Where Every Scroll is a New Adventure
Okay fine. I’ll give in. Probably won’t be responded do to me being so new on the Tumblr.
In the cars movies, cars are the primary form of life on their earth-like world. We've seen that plenty of earth history and stories are reflected there in recognizable ways.
While it never came up in the cars movies, we know what their skinwalkers look like. We have movies and toys and tv shows about them.
Imagine being a car, driving down an empty road at night, when you see a meteor strike not too far off the road. Deciding to investigate, you find a large metal object embedded in the smoldering ground. Carefully approaching, a light suddenly shines from the object and passes over you, before suddenly the metal object falls over and turns into a perfect copy of you, save for a strange purple emblem as a hood ornament. As you back away in fear, it changes again... Into an enormous creature with tree-like growths instead of wheels, standing on two trunks instead of horizontal like most creatures you've ever heard of. This terrifying vertical monstrosity then aims a glowing appendage towards you, before a flash of light and sound sends you into unending darkness.
Back on the road, a car returns from the crater and drives away, leaving a smoldering wreck behind.
In other words, cybertronians, transformers? They're the skinwalkers of the cars world.
Cars Headlights
Cars is a 2006 animated Disney Pixar movie that follows the race car Lightning McQueen through his journey of self-discovery and getting over his ego. The movie has two sequels (creatively named Cars 2 and Cars 3), as well as a short mini-series and two non-Pixar Disney movies, Planes (2013) and Planes: Fire & Rescue(2014), that focus on the planes in this universe. In this essay(?), I will be focusing primarily on the first movie, and there will be mentions of the sequels.
As a child born in the 2000s, I have seen Cars and Cars 2 more times than I can count, and these movies have consequently burned themselves into my mind. Despite the place they hold in my memory, they do not share a similar place in my heart. In my effort to gain a sort of love for these movies, I am going to add feminism and gender politics. I am not really answering questions but just proposing them.
PART 1: Miatas and their tatas
At the beginning of the first Cars movie, a pair of Lightning McQueen superfan Miatas flash their headlights at Lightning. When they do this, the implication is that they are flashing their tits at mcqueen, a joke aimed at the adults watching the movie with their children. While the moment is brief and no more than a throwaway gag, it provokes many questions for me in regard to gender and sexuality in the Cars universe. While it is scandalous for these cars to show their headlights, it is normal and expected for the vast majority of cars to always have their headlights out. What separates these groups is whether they choose immodesty or have no choice but immodesty. Cars with no covering for their headlights lack a natural choice for modesty and are allowed to be immodest in a way the other group, through no fault of their own, cannot. By the nature of their birth, blinky light cars are forced to conform to a set of morals and modesty that those around them do not. This makes me think of the difference in treatment of men’s tits versus women’s tits. Men can walk around shirtless all they want with no repercussions. It is normal for men to go full frontal at the beach or pool in a way that would be shocking and illegal for women. If anything, efforts to cover men’s tits will be seen as more immodest and more taboo than it is not to cover them. This matches the cars that do not have blinky headlights in the world of cars. In this logic, cars without winky headlights are men, and those with them are women. Women are expected and forced to coverup their boobs because of their average relative size compared to men and social conditioning that sexualizes women’s tits. Like the cars with headlights that can be hidden, the fat deposits granted to cis women at birth (more accurately puberty) cause them to be othered by the other half of society. Women have more there than men most of the time and are motivated to cover up. If you have DDD boobs, you’re gonna to want to support them and consequently cover them. This natural feature of a person leads to them being naturally drawn to a place of modesty. On the winky eye cars, their natural state draws them towards modesty as, at rest, their headlights are closed. While they might not always want their headlights out, like how women don’t always want their tits out, headlights are an important bodily function for these cars. Do these cars face oppression for their natural traits like women do in our society? If these cars are driving at night, is there the risk that those around them will be distracted by the usage of a stigmatized and sexualized part the same way we stigmatize breastfeeding mothers?
