Not to take away from your point, but I have definitely seen "adult woman and children (no adult man)" and "two adult women and children" configurations. I don't specifically recall seeing "two adult men and children," but it wouldn't have surprised me.

Actually, I find it very interesting that all of the stick figures are customizable and ordered separately. So any gay couple who wanted to could order a pair of "dad" or "mom" stickers. 

I've always hated the "order" that these families come in. 

I saw a decal once of a dad and baby in my hometown. Pretty cool. 

I saw one with the dad's head cut off... presumably a divorce situation, but pretty ugly.

Funny, because I thought this was going to go the other direction. I think these are neat because they DO allow for various configurations. One of my favorites was a woman and 3 cats. :-) I live in a city and there's less of the 'soccer mom' vibe that these stickers probably cater to, so maybe that's why I've seen different configs. Maybe the 'non traditional' families - of whatever configuration - just aren't in that same ethos that puts these kind of cheesy stickers on their windows? 

Also, these stickers tend to just be in 'height' order. Men do tend to be taller than women, and people taller than pets. I think it's as much aesthetics as anything else. 

The stickers themselves aren't promoting anything (except height differences). The sort of person to whom the stickers appeal tends to use them in a way that promotes the items you mention.

So, what you're really saying, is people who like dorky window decals tend to have a normative family and think of it in normative ways.

That's not uninteresting in itself (Why would you want to advertise your family makeup to strangers in the first place?) but it's not really the same as pointing out a product that explicitly promotes normative families.

This has been said by others, but these stickers can be ordered seperately to allow for different family configurations.  I honestly think that the height thing is more aesthetic than actually promoting a gender hierarchy.

If I may add just a bit of humor to an important discussion, I got a real kick out of this configuration: http://www.happyplace.com/10281/how-to-use-car-window-decals-to-infuriate-the-driver-behind-you

I once saw one with just a man and a cat.  I was entertained.  But the entertainment might have been due to the "bucking of the trend" thing

I'm tempted to make my own... maybe a monster, a pinecone and a banana or some such meaningless configuration.  Not sure why... 

Saw the xkcd cartoon earlier;  it still grinds my gears.  No children DOES NOT EQUAL!!! bags of money,  even if you are part of a traditional heterosexual couple.

Seriously, read what you're typing before you post it: "boy children before girl children, unless the boy is younger child" - so basically AGE ORDER? 

http://i.imgur.com/EFnhN.jpg

Best version.

I've occasionally thought about putting those on my car, but the thought of advertising to the world, including potential criminals, that I am a single mom is a bit too frightening for me.  The thought of placing a fake "dad" for safety purposes is equally distasteful, so I just have my science fish/rocket.

I think they're pretty cool too because you can choose which figures you want on your stickers. Also, the stickers come on separate sheets so families can place them in whatever order they want so what is more interesting is that given the choice most people still choose to place the stickers in this order. I don't have them for another reason - they don't offer figures with afros/natural African American hair textures which would represent our family.

I would guess that gay couples and families headed by gay people would think twice about getting these things. If you have a normative family, it's relatively safe to advertise it on your car.

The stickers themselves don't necessarily promote any particular family structure -- you can get any combination you choose. But their presence or absence does reflect a likely response to them: a set reflecting the normative family is 'cute' but a set that reflects something different is challenging, and potentially risky.

I've been wanting to get two short-hair pants'd figures (aka "man") and one smaller version of the same (aka "boy") for my car, but I'm too poor to afford the repairs to my vehicle from the possible property-destructive responses.

I have a two dad configuration because, well, we're a two dad family.  Our minivan has never been vandalized and I got the stickers because my kids (and the many others who have gay dads) need to see their family represented, too.

I see a lot of these around, but I also see a lot that show, say, a soccer ball and names that are obviously kids' names, or a ballet dancer and kids' names, etc.  I've even seen memorials to people who have died on the back window of cars.  THAT is much more interesting to me: the idea that you advertise your whole life on your car.  I'm guessing it is a uniquely American (and perhaps uniquely Midwestern?) thing.

Dad, Mum, Boy, Girl, Baby, Dog, Cat, Fish… where's the Laptop decal? I can't represent my family with this thing!

I'm surprised no one has commented yet on the assumption that "long hair plus dress=woman/girl" and "short hair plus pants=man/boy". No long haired men, no short haired women, no women/girls in pants, no men/boys in dresses? Silly symbols. :-)

I did finally click through and saw that you can mix different heads and bodies. So, I guess you could put a long haired head on a body wearing pants and confuse people who hate ambiguity. But all the heads and bodies are labeled Mxxx or Wxxx which seems to assume a strict male/female binary.

Okay, I'll admit it. I didn't exactly expect this kind of store to reject the gender binary, or even be aware of it. But I did expect that out of 12 different options for a "woman's" body that one of them would be wearing trousers.

What I found most interesting was that only one of the bodies has a cane and it's in the group meant for women.

"So the stickers tend to reproduce the normalness of (1) being paired up with (2) someone of the other sex, (3) having children, (4) a gender hierarchy, and (5) the imperative that men be taller than women."

That's because all those things are the norm for families.

Except for the bit about the 'imperative' that a man be taller. That seems totally made up, not observed. Commanding men to be taller (imperative) has very little effect on height.

"Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?" Matt 6:27, KJV

I'd just like to point out that just because the stickers can be bought separately, that doesn't mean that they're not heteronormative. In the examples above, there is a minimal amount of variation between the stickers, so that the only difference between mother and daughter is their hairstyles and the father and son aren't all that different either. Basically, they are functioning as symbols of traditional family roles, not individuals. Anyone falling outside of the nuclear family will have to improvise and the result will probably not be as clear as with the traditional family

Queering the Campus posted about these decals as an example of heteroprivilege earlier this month: http://queeringthecampus.blogspot.com/2011/09/in-your-face-heteroprivilege.html

Here in Seattle you see all kinds of variations...my favorite being a his and her Stormtrooper with a Stormtrooper dog. Or various couples of a variety of mixes with MANY cats.

