Teaching my kids to be little sexists
Driving the kids to school this morning and have to cross a divided highway. I pull in the median and an idiot behind me pulls in too and occupies the space to my right, thereby ensuring that I cannot see oncoming traffic. Also, idiot is too stupid to realize that I can’t see through the idiot-mobile. So, idiot stays there and doesn’t pull out. I say aloud, but intending only myself to hear it, something like Lady, you’re going to have to go on or I can’t pull out. Junior says How did you know that was a lady? I said ’cause they can’t drive. Idiot figures it out, pulls on, and, sure enough, was a lady.
In hindsight, that was probably not something I should have said. Even in jest.
July 8th, 2009 at 9:50 am
Hence the importance of blocking the entire crossway if you can, so people can’t pull up and block your vision.
July 8th, 2009 at 9:53 am
Stereotypes exist for a reason.
sv
July 8th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Yeah, except that they’re wrong.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:04 am
“Yeah, except that they’re wrong.”
What about after the age of 25? Not that I think it would improve much, but I’m just curious to see data on 26-60 in males versus females. And can it be broken down any further? Are there any data to suggest that in any age group men are better drivers than women?
July 8th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Google up ‘gender differences driving’. Apparently, it’s a pretty well researched topic by insurance companies.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:07 am
I consider myself living proof of this business – up until I had two daughters in the car with me, I was willing to repeat my father’s attitude about “women drivers” – and it wasn’t pretty.
ONLY after I started thinking about what THEY were hearing did I make the effort to stop doing that – since it occurred to you, there’s hope..:-)
July 8th, 2009 at 10:41 am
Meh! You were totally justified. Have you seen the sweet young thing, between 6:00 and 7:00 p.m. on a Friday evening, on her way to her date or her girls’ night out, holding her cell phone with one hand, putting on her mascara with the other, and steering the car with her knees?
July 8th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Yeah, but I’ve also seen Cletus texting, smoking, and drinking a Mountain Dew while behind the wheel.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Men, Women, Trogs they all do some dumb things from time to time. Mostly wrapped around a large dose of self importance.
I won’t willing ride with either of my daughters or my wife, or even my mother. Does that make me a sexist or just some one trying to survive?
July 8th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Maybe she was a Republican, in which case you can be as sexist as you want and no one will take note of it…
July 8th, 2009 at 11:29 am
I’d offer to race, but your family bus wouldn’t stand a chance. 😉
(Although back in my younger and wilder days when I… er, when someone I know was street racing for money, the line “Come on, are you scared to race a girl?” may or may not have been used to hasten stalled negotiations on the wager…)
July 8th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Sure. If i can go double or nothing in a vehicle tug of war 😉
July 8th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
It is my understanding that the lower typical rates for women are due to their driving less than men by a large margin, and that the difference has been getting smaller as more women drive more often, therefore getting into more accidents. I’ll take another gander, but I’m pretty sure women still get into more accidents per hour driven then men, but I would expect that to change (or, rather to be changing presently) also as the number of hours logged approaches that of men (making women generally more practiced drivers).
But yeah, you’re a pig.
July 8th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
i won’t willingly chauffeur my spouse. we both drive quite adequately well, but one of us nags the other about driving skills, and i can’t stand nagging.
July 8th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
I’d offer to race, but your family bus wouldn’t stand a chance.
I will never take such an offer. My already white hair turns a shade whiter when my wife drives. You ladies place far too much trust in brakes that can bring you down from 65 to 0 in 5 seconds. 😉
July 8th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
I don’t think the insurance industry’s “Penis Tax” is a good barometer to measure the driving ability of males vs. the driving ability of females. It is there because men tend to be more aggressive drivers, to drive faster, and to take risks more casually. It is the lefty/PC mindset that views assertiveness as the equal of recklessness.
I was raised by women. I discovered that most women are lousy drivers by being DRIVEN by them. It also has more than a little to do with attitudes about automotive maintenance. “I thought the brakes were SUPPOSED to make that sound.” “I have to put air into my tires? How did it get out?” “Every three thousand miles? I don’t think you’re right about that. I’ve had this car for…umm, 3 years and I’ve never changed the oil. Well,it runs fine!!!” Etc. Etc. You can’t make this stuff up.
July 8th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
My take on it is somewhat similar to Matt‘s.
I say that the difference is that, in general, male drivers don’t hesitate to do something stupid.
This means that they will pull out in front of that oncoming semi. But because they don’t hesitate, they usually make it.
Females, on the other hand, do tend to hesitate. Usually enough that they either don’t pull out at all or are so late in doing so that they hit the side of the semi – a much less damaging accident.
Males gain when the situation is forced on them – they don’t hesitate to do the stupid thing that might get them out of the way.
July 8th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
I second Matt and Steve. Consider this hypothetical: What if I told you that acrobatic pilots tend to crash more than pilots who fly people for scenic tours? Would that mean that scenic-tour pilots are better pilots than acrobatic pilots? It might, or it might just mean that acrobatic pilots take more risks.
Consider the posibility that men are better drivers, but women are more cautious, and therefore crash less and get fewer traffic citations.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Heh.
