Dear, oh, dear… do I detect a slight note of misogyny in my fellow blogger’s post “Something Wicked This Way Comes” (a title that, incidentally, Ray Bradbury nicked from Shakespeare’s Macbeth)? The first example is a female P-plater, there’s references to a granny driver and there’s a photo of a woman who doesn’t look that old in this complaint about bad driving.
I have absolutely no complaints about the actual examples of bad driving. And it may be pure coincidence that the bad driver first mentioned happened to be female. However, there is a long tradition in motoring of misogyny and general sneering at woman drivers. Whether it’s the advertising tradition of putting bikini babes on the bonnets of cars for sale, car racing games that assume that the player is a bloke or comments like “driving like a grandmother” or calling a particularly sizzling sports car a “chick magnet”, it’s been going on for a long time and does make things a tad more difficult if you’re female and a driver. Even those “pink parks for women only” that have appeared in some parts of the world are patronizing and annoying.
You’ve also got the whole “women aren’t good with machinery and don’t know anything” attitude that can be taken by mechanics. This is best exemplified by what cropped up when I was trying to find an image for an earlier post of mine about women doing car repairs. The vast majority of images that Google popped up for me either showed a woman staring at an open bonnet looking helpless and hopeless, or else it showed some cheesecake babe bending over the bonnet (or lying on her back showing only a pair of trim bare legs) with sexily smeared grease on her face, skimpy shorts and a crop top. There are a few that do show women trying to look moderately competent but these are so obviously posed – you’re not going to make me believe that anybody is going to wear a long-sleeved white top to tinker about under the bonnet or wear a swishy skirt, dangly hair or high heels.
Here’s hoping that the only reason why she looks horrified is because she’s got to do roadside repairs while wearing white rather than because she doesn’t know what she’s doing.
Hooray – there are some decent and realistic images out there!
Yes, I always wear a short skirt and high heels to fix my car, and my skirt’s not going to ride up AT ALL.
Long loose hair, crop top, short shorts… and not a spanner in sight. The perfect outfit for repairing cars.
It gets worse than just popular images, too. Fortunately, it hasn’t happened to me, but you hear stories about mechanics charging women more than men for work done or giving poorer service. You also get the impression that women don’t exist if you go into your typical automotive supply shops – a patronizing “well, your husband would probably prefer this for his car” sort of attitude. Hello? There are a lot of single, divorced and widowed women out there who have their own cars, thank you very much. And even the ones who do have a bloke of their own may be doing their own car maintenance. In some households, it may be the woman’s responsibility (or just her turn) to take the car in for a service.
Anybody can have a rant – and you’re more than welcome to tell your stories about what it’s like to be a woman taking a car into the mechanics’ – but it’s something else to actually do something about the situation. So, if you’re a woman, here’s some actions you can take:
- Educate yourself. You are less likely to be ripped off by a mechanic if you show that you know something about what you’re talking about. For example, don’t say that “it’s making funny noises” or “this little red light keeps coming on”. Instead, try something specific – “the cam belt needs replacing,” “it’s due for a service,” and “the automatic transmission needs flushing”. Also learn a bit of the technical lingo so you know what your mechanic is talking about.
- Learn how to do your own repairs and maintenance. This doesn’t require Y chromosomes or testosterone.
- Drive properly (everybody should do this – male and female).
- Be prepared to walk away from any mechanic who is patronizing, rude or who tries to bamboozle you.
- Don’t just put up with things. Ask the mechanic to explain technical lingo and try to look interested. Complain to the management (or walk away) if there’s visible in-your-face pinups or porn where customers can see it (this includes the customer loo). If you’ve got the kids, ask for something that they can do while you’re waiting and/or a place to change nappies. Send back freebie calendars with “bonnet babes”.
Here’s to a world where the difference between good drivers and bad, or between car nuts and those who are ho-hum doesn’t depend on gender!
Happy driving,
Megan