My Mudflap Flap Take

The votes are in and the clear choice is that the Wyoming Libraries are being hip in their appropriation of the mudflap image in their advertising. Almost every option received at least one vote, though, so the feelings are all over the place. That's more where I am, with mixed feelings.

I think it's daring of them to take such an unexpected image and use it for the library. It's attention grabbing and turns stereotypes on their heads. Hopefully, it will make people look at the library in a new way. That's what they were going for, I'm sure.

But I can't get over the fact that the original image is one that objectifies women. Despite the changes, the connotations are still there, that now the library supports this objectification. And in their attempt to give the silhouette a more realistic figure, they've made it look more like a teen than a woman. They even call it the "mud flap girl." So while the library is all for intelligent girls who read, I'm not so sure we're about sexualizing them.

(And is it at all ironic that they changed the image by giving her a book, even though they're using it to promote their car repair database?)