Dec 22, 2011
Are Xtracycle Stickers Offensive? An Anonymous Poll
Xtracycle is gearing up to print another round of stickers. Since we buy printing, and cutting dies, and print tens of thousands of stickers at a time, we like to be clear that we’re printing the right product.
Historically, a lot of our stickers pushed the limits of ‘family friendly’ language. Scanning our sticker sheet included with every FreeRadical and Radish, you will find words like Sissy, Wuss, Booty, Ass, etc.
Skip down to take the poll.
Xtracycle's Old School Sticker Sheet
Many of you like the spirit of these stickers, like Rick Logue, as he describes on his My Two Mile Challenge Blog.
Some of you may find these stickers inappropriate, or just plain immature, but haven’t had a safe environment to say that.
We’re downright curious – do stickers with borderline offensive words help spread the message of bikes as a solution? Or does the message get lost in the medium?
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I have no idea why we need to have gender-based insults here, and as someone who interacts regularly with small children, I can tell you that parents are not thrilled when you give them a bad word to read off of your stuff.
I do like the “this thing hauls ass” sticker, but I’m not big on either “sissy/wuss” or insulting people who drive cars. (Which I imagine a lot of xtracycle riders still do.) Keeping it positive seems like a better tactic.
I don’t know why it would be difficult to find family friendly language to speak the same message. Especially since cargo bikes tend to be family bikes. I have enough trouble controlling what my children see and hear in the wide world. I had to throw out a few stickers that came with my FreeRad because they weren’t appropriate for my family.
I am an xtracycle rider, and I use my truck to haul my xtracycle when I want to take it somewhere, so paradox…I am against the insulting ones because I am pretty sure others own SUV and trucks that also have xtracycles.
maybe you could come out with special editions reflecting different levels of self-seriousness. we’ll take the sub-zero level: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cleverchimp/sets/72157628527970551/
I love the stickers (and would happily start a local chapter of MAD), but agree that I wouldn’t use the wuss/sissy ones. as a mother of three boys who already know all the swear words, the ‘ass’ one doesn’t bother me ;) trucks are for wimps? Now that I’d put on my bike!
Your poll creates a false dichotomy. I like the sass in your stickers. It’s not critical, but it is attention-grabbing, clever, and cute. It seems kids who are too young to read this mildly-peppered language themselves should simply not have it READ aloud TO them, just as so many other things in print are NOT intended for children under 5. Pissing of someone operating a vehicle that can kill or maim a cyclist, yeah, that’s a valid concern. But, um, I guess that’s at the descretion [ballsiness] of the individual sticker-on-er, now, isn’t it? Are you pre-installing the stickers on your merch?
I think having a full spectrum of responses is good. I will admit, I didn’t choose the wuss or the sissy stickers, but hauling ass and tv’s really hit the happy for me.
I never felt any need to ‘protect’ my kids from the word ass…. Even Shrek had to save his :).
@Bridget – Stickers will always be self-installed, and we will always provide a variety of choices that range in tone, per your comment. Very much appreciate the thoughtful and funny (@Todd) feedback from everyone.
As someone who is a careful SUV driver–especially when I spot bikes, I think it’s kind of offensive. Of course, I’m also pretty positive if a company feels comfortable putting gender based slurs designed to be cool or funny, they probably don’t care about my opinion. In my opinion, doing things to destroy the friction between those who cycle and those who don’t is more valuable than increasing it. Here in the deep south, it is SUPER dangerous to incite driver rage. Again, working to change the culture and views of cyclists and enhancing respect is more important than a catchy slogan. Also? I use every inch of my suburban for ag/farm purposes and kid hauling. I really don’t appreciate it when a gang of spandex clad jerks flip me off or shake their heads at me for driving that “monster” without knowing a damn thing about its purpose in my life. It’s a two way street when it comes to respect on the road.
I’m not a bike rider, but am not offended by anyone of these, with the exception of the one that uses the word “sissy.” It’s sexist, and honestly, borderline-misogynistic.
I agree with others that “sissy” in particular is effectively a sexist and/or homophobic slur. (Generally it’s for men who aren’t “manly” enough, hence the sexist; most often it’s applied to gay men, hence the homophobic).
I think Xtracycle could easily do much better at finding a way to extol the values of Xtracycles without that type of slur.
Ass, wuss, booty-well, they’re slang for bodily parts, but as an adult I don’t find them offensive, and adults don’t have to use the stickers. To my mind, they emphasize the physicality and feeling of badassness (as it were) of biking. I think all 3 words are allowed on network prime time television.
The other stickers, though-the anti-car, anti-truck, anti-SUV, anti-TV stickers-I find just silly. Most bicyclists probably own a TV. Most bicyclists actually own a car. A mostly-car-free friend of mine owns a truck, that gets passed around for use by his extended generally-car-free-community. These stickers just turn your target market (i.e. all potential customers, and all current customers) into hypocrites.
Also silly: the implication that you would take a TV to the dump. Ideally you’d be hauling your TV to the electronics recycler. ;)
I have no problem with the word “ass” – people can choose whether or not they want curse words on their bicycles- but the words “wuss” and “sissy” are offensive because they associate gender/sexuality with weakness. And as a 4’11″ lady who rides a fully loaded xtracycle on a 20 mile commute everyday, I’d rather not have my gender and sexuality be conflated with weakness.
(See what I did there with the holier-than-thou about electronics recycling? ;)
I’m not offended by the gendered perjoratives but I think they are completely innefective in promoting bicycling/cargo bicycling as a valid form of transportation. It smacks of ’90′s MTV Sports faux edginess thats time is definitely past. Anyone that uses those terms now just remind me of my well-past-their-highschool-captain-of-the-highschool-football-team faded glory drunk at Thanksgiving uncles, or a 12 year old boy raised by one of my beforementioned uncles.
