The My Family car stickers have made their way overseas. Source: News Limited
OPINION: IF YOU want your dinner party to run smoothly, never question someone's politics, religion or attitudes to sex, the theory goes. But here's a friendly warning: there is one other question it's best to leave alone.
"How do you feel about those My Family stickers, an Australian invention I just read are selling massively in the US?"
You may think barbecue dad, shopping mum and sporty kids plus stick pets, have been around long enough for us to get over all the My Family rage. But don't be fooled; unless you have your stab vest on, don't ask your friends this if you want to remain friends.
After seeing an article titled, Stick family feud: Trivial but powerful, what those cartoon family decals, and the backlash against them, says about us, in a Canadian online news magazine, I asked the crew on my Facebook page The Perch for their thoughts — and the sparks still flew.
My family stickers seen on a Landcruiser. Source: News Limited
"I hate them, but I saw one last week with a big dinosaur saying, 'Your stick family was delicious'. THAT was funny,'' wrote one.
Another said: "I can't stand them, my hubby laughingly says they're for people who want to boast about their fertility. I don't understand the point of them."
Other reactions were: "They make me cringe", "hideous and distracting" and "they give the finger to all those people who can't have children".
What do you think of the My Family stickers? Tell us below
A news.com.au reporter snapped this stick figure parody. Source: NewsComAu
Up popped pictures of the many My Family parodies: a T-Rex chasing a stick family, a woman with three kids and two pets and an empty space with the words "position open". I've seen single dad ones too and a set with dad in jail.
One person posted a picture she'd taken in a carpark of a sticker featuring the head of grumpy Agnes Brown, of the hit TV show Mrs Brown's Boys, with the slogan "Feck your stick figure family".
Another wrote: "I liked them, but our dilemma is we are both on second marriages and have kids and some have partners but not married, so do we put them (on) or not? So much angst over cartoon characters, LOL."
And for many, that seems to nail their problem: we don't like to be told what a real "family" looks like or that you have to have one that resembles the standard set to be successful at life.
Each to their own ... We're not sure how the driver sees out of this ute! Source: News Limited
Though the Gold Coast couple who invented My Family were also on their second marriages and both had children, the ongoing backlash seems to be about the fact family is so fluid now that the nuclear model is too limited.
We take our domestic status so seriously that those stick figures cause more tongue-poking even than the posh private school coats of arms you see on BMWs, or the stickers featuring the postcode of the exclusive seaside town where your spare house is at "the beach".
The article that caught my eye suggested the backlash that has followed the stickers to the US is because that "conga line of figures ... provides smug proof of affluence, busyness and procreative prowess". It went on: "Few trends reveal shifting family values in a mobile, personal-branding-obsessed society as do family stick figures."
The author noted a "quiet but visual culture war" raging between drivers, as seen in the big variety of send-ups, put-downs and even abusive sticker collections dissing Your Family.
One of the My Family parodies going around. Source: Supplied
A picture shared on The Perch. Source: Supplied
They do have their defenders: "We have them on our car and it's not to boast about my fertility ... It just so happens that my children think they are cute and fun," wrote one of my page pals. "I didn't realise there were so many sensitive people out there who spend their time imagining what other people do with their lives."
Another said: "I don't quite understand why people are worried about what sticker a complete stranger has on their car. I must have missed something somewhere.
"My theory is that it comes back to either a 'mummy wars' mentality or a 'keeping up with the Joneses' mentality. A bizarre combination of guilt/pride/jealousy ...???"
Whatever your stance on their quiet symbolism, or potentially annoying message, you can't disagree with this: "I may not be a fan, but I wish I had invented them."
The now-wealthy creators of the My Family stickers, Monica Liebenow and Phil Barham Source: News Limited
What do you think of the My Family stickers? Share your thoughts in the comments below
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