*sigh* It is sad that marketers worldwide exploit the popularity of reappropriation and sneak in the old stereotypes under this cover.

Well stated about using the word bitch negatively about powerful women. I recently used "bitch" in that way about an authority figure in my life. But I found I had to take five steps back and give some props to the woman in question for being bold, assuming power and not really caring what I think about it. I had to switch to "jerk" when describing her because it was her treatment of me as minion and not the fact of her power that I found vile.

Re: the Feministing logo.

So was it specifically intended to be the middle finger that the mudflap girl was showing? My initial impression was that it was the index finger, being raised in an "I OBJECT" gesture, like the mudflap icon had suddenly entered into a discussion with the guys who were putting her on the mudflap in the first place.

Oh! I always thought the feministing logo was holding up her forefinger, ala "I have something to say!" or "And here's a piece of my mind!" I like the middle finger a lot better, but I'm going to have to retrain myself to see it that way.

Re: reappropriation and such... you're getting awfully subtle on people. I appreciate that.

I think it's funny some of us see the Feministing logo differently. I always thought it was obvious she was giving the middle finger.

I like the Wyoming mudflap girl. Unfortunately it's not really being put to good use. Promoting auto repair database=lame.

SJ was all over this one:

http://iasshole.org/oldass/2007/09/wyoming_librari.php

Whomp whomp.

hehe. I always thought that it was obvious that it was the middle finger, too. I have a feministing button that I wear on my coat and a sticker on my bumper (I know, I'm such a fangirl) and I love it because even if people don't know what Feministing is, I think that the message still gets across pretty well. Which is actually a lot better than "hey, this is a blog I read," anyway.

It's kind of mind boggling and ridiculous that people wonder why no women go into automotive, the hard sciences, math and other male-dominated professions. Things are changing slowly because people put effort into it. But at the same time there's dumbasses like the ad team who thought up this silly mudflap girl with a book.
When I first saw it I thought cool, reading can be sexy, women can do it, etc. But the rationale for using the image completely ruins it.
I took automotive classes (at San Francisco City College). In the intro class I was the only woman who finished the course. In the second class I was the only woman who even signed up. I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb because I was a white, upper class woman and every one else was a man, mostly working class, and most of them Asian, Mexican, or African-American. I was one of only a handful of people who got As in those classes, and I tell you what, doing it for 'the team' (womankind) was definitely part of the reason I studied hard.
Anyway my point is why would women even want to go into automotive if, at every turn, they're confronted by these representations of it being a man's job?
There was a couple of articles in the NY Times recently about the automotive profession. One article talked about an automotive-focused high school in New York. Most of the students were boys. (And the female principal had no interest in the automotive field.) The other article talked about how modern automotive jobs are "technician" jobs and not "mechanic" jobs.
If you've ever been on a new car lot and looked under the hood or listened to the description of what new cars can do, it's obvious that the future of the profession is electronic specialization, and not greasy, dirty jobs.
Of course basic maintenance on brakes, oil and fluids, and tires will continue to be dirty. But the real money has always been in problem-solving. And problem-solving on modern cars is computer diagnosis. There are of course some women who do not mind getting dirty, but perhaps this wave of the future (with clean problem-solving of car trouble) will draw more into the automotive field.
Then again, it's not like women are flocking to electrical engineering classes and computer science (both foundations of modern auto diagnostics), so maybe it won't make a difference.

Good gracious! I'm in this post!

The image carries for me an added dimension of squick because of what my fellow pages and I go through on a daily basis. We've had patrons ask us to dinner, follow us through the shelves, follow us halfway home, grab us, look up our skirts with mirrors... and I can't even begin to count the times I've seen these guys actually viewing porn on a public computer in the middle of the nonfiction section. Let's not talk about the leering.

One of the only reasons I've stuck around is because NCPL (my library) is quick to deal with them and will eject offenders from the library-- and they're vigilant, too, so they catch a lot of this before it even happens. Plus, I love this work. It's one hell of a job for a college student trying to save for transferring! (Also, every librarian worth his or her card knows reading is just plain sexy. Caught my colleague going through Nabokov the other day-- frrowr. Like he wasn't cute already.)