PART 2: big tits or little, that is the question
The cars all generally have small headlights, and the more attractive a car is, the smaller their headlights tend to be. The character Flo (see Flo’s Diner) is a character with noticeably small/missing headlights. Flo’s headlights are tiny, disguised as dimples. Does minimizing a body part that can be associated with femininity make a car more attractive, like how society rejects femininity in favor of masculinity?
Side note: they could be nipple piercings
Another such car is the background character Kori Turbowitz's, a 2005 Luxomobile Animatic. Kori noticeably has headlight indents but no headlights. While it is not outright stated that she is attractive, I am going to assume that the female sports reporter is attractive, as is often seen in real life. She presents as female and makes me wonder if her lack of headlights is an attempt to conform to the high-speed racing culture she has dedicated her life to.
Now, the character Sally throws a big old wrench in my argument with her bigger and noticeable headlights. I think that this issue is explained by analyzing Sally as a character. Itty bitty titty headlight girlies are trying to conform to the popular beauty standards with their small head lights. Sally has put that all behind her, though, moving to a small town. I believe she is a canonically attractive car. I had trouble finding places that stated what cars were canonically attractive. I am leaning towards she is due to the tramp stamp and Lightning’s reaction to seeing her. Sally is attractive, but in a different way from the other girl cars. She’s not like the other girls, and she’s like the girl next door. Her objectively huge headlights(tits) are a reflection of how she ignores/rejects the popular mini headlight look. Shes a real woman(car) with real tits(headlights). In a move that can be seen as either sexist or feminist, I’m leaning towards sexist, Sally is rewarded for her rejection of popular beauty standards with Lightning McQueen. From a feminist perspective, she is rejecting the restricting standards of society. From a sexist perspective, Sally is rewarded for rejecting femininity and being “not like other girls”.
PART 3: Transformers?
While we do not meet any canonically trans or non-binary cars over the course of the series, it can be assumed that these cars do exist based on the gender parallels already shown between our world and their world. If we had male and female presenting cars, it is reasonable to assume there are also trans and non-binary cars.
Cosmetic care in the movies includes treatments such as paint, stickers, tires, and headlight covers. Is this as far as cosmetic care can go, or is it possible to sharpen or round out angles for gender affirming care? In the real world, you can change the shell of a car, although with much fuss, and it’s probably not a good idea for most people. For trans cars, is it possible for them to change their entire shell? If they can, gender confirming surgery would have amazing outcomes in their world.
Side note: if they can change shells, is identity theft a bigger issue?
CONCLUSION:
Overall, the cars live in a society far too similar to ours out with their beauty standards and sexism, and I think we should blow them all up with gas and a laser.
Works Cited
My brain
If you actually read this whole thing I'm so sorry and thank you so much I wanna hear what other people have to say on this
I just wrote a 3-4 ish page essay on Pixar cars and their headlights/tits what do I do with this
I just wrote a 3-4 ish page essay on Pixar cars and their headlights/tits what do I do with this
in cars 2, mater tells the story of him accidentally taking the battery out of his friend luigi, the yellow car with the tire store, and then showing him the battery, causing luigi to stall. I chose to interpret this as a metaphor for the end of the two's love affair when mater forced luigi to see the truth of their situation. Luigi and mater were fast friends when they first met, drawn to one another's clear eccentricities. You wouldn't know this, however, based on their relationship in the movies, all thanks to that fateful night years before lightning had started racing and route 66 was still thriving. It was a summer night, warm and starry like any other night off the beautiful route 66. Mater and luigi were just friends to the general town and their conscious thought. In the subconscious, however, the two cars knew what they really were. Lovers, soulmates, individuals bound to each other in every universe, every time line. They knew it from the way their engines raced when they saw each other and the pits in their gas tanks they felt when some lowlife wom*n would flirt with one of them.
"I'm going to fucking kill her" mater thought when he saw the skimpy red porshe flirting with his love- I mean friend the other day. As the pair drive out to the cattle field together, mater smiles, thinking of the porche's screams as she was taken away by his alien friends.
