The mudflap girl is an iconic

silhouette A silhouette ( , ) is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the silhou ...

of a woman with an hourglass body shape, sitting, leaning back on her hands, with her hair being blown in the wind. The icon is typically found on

mudflap A mudflap or mud guard is used in combination with the vehicle fender to protect the vehicle, passengers, other vehicles, and pedestrians from mud and other flying debris thrown into the air by the rotating tire. A mudflap is typically made fro ...

s, clothing, and other items associated with trucking in the United States. The image is sometimes also known as trucker girl, trucker lady, or seated lady. This famous design was created in the 1970s by Bill Zinda of Wiz Enterprises in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

, to promote his line of truck and auto accessories. It is variously claimed to be modeled on

Leta Laroe LETA is the main Latvian news agency. Its headquarters are in Riga. It is owned by Estonian entrepreneur Margus Linnamäe through his company Postimees Group. History It was founded as ''Latopress'' in 1919, soon after Latvia became indepe ...

, a famous

exotic dancer A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at a bachelor party or other private event. M ...

at the time; or on Rachel Ann Allen, a friend's wife, and mother of Ed Allen, the trademark's owner. The Mudflap Girl received a

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

registration from the

United States Patent and Trademark Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alexa ...

in January of 2010.

Parody

* As a parody, Wyoming Libraries use a mudflap girl holding a book, in an effort to attract readers.The Wyoming Libraries Campaign
* In issue #4 of the

Dreamwave Productions Dreamwave Productions was a Canadian art design studio and comic book publisher founded in 1996. Best known for its comic book adaptations of Transformers, the company shut down on January 4, 2005. History Brothers Pat Lee and Roger Lee founde ...

comic '' Transformers: The War Within'',

Optimus Prime Optimus Prime, , is a fictional Character (arts), character in the ''Transformers'' franchise. The Transformers characters were developed for an American market after Hasbro representatives visited the 1983 Tokyo Toy Show. The characters were ...

is portrayed as having a mudflap with the silhouette of Elita One. * The Mudflap girl (as a chicken) was used in the

Wacky Package ''Wacky Packages'' are a series of humorous trading cards featuring parodies of consumer products. The cards were produced by Topps beginning in 1967, first in die-cut, then in peel-and-stick sticker format. There were 16 series produced betwee ...

"Perdude Chicken", parodying

Perdue Farms Perdue Farms is the parent company of Perdue Foods and Perdue AgriBusiness, based in Salisbury, Maryland. Perdue Foods is a major chicken, turkey, and pork processing company in the United States. Perdue AgriBusiness ranks among the top United ...

. * The feminist blog

Feministing Feministing.com was a feminist blog founded in 2004 by sisters Jessica and Vanessa Valenti. It had 1.2 million unique monthly visitors at its peak. The blog helped to popularize the term ''slut-shaming'' according to its directors Lori Adelman ...

used as its logo an ironic version of the mudflap girl holding up her

middle finger The middle finger, long finger, second finger, third finger, toll finger or tall man is the third digit of the human hand, located between the index finger and the ring finger. It is typically the longest digit. In anatomy, it is also called ...

. * The "Feministas" protest group in '' Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder'' has a similar logo in pink that has the mudflap girl using a megaphone. * Silhouette stickers of a chubby male with a beer belly are also available.

References

Automotive accessories Symbols introduced in the 1970s Silhouettes {{Truck-stub