They are not actually offensive, but I won’t put the majority of them on my bike. The only one that made it on is “dream.” Many of the others I put on items which I keep closer to me (e.g. water bottles).
I like the spirit of them, but as an elementary school teacher I must admit I’ve censored the stickers I put on my bike. I say, keep up the spirit of it but do offer a range of appropriateness. Also, a very simple “I love my bike” could catch much of the spirit of it, no?
I’m with the ass is fine crowd. In fact, there was a sticker on an xtracycle somewhere (Aaron’s Bike Repair?) that said “This ass hauls things”. Like that quite a bit.
But the sissy/wuss/SUV ones aren’t my favorites. License “one less minivan” from Sarah?
I like Todd’s remix concept.
“God grant me the courage to sell my ass” looks like it wouldn’t be hard. That would start some dialogue.
It is only a joke. obviously i dont hate people who drive cars.
I can’t see you gaining anything by keeping them, but I could see people not being thrilled about it if you keep them. If it was my biz, I’d leave em out.
I would put the ‘wuss in an SUV’ on my SUV! lol
My biggest critique of my SUV was a friend who rode a bike–to save the planet & because she COULDN’T drive. Yet any time we went anywhere I HAD TO DRIVE.
So incredibly sick of the pompus crap from bikers ONLY. I’ve got two dogs, a business & a kayak. Unrealistic. Besides, I like to travel.
They can say what they want but I don’t EVER want to see any of them near a truck.
I’m not big on either “sissy/wuss” or insulting people who drive cars. After all, I’m still alive because of among other things, the continued cooperation of car and truck drivers. Keeping it positive seems like a better tactic. I feel we should “Beligerate Internally” (e.g. Try to feel smug without putting others down.)
I don’t use the stickers. But I love my Xtracycle….can’t live without it. I think the stickers are funny in some limited circles and offensive in larger circles. This kind of in-your-face humor reflects negatively on Xtracycle. There must be some more tasteful ways to promote a revolutionary product like this.
I don’t think people even read them, but I do!
best sticker slogans-
“this ASS hauls things”
“singletrackin’ load haulin’ momma”
I’d avoid using words like sissy and wuss, not because of how confrontational they are in a bike/car context, because they are often used against men who don’t subscribe to the machismo school of manliness.
how about “rockstar parking-everytime”
“be a good butterfly”
“haul it all!”
“I think I can I think I can I think I can”
“trackstand this.”
“you could too”
keep it positive, and bear in mind that a big chunk of your customers are car lite, and there doesn’t need to be any more bike /car tension out there. With enough smug self righteous asshats on both sides to perpetuate the animosity till the end of time, something inclusive and lighthearted is always welcomed.
While I sometimes enjoy the “in your face” quality of some of your stickers,I would like to see the addition of a set that is more positive,family friendly,and lighthearted. Minimizing aggravation & promoting civility is probably a good way to go.
I think you can celebrate that longbikes are no longer fringe transportation but part of a solution revolution. You might – but might not – want to keep things from getting too sanctimonious … but I’d go watch that trailer for the cargo bike revolution and grab the sentiment there.
I love stickers(or any well-designed graphic)but these are really not all that cleverly written or eye candy so I never used them.
When I see “my way is better than your way” stickers, such as an anti Ford sticker on a Dodge pickup, or vice versa, I think “how pathetic” followed by “that guy flunked out of school and now he’s stuck in redneck automotive land.” We should attract people into the cargo bike lifestyle, not “piss them off” into it. Instead of calling someone a wuss for driving a truck, we need a slogan along the lines of “it takes leather balls to play rugby.” We could come up with, “I saved 6500 dollars last year not driving, and my cholesteral and blood pressure have never been better.” We need a positive and very attractive presentation in order to get people to move away from cars and start riding, walking, or taking mass transit. We also have to break the redneck grip on giant pick-up trucks (I live in Idaho) and this is a red and a redneck state…
Have a competition to come-up with slogans. Give the winner a nice prize.
Keep it positive and fun.
I don’t use most of them because of the language, antlhigh I admit I didn’t know what some of the words meant at first (hey, I’m British, I can’t help it) I like the slightly barbed comments, but I can see how to someone outside of our ‘tribe’ they could be offensive. I’d stick to a positive message.
I think that you can say the same thing and have it be less offensive. Most of the drivers who are looking for a beef with us on bikes certainly don’t need any more reasons to get pissed off and if even one Xtracycle rider is hurt as a result then that is one too many. I think you can have a clever message that does not use in-flamatory language. We should be cargo bike ambassadors without offense, that keep it positive for everyone.
robert
portland oregon
Oh the irony all around…
Those are my stickers in the photo. Not on an Xtracycle but a Human Powered Machines Long Haul bike…towing a super long trailer with 10ft. lumber….that I rode through a logging convention at the fairgrounds in Eugene.. which was fun.
I had that sticker for a long time and never really liked the “attitude” behind it but put it on specific for the trip to the lumber yard just for some extra sass and fun. The logging convention was a bonus.
Anyway, I like the more positive messages in general. The Dream one seems to be the one I see most ON Xtraycles. I have the LOVE sticker (not shown) on mine.
Random ideas:
“My other mini-van isn’t one either”
“Two Kids, Six Bags of Groceries…No Problem” (or something like that)
“Fueled by Local Food”
“You Can Too”
“I’m a Traffic Calming Device”
“Fueled by Fat”
“Hybrid- Sometimes my kid rides their own bike”
I say stay positive and sassy! Why alienate people if you don’t have to, I like positive vibes!