Silly girl, driving's for boys! Via enricod @ Flickr.
#10 – They let their dogs in the car
“Slutty” C-list celebrities are the type to let their dogs in the car, but other women do it too.
One yippy little thing riding on the lap of another yippy little thing equals one big reason women can’t drive.
Because, see, female dog-owners own lap-dogs, unlike men, who strap their rotties to the hood of the car when they need to transport them somewhere.
#9 – They let their friends in the car
Where there is one woman, there is yipping and swerving. Where there are multiple women, there is bound to be a catastrophic accident.
#8 – They obstruct their vision with crap
Tanner claims women all have beads and leis hanging from their rearview mirrors. We’re just trying to compensate because we’re jealous of your truck nuts.
#7 – They sing while driving
A few months ago I was driving in Georgetown next to this guy in an SUV, blasting “Butterfly” by Crazy Town. It was surreal. That is all.
#6 – They use the mirrors to look at themselves
I am guilty of this. I often glance up at my rearview to congratulate myself for never having been in an accident. I once saw a man shaving whilst driving. I am not kidding.
#5 – They make calls and send texts while driving
Men don’t do this? It’s dangerous, but women are no more prone to crackberry addictions than men.
#4 – They have no interest in cars
That’s… nonsensical. Y’all need to read the whole thing.
Women have no interest in cars beyond them serving as appliances of transport. As long as it starts, all is well. So when dash lights flash, components make ugly sounds or smoke appears, it may or may not resonate with the female driver that these are less than ideal operating characteristics.
We are too busy checking our lipstick to notice something like smoke!
#3 – They have no interest in driving
If by “interest” you mean we aren’t inclined to drag race our buddies down the freeway for shits ‘n giggles, you are right.
#2 – They have no spatial awareness
And the number one reason women are bad drivers IS:
#1 – They have no driving gene
Dude is just making shit up to inflate is own fragile male ego. “Women simply do not have the driving gene.” It’s as simple as that, mmm’kay?
Women are raised with the expectation that we are, or will be, bad drivers, due to our sex. Driving is a learned skill, not an inborn ability. I can understand why a woman might be insecure in her skills if the world around her tells her she can’t be a good driver or a competent car owner no matter how hard she tries. Parents, car salespeople, mechanics, piggish Askmen.com commentators… it all adds up.
By the way, it’s not surprising that women aren’t more interested in cars – we are not given toy cars to play with as children, nor are we really welcome in the garage. Auto culture is so male-dominated; most women just grow up thinking they can’t be gear-heads. Luckily our interest (or lack thereof) in car engines has no effect on our ability to drive cars.
Rick Tanner may have the driving gene, but he’s clearly got the ASSHAT gene.
If men were better drivers than women, and had fewer accidents, auto insurance rates would be lower for men. Instead they are MUCH higher. QED: Men are worse drivers than women.
I responded to this over at Feministing. As the person in our househould who does 75% of all the driving, makes the decisions about the cars and handles all of their maintenance, I would like to invite Mr. Tanner to kiss my ass.
Oh, and when I get my hobby car, he is not invited for a ride.
Also, the WORST drivers I know are guys. There are three of them that I will not ride with if there is any other possible way of getting somewhere, or I’ll offer to drive, because they are fucking terrifying. Not the least reason being with one of them that HE TEXTS WHILE HE’S DRIVING.
Why did Yahoo even publish this? Are they trying to compete with Maxim now?
First of all, this Tanner guy is a douchebag. He probably can’t even drive stick.
Secondly, I somewhat disagree with your statement that “driving is a learned skill, not an inborn ability.” I think it’s a bit of both, really. Some people just never feel comfortable driving, despite adequate instruction and years of practice. The sheer volume of stimuli and things that require the driver’s attention can be overwhelming to some people. (I have several good friends like this.) What do you think?
My asshole ex-colleague once told another one of our co-workers that “she drives like a man, you know, she checks her mirrors and stuff.” Because we women are way too dumb to check our mirrors!
As for the yappy dog thing, it is worth noting that my family has a very small pup, and the one who is most puppy-whipped is my stepdad — the only man in the family.
@Kirvin: I think Tanner has no stick, if you know what I mean. His transmission is ALL automatic.
I agree about driving being a skill that some people are inherently better at than others. I know that my visual/spatial skills are not the greatest, and it definitely shows when I drive because parallel parking is tough for me, and I always have to check twice before I merge into traffic because I’m not great at judging distances between cars. I’ve gotten better over time, but I’ll never be as good at it as some people. Has nothing to do with my being female, though!
But don’t you know, these kind of people only like statistics when they work in their favor! Women having better driving records and causing fewer fatalities are facts to be completely ignored because these men are just so convinced they’re better drivers.
And on the topic of feeling unwelcome in the world of cars, am I the only one who gets turned off by car shows because there are half-naked women draped all over the vehicles? Surprisingly, this does not appeal to me.
As far as I can see the main factors affecting whether someone drives well or not have NOTHING to do with gender. They are, instead:
1. advanced age (sorry, olds, i love you and think you have a right to drive until the last possible moment but you’re fucking slow and your peripheral vision is not what it used to be).
