Why Does the "No Fat Chicks" Bumper Sticker Still Exist?
Most equate the "No Fat Chicks" bumper sticker to a novelty joke stuck in the '80s. Maybe you saw one on a tuner car that looks straight off the set of The Fast and The Furious, or in the parking lot of a mall on a used car with a faded paint job. I first saw the bumper sticker on a car parked in front of the local gym of my hometown.
Most would read the sticker, laugh, and go about their day. However, when you're said fat chick, the seemingly funny bumper sticker drives home all the subtle messages young women have been receiving for ages: Everyone hates fat girls.
The bumper sticker was recently upgraded to "No Fat Chicks Car Will Scrape." Ah. If it weren't for the car's low suspension, woman of all shapes and sizes would be welcomed into your aftermarket Toyota. The hatred towards fat women is just a practicality.
Do I have to mention a fat dude would also make a car scrape? Or am I making too much sense?
Trying my best not to be blinded by anger, I started to think about the bumper sticker in another light. Maybe weight limits on passengers in cars a legit thing. Is the sticker a crude reminder for the driver to keep it light?
Back in the day Strutter worked at a car mag, and reached out to a couple of trusted writers who shoot straight on cars, and any given topic. Nicolas Stecher, automotive editor for Men's Fitness, says he hasn't seen the new bumper sticker. These stickers are probably nowhere in sight on the luxury cars he's test driving. (The adage is true!) "I guess it's somewhat plausible if it's a very lowriding car," says Stecher. "But I think the sentiment is more tongue-in-cheek. If someone weighed 300-400 lbs., that could cause a car with shortened suspension to scrape, but they would have to be pretty big."
Brian Scotto, former editor-in-chief of Rides (where yours truly once worked) and 0-60, now Chief Brand Officer at Hoonigan ( the wildly-popular Gymkhata videos), sounded off: "While there is some truth to low cars scraping when there are too many people in the car, most plus-sized women still weigh less than the average man, so it really holds no weight (no pun intended)."
So now that the "No Fat Chicks" bumper sticker holds no merit in the auto world, why is it still in circulation? There are more than 190 versions of the "No Fat Chicks" stickers sold on Amazon; Cafe Press sells more than 500 items touting fat chicks, but its message runs the gamut from "No Fat Chicks" to "I <3 Fat Chicks," and Zazzle also sells more than 900 products dedicated to the fat girl love/hate. (Et tu, Etsy?!)
When any celebrity or company makes an off-hand remark, people take to social media to unleash a wrath strong enough to offer at least an apology. Where is the outrage over this sticker? If you replaced the "Fat Chicks" part with any other group, Twitter would be blowing up right now demanding for its removal. But the "No Fat Chicks" message is still out there—now easily conveyed on a t-shirt, mug, or smartphone cover.
It's been well established that the average woman is a size 14. With all our glad talk about body positivity and #effyourbeautystandards, the existence of the "No Fat Chicks" bumper sticker is a sad reminder that some people openly practise sizeism. And that's no joke.