Thursday, December 10, 2009

Dinky Cars

The sexist implications of the term "dinky" seem pretty clear to me, i.e. you have to have a (small) penis to enjoy playing with (small) cars. That's why I force my son to call them "vaggy cars"—no child of mine is going to grow up to be a phallocrat. We're Taking Back the Night, one trivial lexical item at a time.

RATING: Gary Coleman%

(Image from www.hroe.org.)
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4 comments:

  1. Internet RobynDecember 11, 2009 at 10:59 AM

    Our son's fear of crabs while playing cars is now so clear. We truly are a feminist family.

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  2. DCPDecember 11, 2009 at 11:17 AM

    I don't think Americans refer to them as dinky cars. I think they're all universally called Matchbox cars?

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  3. I.J.December 11, 2009 at 11:42 AM

    @R
    "Feminist family" is either redundant or an oxymoron. Either way that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

    @G
    Yeah, "Dinky" is british and from the 1930's. Matchbox's first car was actually cast in a Dinky mould. But I figure it's like "mark" and "grade."

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  4. I.J.December 11, 2009 at 11:44 AM

    "Matchbox" does sound vaguely feminist, though.

    ReplyDelete