I'm eternally thankful to NCPL for NOT adopting the campaign. Unfortunately, that doesn't stop it from showing up here in Casper. On the contrary. I've seen it at least a dozen times today. I do not need sexist rhetoric connected with my work. I'm uneasy already.

So I'm taking measures to end it, acting independently of my workplace-- I've contacted the local Youth Empowerment Council, because their word actually carries some weight around here (small states, good acoustics), as well as several other groups, in the interest of ceasing this part of the campaign and obtaining a public apology. And if I'm the only one, well... short of my fingers falling off from excess typing, or the buttons on my phone wearing away, I'm not quitting.

"Also, every librarian worth his or her card knows reading is just plain sexy. Caught my colleague going through Nabokov the other day-- frrowr. Like he wasn't cute already."

Whatever you do, don't ask him to dinner.

There's one other interesting difference between the feministing mudflap girl and the library one. The library silhouette has her breasts obscured. Is that the Ashcroft treatment or just an accident?

this is pretty much the logo for the feminist bookstore in Milwaukee, Broad Vocabulary. (Full disclosure: I'm one of the founders, but not currently involved. This logo was chosen by myself and 2 others.) Here's the link to the myspace site: myspace.com/broadvocabulary
T-shirts with the logo are in the pics. I think it's definitely a weird logo for a public library.

Huh I always thought the feministing logo was pointing upwards in a 'Look to the skies, onwards and upwards' sort of way. Giving the finger makes a lot more sense.

Conveying the message that "Reading is sexy!" or "Ladies with intellect are really hot!" is not subversive in the slightest. You're still telling women the most important thing they can do is look hot for the menz.

As a librarian, I discussed this with some of my friends. I found it offensive (and, btw, I agree with howlingmonkey that "reading is sexy" may not be an appropriate message if by "sexy" one means "appropriately fuckable by men"). Some of my librarian friends were ok with the ad though. One suggested that the removal of the large breasts somehow made it not sexist. I didn't quite understand that explanation.

I'm a guy and I think your logo is just great!

So...can I still print it out and put it in my cube at work? Because I do think reading is sexy, I think women are sexy, and I think women readers are the sexiest of all.

Appropriation and subversion is not a tactic I find to be very intelligent. This is what afro-americans do with the "n-word", and there is much disagreement on all sides as to the beneficial effects of that, too.

I also have to say, that even to think that the mudflap girl with the book is saying "reading is sexy" is rather denigrating. It may say "reading is sexy" to men, but it only says "only buxom, wasp-waisted, perky butted, women are considered icons of sexiness, therefore, such a woman represented reading a book is equal to reading is sexy."

So, for the same reasons, the mudflap girl in the Feministing logo does not work for me as a feminist.

I must therefore continue to express my respectful "phooey!

I love appropriation. Love it. It doesn't always work because it can be hard to do well, but done, right, it is one of my favorite forms of protest. But it's also important to remember that there are all kinds of appropriation, and some of them suck. You can't just re-use an offensive image (or word) with a minimal shift in context or else it's just propagating the original idea. You have to DO something with it that obviously counteracts the original message. Like making the mudflap girl flip you off. Well done, I say.

I think I'm with howlingmonkey on this one. Why do things have to be sexy (read: sexy to men) in order to be appealing?

And I don't really mind the Feministing logo, but I prefer the Feministe logo (http://www.feministe.us/blog/). Now THAT'S a lady in power.

For a laugh on this subject, check out The Critic on DVD. In one episode, the main character Jay becomes a trucker and his sister gives him Susan B. Anthony mudflaps (just the silhouette of her face)that she says "are much better than yours with the nude women." Jay doesn't know what to do with this until he comes to work and sees that the other guys have Betty Friedan, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks and Golda Meir. That show was awesome.

Thanks for clearing up the finger on the feministing logo - I, too, thought it was the index finger raised in objection. I like both ideas, actually.