumper sticker? Why do you put a tattoo on your back? It’s not so you can see it. It’s so others can see it. It’s to express your personality.

@wundayatta : That’s why I don’t get it. My tattoos are all where I can see them, and I have no bumper stickers.

@Adirondackwannabe Really? A caricature silhouette of an over-sized breasted woman is the same as John Deer green or yellow? What if it was a guy standing with a huge schlong dangling? Would that somehow be the same as an International Harvester Red? As @wundayatta just said, IMO it advertises your personality or lack there of.

I think it’s for macho cred in a very macho world. Kind of the same reason guys do cat calls when in the presence of other dudes.

I think it is a statement by the one displaying it that he likes sexy women.

It’s an assertion of his heterosexuality. A desperate, embarrassing assertion.

@Cruiser As you said it’s a caricature, so I see it as a symbol of something more than as a woman. But, thorninmud might have a good point.

I’m thinking @thorninmud might have something there.

@JilltheTooth You must have seen hundreds of people with tattoos on their backs. You must have seen thousands of cars with bumper stickers. Do you wonder at all of this?

Usually messages are for other people (art is a message). You must have some impression when you see these things. Is it really just confusion? Don’t you tell yourself some kind of story about it? The problem with symbolic messages is that you don’t know whether you want to know what the person sending the message meant, or if what you get from it is good enough. I say that in the absence of clear instructions from the sender, what you get out of it is what it means.

With respect to tattoos, I’ve heard many people here say that tattoos are for themselves. For tattoos on someone’s back, I just don’t believe it. What do you get out of it? You can imagine the image. Maybe you like getting needled. But the artist could be putting any sort of crap on your back for all you know. If it’s for yourself, it wouldn’t matter what was back there. But if you care what other people say about it, then it’s not just for yourself. What about “tramp stamps?”

With respect to your tattoos, I am surprised you have any. When did you get them? How many are there? How often do you look at them?

I’d sure like to know when and where that image started. I remember seeing that identical design 40 years ago!

They block more mud than plain mud flaps.

The vast majority of bumper stickers I see are text, not any kind of “art” (unless silly). As for back tattoos, they are more often covered than not, unless the inked ones are beach bums, living always in a temperate clime, and even then, I don’t get that, mine all mean something important to me (well, the boob-frog just makes me chuckle now, it’s representative of a time when I would get such a thing. :-/) and I see them every day when I’m nekkid.
The mud-flap girl may be somewhat iconic now but it was just dumb when it started showing up (in the 70s?) and I just wondered if there was more to it than the obvious sexual objectification concept.
@erichw1504 : Ah. OK. I simply hadn’t thought of that. XP
@worriedguy: Click the link in the Q.

@JilltheTooth Maybe it was more of a sexual objectification in the 1970’s? I hadn’t thought about it in terms of what society was like in the years since then.

Truckers love chrome on their vehicle. I think its a status symbol for them. The more chrome the better.

The mud flaps were just…..........well, mud flaps. Maybe their mudflaps needed a “pick me up”, since they are a plain jane and the chrome lady figure was just what they needed.

Whatcha think?

It’s my silhouette.

I love it when they have mudflap girls and these on the trailer hitch.

@Blueroses and that is a mold from my package.

@Blueroses First time I’ve seen those. That’s hilarious!

I need to slow down when I read and not skim. I was about to tell @erichw1504 that there are anti-fungal creams if you have mold on your package.

@Adirondackwannabe They’re really popular in my part of the country. I happen to think they’re very funny too.

@Blueroses Haha, that made me roll on the floor and laugh. Separately.

@JilltheTooth Duh! I clicked the first link but not the second. There you go! I was right about the 40 years. How about that? Thanks!

@JilltheTooth following the link from your link. God, I love Wyoming!

Oh, @Blueroses , I missed that one! Gotta love it…

It means they should be called mud faps.