"its ahh beautiful ahh night mator mama mia." luigi says, turning away to hide the blush that creeps across his face from saying "beautiful" and "mator" in the same sentence. He doesn't know why this happens or why his engine always starts to rev when he sees that not yet rusty towtruck.
"It sure is luigi. Hey, want some of fillmore's stuff? its crazy man" mator offers to luigi. they proceed to get high as fuck.
"this is ahh good ahh shitehh mator" luigi says italianly.
"yeah dude"mator coughs out, no longer wanting to talk because the typing Italian tutorial sucks. They gaze into each others windshields for the moment, frozen in place. The two slowly lean in, entranced by the moment, stopping as their lip bumper things bump in the middle. The kiss is brief but enrapturing and the two are on each other in an instant. The scene is passionate and confusing as the cars wrestle in the grass surrounded by tractors. Then, as suddenly as it started, it was over. Mator was willing to accept what they had, who they were, but luigi wasn't. His love was drawn out by mator in that moment like a hook catching a battery, and was shown to him in the beautiful eyes of his lover. He couldn't take it, couldn't handle watching his true self be exposed like this and he frozen so to speak, throwing mator off in to the tall grass. He raced back to town as fast as he could, unable to face his love. Mator was left there in the grass, stunned and stoned. The only thing that moved him from his place was the sound of a tractor, tipping with a loud "HONKKKKKK".
At the beginning of the first cars movie, a pair of lightning mcqueen superfan miatas flash their headlights at lightning. When they do this, the implication is that they are flashing their tits at mcqueen, a joke aimed at the adults watching the movie with their children. While the moment is brief and no more than a throwaway gag, it provokes many questions for me inregaurds to gender and sexuality in the cars universe. It is scandalous for these cars to show their headlights, to choose immodesty blatantly. For many of the other cars, however, their headlights are always out, and their blatant immodesty is normal and expected. These cars with no covering for their headlights are allowed to be immodest in a way a car through no fault of their own cannot. By the nature of their birth, blinky light cars are forced to conform to a set of morals and modesty that those around them do not. This makes me think of the difference in treatment of men’s tits versus women’s tits. Men can walk around shirtless all they want with no repercussions. It is normal and expected for men to go full frontal at the beach or pool in a way that would be shocking and illegal for women. If anything, efforts to cover men’s tits will be seen as more immodest and more taboo than it is not to cover them. This matches the cars that do not have blinky headlights in the world of cars. In this logic, cars without winky headlights are men, and those with them are women. Women are expected and forced to coverup their boobs because of their average relative size compared to men and social conditioning that sexualizes women’s tits over men’s. Like the cars with headlights that can be hidden, the fat deposits granted to cis women at birth cause them to be othered by the other halfish of society. Women have more there than men most of the time and are motivated to cover up. If you got DDD boobs you’re gonna to want to support them, and consequently cover them. This natural feature of a person leads to them being naturally drawn to a place of modesty. On the winky eye cars, their natural state draws them towards modesty as, at rest, their headlights are closed. While they might not always want their headlights out, likely women don’t always want their tits out, headlights are still an important bodily function for these cars. Do these cars face oppression for their natural traits like women do in our society? If these cars are driving at night, is there the risk that those around them will be distracted by the usage of a stigmatized and sexualized part the same way we stigmatize breastfeeding mothers?
I want a guy who will wear matching McQueen and Sally shirts with me
Do you guys remember when i joked about making a cars fan parody game visual novel?
Well it's not a joke anymore
So I created a discord group if you wanted to contribute to the making of this visual novel, and I'm requesting help because I have no idea what I'm doing 🥀
There's also a normal chat and area for talking about films if you want to join and just chill ⬇️
Lmao
Do you guys remember when i joked about making a cars fan parody game visual novel?
Well it's not a joke anymore
So I created a discord group if you wanted to contribute to the making of this visual novel, and I'm requesting help because I have no idea what I'm doing 🥀
There's also a normal chat and area for talking about films if you want to join and just chill ⬇️
Do you guys remember when i joked about making a cars fan parody game visual novel?