The Wife and I have a joke between us – more than a few drivers around our suburb whipped a water buffalo as their previous transportation.
“My other car is an ox”.
Hip-pocket ‘driving schools’ are a thriving industry around here. On first glance, you’d think that the vehicle is right-hand drive, because the driver isn’t visible from behind the head restraint.
Regards,
Rabbit.
July 8th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
If you can’t parallel park, you suck at driving.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Okay, here are some problems with the ‘stats’ saying men are worse drivers.
1. Traffic Violations are an artificial number created by laws. Traffic laws have been shown time and time again to be counter to safe driving (normally for the making of a fast buck by what ever government set them in place).
2. Men dieing more often in traffic accidents is normally not a measure of skill, and prolly is even more useless because men are more likely to ride then drive.
3. When it admits that female traffic accidents are up because they have been driving more, they finally seem to be admitting something that i have been saying since I was 14, men drive more. Therefore they are going to have more accidents. When looking at the direct numbers the number of fatalities for men to fatalities for women is slightly more then twice, when the amount of driving is slightly more then half for women …
4. I will never argue that men are more aggressive drivers, just that they tend to take more responsibility for that, and pay attention more (more about that later). And I also accept that young men are alot more at risk then women of any age group.
5. Finally, a few observations (antidotal evidence). The next time you are in a crowded environment, watch how men and women walk. Women walk at whatever pace they desire and barely show any attention to who they might be inconveniencing with their path while men are varying their pace and weaving all around those who they run across, rather then demanding that the rest of the world move for them. Second observation, I’ve been riding my Harley for a few years (sole sorce of transportation) and women in big vehicles are THE worst drivers. They have absolutely NO concern about where others are in relation to them (I assume because they figure they have enough safety built into their vehicles to survive their inattention to detail.)
Anyway, my half penny.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:02 am
I’m not sure if I can follow the logic here:
“Sure, I’m more likely to die in a traffic accident because I take stupid & unnecessary risks, but that makes me a better driver, not a worse one.”
Nope, doesn’t work for me. YMMV.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:36 am
There’s no future in dividing the human race into two groups and then writing comedy routines about it. Seinfeld’s over, and the Jackson estate has not yet relinquished Amos and Andy.
I have known literally several women who were very good drivers indeed, and I’m in there rooting for the rest of them. Remember, we now have two full generations whose entire driving experience has been that of being lulled to stupor on controlled-access, one-way cattle paths, and had as their closest connection to demanding driving a computer game or watching “The Dale Earnhardt School of High-Performance Driving.” The average young US driver has nothing in particular to boast of, male or female. It just isn’t done anymore, and they have no frame of reference.
When remarking on feats of derring-don’t on the highway, I’m always careful to use the English indefinite pronoun, “He,” or its unique American correlate “That guy.” This leaves it to any female in the car to note the gender of the offending driver if I’m wrong, which is fairly often. I’ve found this to be more educative for the feminine observer, unlikely to be sensed as attitudinal, and an all-around more satisfying experience for the commenter.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:50 am
“I’m not sure if I can follow the logic here:
“Sure, I’m more likely to die in a traffic accident because I take stupid & unnecessary risks, but that makes me a better driver, not a worse one.”
Nope, doesn’t work for me. YMMV.”
Umm,, I am not sure what logic you used to infer that I am saying me are better drives because they take more risks. I was pointing out the difference in the sort of risks. Men take more risks with thier own lives. Women put others at risk.
Also, again, taking extra risks doesn’t imply lower skill. If you do something twice as risky with 20% more skill, you are both engaging in more risky behavior AND more skilled.
What YMMV mean?
July 9th, 2009 at 3:59 am
I must say, that as far as Tomare went with his first comment, I must, at least, agree with his assessment of women drivers and their attention to others when driving. I used to ride motorcycles and have many times avoided death only by sudden and violent manuevering by people in cars. In every case, the driver was a woman. And one tried on purpose to kill me. Don’t know why, never saw her before in my life and she was one of the few women I hadn’t married.
However, I must admit that my wife is one of the best drivers I have ever seen, but she is a rarity, or else I wouldn’t have noticed how good she is.
July 9th, 2009 at 7:36 am
I have rarely seen so many dazzling flights of illogic in one thread. I would like to come visit some of y’all’s home planets sometime, srsly.
July 9th, 2009 at 8:53 am
The only thing these insurance studies confirm is that in this age of political correctness, it’s still OK to discriminate as long as it’s against the right group.
How far would I get if I started my own insurance company, performed a study to determine which racial groups are the most likely to have accidents, and priced my products based on the applicant’s skin colour?
July 10th, 2009 at 1:29 am
Sorry Tam, but I have been the target of way too many women drivers, back when I rode bikes. It was almost like they were thinking “Here’s someone smaller than I, and I can run over him and not get hurt.”
Talk to any motorcycle rider and I bet the overwhelming majority will tell you the same thing.
July 10th, 2009 at 2:21 am
“Lady, you’re going to have to go on or I can’t pull out.”
That’s what he said!
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I came to add some humor and here you all are having a serious discussion.