You Drive Like a Girl!
A phrase that diminishes and divides genders.
Men and women as we know are not equal and we might never will be. We are human with different physical characteristics, but we both have feelings, knowledge, ideas, goals, dreams, and many other similarities. We depend on each other at times, and yet we tend to dehumanize each other.
Why use a gender to label a specific action that is not socially accepted?
I have not only heard the common phrase of “You drive like a girl,” from men, but from women as well. What does this even mean? Does it mean that girls drive a certain way that boys don’t? Unfortunately, this phrase is used when “a driver” makes a mistake or a traffic violation while driving. Labeling this act with a gender is sexist, it is degrading to the female gender. Is this giving more power to male gender? This is saying that women are not capable to drive well and men are good drivers. Women nor men are perfect, but saying that women are dumb to drive is causing a division amongst men and women. Last time I checked, car insurance companies charge more for male drivers than women drivers due to the higher percentage of traffic violations and accidents. Just because men are more accident prone, it doesn’t mean that we get to say “You drive like a man.” That would probably cause more conflict between the sexes. These comments should not be used to devalue a gender’s ability or intelligence in any way. It has been impossible to erase this phrase that has become a costume to some drivers and this unfortunately is heard by children that will continue to say the phrase when they drive. Whoever created this phrase, met its goal to label women and to put men above women. Maybe that was the reason to label wrong action by the “girl” gender.
Gayle Rubin, an activist and theorist of sex and gender said, “The division of the sexes has the effect of repressing some of the personality characteristics of virtually everyone, men and women. The same social system which oppresses women in its relations of exchange, oppresses everyone in its insistence upon a rigid division of personality.” “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the ‘Political Economy’ of Sex”
We shouldn’t alienate our own sex or the opposite sex. This creates a division that as we already see in society causes or creates a hierarchy in where this comment about driving like a girl puts women in a lower level.
When I was younger, my dad would hesitate to teach me how to drive. He preferred spending time teaching my brother, that is one year younger than me, how to drive. When I asked him when was he going to teach me how to drive, he responded, “Oh, no you are not ready. You will crash my car.” I questioned my ability, and wondered if he was right, but the more I thought about it, it fired me up. I was young and I felt discriminated because I was a girl. Then I set the goal to get my license before my brother did. While reading Rubin’s writing I realized that my father had created a division between my brother and me by treating me different and not believing in what I was capable of. I learned how to drive, got my license, and surprised my parents after I passed the test on my first trial. My brother still couldn’t pass his test at the time. I realize that at the time I wanted to prove my father that I was equal to his son. Equal, in regards to our abilities and needs of growth as human, and as a person that I am.
Rubin stated, “From the standpoint of nature, men and women are closer to each other than either is to anything else.”
Gender differences will always exist even if we are more similar than what we think. We are the human species that relies on each other’s strengths because it’s the only way we don’t become extinct. Making negative comments about a gender will only create a battle field amongst the sexes.