Well it's not a joke anymore
So I created a discord group if you wanted to contribute to the making of this visual novel, and I'm requesting help because I have no idea what I'm doing 🥀
There's also a normal chat and area for talking about films if you want to join and just chill ⬇️
What's you guys favourite cars fanfic?
Personally mine is the one where Finn snipes Harv infront of everyone but idk.
So on Discord we made some creative ship names for cars, if you need any ideas for cars ship names, here you go:
Have some Cars 1 Memes
Sorry I disappeared of the face of the earth again, I was busy fighting for my life at social events (no I will not elaborate)
My mother gifted me a bootleg mcqueen and I'm crying over how funny it is
Because 1 - The number is 98 instead of 95
2- It's Kust-eze instead of Rust-eze
3- Transformer
Congrats guys
We made it to 2,000 + cars fics on a03
It's such a shitty job😭
How do you use tape with tires???
It's a headache to even use with hands.
Best wingmen of all time🤠
*Artist is @smazzmatazz / @smazz-fanart-stuff* [click image to increase quality]
All this cost was my dignity
I thought the title meant all of them fit every label, then I realised they were in order💀
Bros, Couple, Acquaintances, Best Friends :3
Gonna go ask my normal art friend to draw me something cars related
Wish me luck
I'm gonna leave this here since I never got around to finishing it and gave up 💥
WELL NOW YOU CAN :D
Try your hand at writing an apocalyptic alternate universe fanfic on cars! And don't worry, It doesn't have to be Shakespeare level, just do your absolute best!
Put it in the following collection:
Yes, I know that's extremely out of pocket for a cars fic, but that's the fun of it!
AND if you don't feel like writing, you could draw something. Either, fanart of someone else's fic or just an original piece. Use the hashtag when you post it here on tumblr: #Cars Apocalypse
(The quality of the art gets better if you click it💀)
Or you do both writing and fanart, entirely up to you🫵
Everytime I give kudos on a03 to a non cars fic, I pray they don't click on my name and see what fandom I write for💀
Give me a second, I'm cooking
I'm crying
I love this frame from this deleted scene in cars 2. They’re so silly
@cars2-renaissance @gaystappen @champmorado
can be inferred as platonic but this is just fueling my towqueen fire
same energy as this one scene from ninjago
Does this have a happy ending
Because this is how I'm going to feel if it doesn't:
something for this cars au
Lightning’s mother, Marylin McQueen, was a rookie spy who was a year and a half into the job and looked up to Finn McMissile as her role model. She even got to work with him a couple of missions in her career and Finn was impressed with her skill. He saw her as his student, and he even got to meet Monty (Lightning) when he was still a baby, who unfortunately started crying when Finn tried going near him. It was then extremely tragic for Finn when he found out that she was murdered, with her infant son kidnapped by the lemons. He went to her private government funded funeral and swore that he’d someday find her lost child.
Eighteen years later, traveling to Radiator Springs with his clever assistant Holly and trusty tow truck pal Mater, the trio are tagged along by a curious, brave, compassionate, and somewhat naïve stock car they mistakenly captured from the lemon’s oil factories with striking blue eyes that look too familiar to the veteran spy. It must be a coincidence, right?
It’s only when Lightning has been taken back by the lemons and he and his colleagues are on a path straight to death, is when he realizes who he was. He’d found his mentee’s lost son, and he’s lost him again.
@y7kierre @champmorado @kaderp @orchestra-of-demonic-screeching @x0stormie0x
Favourite hobby is to watch youtubers react to Cars 1 and watch them ALWAYS go:
When Lightning can't think of anyone when Harv asks for his friend's names
Since Pixar can't go too far, (But still do to piss off Disney💀) I'm imagining it's just:
yall idea for cars 2
instead of the lemons tryna kill lightning, what if they tried (and possibly succeeded for a moment) to kidnap him?