Bumper stickers are at very best minimally tasteless. But the perfusion of round, bubble lettered, grotesquely-cute-figured bumper stickers proclaiming that "Life is good" fulfill every criterion of tastelessness we know.
While we certainly condone flaunting curvaceous earlobes, flouncy hips, and delicate ankles, we do not condone flaunting privilege. The issue here is similar to the distinction in tastefulness between costume jewelry (eminently tasteful) and gaudy displays of precious gems (horribly tasteless). If you have the strange fortune to live in the most-consuming country in the world and drive an SUV (or wear t-shirts, or do anything really), for golly's sake don't proclaim in stupid bubble letters that "Life is good."
2 comments:
Bravo. A well-reasoned argument for me to continue despising those stickers. Now, could you please address the Hawaiian leis hanging from the rear-view mirrors?
As advocates for public safety, we do not condone the hanging of any objects from rear-view mirrors. Don't folks know that doing so impairs the driver's view? Death by motor vehicle accident is beyond tasteless. Look what it did to Princess Diana.
We are currently commissioning a study to examine this hypothesis: Motor vehicle adornment is categorically tasteless.
Look forward to the results some time in the Winter of 2009.
Post a Comment