When they stick these decals under the wing mirrors it means something completely different though. Sort of like WWII planes, they would put little images of the planes they shot down. I saw one car with several cat stickers under the wing mirrors. I've also seen one with various silhouettes of cars.

Even the dalek versions make assumptions on height between mum and dad. This disappoints me, as daleks have a generally non-gendered vision of evil universe domination! 
http://www.etsy.com/listing/75387491/dr-who-dalek-family-car-sticker-now-with?ref=tre-669044063-1 

In addition to the heteronormativity and cisgenderedness of these things, I imagine they make single people, and grandparents or other nonstandard caretakers, feel pretty darn left out. Or rather, maybe the stickers don't MAKE people feel left out, but the culture that the stickers represent do - where old folks are kicked out of the family unit once they're too old to be useful, and single people are viewed as incomplete.

As a female with glasses, I love the fact that I cannot get a custom head with glasses but I could if I was male.  Are they trying to tell me to go back to contacts?  Men don't make passes at women with glasses?  (Yes, heteronormative, I know).  :-)   Also, I can get long pants but not a long skirt.  If I was Pentecostal, I'd feel left out.  But that's the problems with having a "standard" anything.  It never fits the diversity of the real world. 

For what it's worth, here's my family decal on the back of my Jeep: http://www.serialmmogamy.com/wp-content/themes/serialmmogamy/images/car_sticker.jpg

My husband is the alien. I'm the pirate.

I was disappointed that even though the decal was (obviously) customizable, it wasn't possible to get two "adult" figures of the same height. Apparently there is some bias in the decal's overall design with the assumption that one of the adults will be larger than the other.

I have thought of getting a mother, a son, and the rest of the car window covered in cats, with a little snake in the lower right-hand corner. My son laughed at the idea, until I pointed out how embarrassed he'd be when I dropped him off at school functions :-D

for the longest time, i thought the purpose of the stickers was to help alleviate the guilt of suv drivers.. like, look!  i have 3 kids to transport, so i need this humongous vehicle!  

and, at least considregin only these sticks, the whole family is WHITE, surely a pattern.

I thought they all came in separate stickers?  My sister in law has one for her, one for my brother and one for their dog... not arranged in any order in particular.  In all honesty, I saw it arranged by hight, because my brother is taller than my sister in law.  And the dog is shorter than bother of them.  

Thank you for this post!!!!!!!!!! These decals disgust me. I did see one with a mom and two kids that I found somewhat more palatable, but seriously WHY would anyone want to/find the need to advertise your family make-up on a car?????? The stereotypes and "normalcy" they perpetuate are dangerous.

(ahem) My family has a two man and one woman configuration.

I admit that we got the stickers specifically to subvert exactly the hierarchy trend you note.

Something I found interesting: at http://www.thestickerfamily.com.au/shop/mothers/11, the tagline for Mum stickers is "Not every Mum is the same - and not every family has just one Mum, so pick the Mum (or Mums) that suit your family". For Dads, it's "What does the Dad in your family look like? Or better yet, what would he like to 'think' he looks like?!?"

These things drive me nuts, but I have seen so many configurations other than mother/father/children, which I kind of think is worse. I just assumed children were pressuring their parents to ruin their lovely expensive cars with these badly drawn stereotypes because everybody else had them, but then I started seeing stickers with just two adults, or one adult and some pets, or two female adults with some pets, etc and I thought, really? Come on, singles, seniors, childless couples and teens and gays, you're better than this!

Anyone still recall Rebecca Johnston from 08's Obamercial?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtREqAmLsoA&t=1m53s

My biggest problem with these is that they are incredibly unsafe. Maybe working in the forensics field has warped my brain but when I see this, I see giving strangers personal information about your family. Couple that with any school stickers and parking permits you may have, it's just a lot of information to have on your car.

I think it's more exciting to see the vans with single parents on them than to see same-sex parents. I've seen the latter more.

I don't get the joke from the picture :( Someone please explain.

Today I saw one of these decals on the back of a car.  I know the family, and I was really intrigued by the way they had it arranged.  It was in the middle of their back windshield, and showed (left to right) a tall (presumably adult) female, tall (presumably adult) male, shorter (presumably teen) female, dog, another shorter female, and a baby.  This is the family of a friend of mine who is a single mother (who recently turned 21).  She lives with her mother, stepfather, and half-sister (the daughter of her mother and stepfather).  I was really intrigued by the figures representing my friend and her son being placed to the right of the dog, not to mention to the right of her younger half-sister and parents.  

But maybe the order on their car isn't about their family hierarchy, but rather is about my friend's semi-independent status as a mother who is in the process of starting her own family, even though she lives with her parents still.  Maybe the ordering doesn't mean anything.  Maybe they put on the "mother", "father", "teen", and "dog" when my friend was living elsewhere and added her and her baby after they moved back in.  But somehow it felt (to me as a viewer) that her parents value her less than the dog.

There is nothing normal about a human made of sticks.

I really want to get some stickers of either on man and twelve women or vis-versa

Whoever posts such articles as this and those that support their beliefs are very pessimistic. Maybe they have daddy issues or authority issues. It is applied in descending order to make the characters more visible and easy to recognize each. It takes a real conflicted individual to take something so cute and united and attempt to label and create a problem where there is none. It is not about hierarchy, its about view. This article shows how some people see the world, but most importantly, how others give in to pessimism. Find something productive to do with your time and quit trying to create division among families and community, because these decals are a symbol of love and especially UNITY!!!