2. TALKING ON YOUR FUCKING CELLPHONE #1 reason someone is driving like an asshole
3. Actually being an asshole who thinks that wherever he/she has to be is more important than anyone else’s destination and/or parking totally illegally in the middle of the goddamn street during rush hour (I have only experienced this in DC).
I love cars, I played with Matchbox cars (in fact I have a collection), I can drive a stick, I’ve been to a car convention, I’ve been to the “Pioneer Auto Museum” in SD twice (that place rocks), and I’ve never gotten a ticket. This guy can kiss my ass.
Kivrin, I was just thinking about that, too, since my husband is an excellent driver (he’s been doing it since he was 11 in his grandparents’ orchard) yet I’m the one who knows how to drive a stick.
Also, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only girl who played with my brothers’ toy cars. Remember those ones with the little spike on the bottom that made them run independently on the track? I broke a lot of those running them on carpet. And I always asked for MicroMachines but no one would ever buy them for me.
The WORST driver I know is the guy who is constantly talking about how bad other drivers are (he has a number of other issues, but that’s another sexist story for another day), but especially women drivers. Meanwhile, this person has almost gotten me (and a number of our other friends) KILLED. I’ve never done that. I’ve never had an accident (although, I hit a sign once), and oh yeah, guess how much it cost to put me on the insurance for my boyfriends car. Guess. 67 cents. That’s it. That’s $1.14 A YEAR. (I don’t have my own car yet, but once I earn my MK consultant car, I’ll let you know how the insurance rates are compared to Peter’s.)
Although, I am guilty of feeding my crack(berry) addiction while driving. Mostly only at stop lights, though.
Driving is a learned skill insofar as one is not born knowing how to drive. Practice makes perfect.
There is a certain skillset (which may or may not be inborn) required in order to be a good driver: a good sense of timing, spacial awareness, good coordination, good reflexes, consideration for others on the road, etc. None of those things is a strictly male or female trait.
This just made me fume… my significant other is guilty of most of these, to the point that I have refused to let him drive. He SURFS THE WEB while driving, and it scares me shitless. I have had to flat out tell him that he had to give me his keys OR his cellphone before we left the house. And I get him complaining that I’m being crazy, that I’m talking nonsense, and I’m not allowing him to drive his own car! (umm, dude, you can drive if you surrender your damn phone.)
So I get to be the nagging Harpy, but I also make sure that I have done everything I can to protect myself and our toddler on the road.
The most ridiculous is that he always falls back on the “justification” that he’s been driving longer (about two years) and is therefore a better driver than I am and can “handle” texting and surfing the web while driving.
Oh, oh, this is the perfect time to mention my most hated male behavior ever. It’s when I am backing out of a perfectly ordinary parking space, I stop, and some man starts waving his hands around in the air telling me “it’s okay, little honey, keep on backin’ out, darlin’ ” because obviously, blonde woman = bad driver. It’s not like I stopped because there is a CAR COMING, you dumbass, yeah, the one that just passed you, that you wanted me to back into, you penis-owning person with the IQ of an empty rice bag, sheesh.
I almost spewed coffee all over my keyboard when I read the sentence about being jealous re: Truck nuts.
One time I saw blue truck nuts, WHAT is with the imagery there?! HOW are blue balls worthy of display?!
@ Cat: YES!!!! I’ve always hated car shows or advertisements for them because there’s always the obligatory bikini/miniskirt clad women at them. GRRRR
#1 is one of the reasons I love my BIL. He is a complete car guy (he put himself through college working as a mechanic) and he has shared his love of cars with *gasp* his daughters. My younger niece isn’t that interested (which may have more to do with her vision impairment than anything else), but my older niece is about to turn 16 and she already knows as much if not more about cars than my hubby and his friends who are into cars.
“Take my wife–please!” I’m insulted on an aesthetic level. Really? This is his funny top 10 list? In 2009? Really?
My mom has always been the driver in my family. My dad doesn’t drive. He doesn’t even have a license. So when I was little, seeing my friends’ dads drive was like seeing a dog walk on two feet.
@WaxGhost: You’re not. I grew up with a little brother who’s two years younger than me. We played together with toy cars (we had an entire family of them – they lived in a garage), Barbie dolls, Playmobile, Lego…
FWIW, my driver’s ed instructer told me that girls are much faster learners when it comes to driving standard. (stick shift). He said he thought it was because girls are better listeners and have a much more thoughtful, finessed approach. Rather than just stomping, etc.
same thing applies to motorbikes too.. everyone thinks girls simply cant handle ‘heavy vehicles’ like motorbikes-they’re just too ‘weak’ to manoeuvre it.. i recently met with an accident and the first reaction i got from people was ‘next time don’t let girls drive scooters’ or’ why did you have to drive a scooter when there were guys around?’. Never mind the fact that had been dozens of guys from my college in accidents the previous weeks mostly because they were racing each other on main roads trying to compete about whose bike was better..
but oh no…they were just ‘accidents’ that happen sometimes..guys are not at fault..girl meets with an accident? girls are bad drivers. period.