I‘m taking a couple of days off from the blog (it’s been a while). As a sort of parting gift, some insufferably patronizing vintage sexist ads. Feel free to discuss, or to just use this as an open thread.
I’ve got a couple of quickie posts scheduled for the next couple of days and will check in from time to time. If some big news story breaks, or there’s a troll run wild, or something else that requires my immediate attention, please email me!
Is that pudding pecan pie a pecan pie made with jello instead of whatever sugar filling usually goes between the pecans? Seems to me that that never quite caught on.
Have you seen https://twitter.com/70s_party on Twitter? It’s full of absolutely horrific stuff like that – apparently serving absolutely bloody everything in jelly was the classy alternative to producing something edible just 40 years ago.
Right, because women are such terrible drivers. That’s why insurance companies have done countless risk assessments that have shown time and again that it’s a far greater risk to insure a man, and they charge men extra accordingly.
Of course, if you tell that to an MRA they’ll pull some bullshit out of their ass about some statistic they read once that doesn’t actually show that women are worse drivers.
That Mini one is priceless. Her face is like “Oh noes, I can’t shift gears or I’ll wreck my manicure!”
@kupo
But women have vaginas*, and vaginas are bad, and “Bad vaginas” almost rhymes with “Bad drivers” if you fudge it a little! Therefore, QE-fuckin’-D. </no, seriously, I’ve been told this before>
*Not always true, but, y’know, MRAs.
@SFHC
I tried to follow that logic, but my vagina prevented me from comprehending it because vagina.
Kupo:
I’ve been told several times that women are in fewer accidents, but that they cause most accidents, somehow.
Uh-oh, I’m starting driving lessons next week. Good thing I found out that vaginas are a source of dangerous driving now and not later. Better inform my female instructor.
Will the possession of vagina be a hindrance when taking the theory test as well? What can I do to control the problem? Help!
Ah, the 70’s, when men were men and women were scatterbrained children (apparently).
My mom is a better driver than my dad, even though she was in her 60s when she got her licence. How about that?
PS: I’m going to try and get mine this year, too. I’ve been putting that off long enough. Anyone know any good resources for older newcomer drivers in need of a confidence boost?
It’s funny, I always think of the ’70s as the narrow window when gender differences started reducing, and girls at least were let off the chain–we’d never see a toy ad like this now:
http://imgur.com/xwAsW56
Computer says this ad is actually from 1981, the start of the Reagan/Thatcher era.
@latsot
How would that work? If they caused it, then they are in it! Unless they like, set up traps on the road or something to cause other drivers to wreck their cars. Which is very likely, cause evil wimmenz and all that.
Or maybe I just can’t comprehend the wonderful man logic because of my uterus’ brain-liquifying radiation that makes me not able to logic. Or drive, obvi.
We either go out in public looking so hot that they get distracted and have to catcall instead of focusing on their driving or we go out in public looking so ugly that they get distracted and have to rage about how feminists are making their boner sad instead of focusing on their driving. That’s how feeemales cause accidents without even driving.
I know this is anecdata, but in my 30+ years of driving, I’ve seen a lot of idiotic, dangerous high speed maneuvers and a ton of road rage (including one charmer who got out of his car at a red light, charged me, and started pounding on my hood, for the unpardonable sin of driving the speed limit and forcing him to pass me illegally on a double yellow line). About 80% of the time, the person leaning on his horn and flipping me off is a guy. Not all road ragers and selfish, aggressive drivers are guys, obviously, but a significant portion of them are.
I don’t think it’s possible to subscribe to a competitive, domineering, power-worshipping form of masculinity and *not* be a bad driver. Safe driving is all about courtesy, taking turns, and awareness of others.
As far as inattentive driving goes, I know RedPillers love to whinge about women and their call phones, but CNBC reported on a study showing men are actually more likely than women to pick up the phone if they get a call while driving. Texting while driving correlates more strongly with age than gender (another reason insurance rates are higher for younger drivers).
The schtick in the ’70s car ads seems to be “little lady can’t operate complicated machinery” but honestly, knowing how to use the turn signal is a lot more important than knowing what a rear differential is. Nowadays, everyone’s befuddled by their complicated cars. Thanks to computers and sophisticated electronics, the days of do-it-yourself car repairs are over. When I bought my current car, the salesman told me there was seven miles of wiring inside.
Women are bad at driving manual transmissions DUH because the clutch is controlled by the genitals. A man has a long, prehensile genital organ that can operate the clutch with ease. A woman has to somehow maneuver her body so as to operate the clutch with her vagina, which isn’t really suited for it.
It’s simple biology, folks! Only an irrational feeeeeeeeemale or a white knight sucking up to feminists to get into their pants would deny this very obvious and straightforward biological fact that everyone can see clearly with their eyes.
@SJA:
Beats me, but I think it has something to do with women supposedly driving so erratically that everyone else has to crash into each other/people/buildings to avoid crashing into them.
It seems to make perfect sense to the people who say it.
David
I cannot even with lime Jell-O to this day because of a repellent recipe my mom loved to serve from the 1968 “Joys of Jell-O” cookbook. It involved the Jell-O, shredded carrots, sliced celery and *urk* BEEF BULLION! The adults seemed to love it and 9-year-old me became convinced that adult humans were actually cleverly disguised space aliens.
But, gelled food seems to have gone in and out of favor since its inception. Paging through a magazine from the 1930’s once, I saw numerous recipes for meats and seafood in aspic. Also, beef tongue was apparently the height of popular and fashionable luncheon meat!
Beef tongue is actually really good eatin’, although I’ve never had it jellied. My mom used to boil it for broth, then serve the tongue itself (skinned!) in slices, with rice and tangy caper sauce. I love it.
Note: “Lie down, close your eyes and…” is in fact very bad driving advice.
Beef tongue is an amazing and delicious cut of meat! It’s probably the best part of the cow!
Beef tongue is possibly the perfect sandwich meat.
@ Buttercup Q Skullpants. 7 miles? who’s designing it, refugees from Lucas?**
** the wiring harness from a 70’s Triumph Bonneville (Lucas, the Prince of Darkness) was, I swear, as long as the wiring harness for a Nova SS.
I just really dated myself, didn’t I?
Gross vintage food is gross. Especially the “jellied everything” craze 🙁
@latsot
Ah, that makes a little more sense if you try and see it from a sexist’s perspective. It’s still ridiculous, but then again isn’t everything sexists say ridiculous?
The only time I’ve actually seen that happen was one time when a person (who happened to be male BTW) was texting on his phone, and a driver had to swerve to miss him creeping along while trying to text in the middle of the road. And this was on the interstate. Luckily no one got hurt, but that shows that people of all genders can drive recklessly.
I take care of my elderly parents. Dad is 101 and consistently horrible. We were on the way to the doctor’s office a couple of months ago and had one of those scary incidents where an accident almost happened, but everyone was able and aware and the accident was avoided, but there’s lots of shaky adrenaline floating around afterwards.
So I’m pushing his wheelchair through the hospital and he shouts to every person we pass to be careful: “I’VE GOT A WOMAN DRIVER HERE. WATCH OUT! EVERYBODY GET OUT OF THE WAY” All the way down the hallways, by and at the elevator, to everyone in the office.
My face was covered with tears by the time we got to the office and the staff was all :0? are your ok?
So this is now a thing I have to put up with every time we have to take him somewhere and mom gets mad at ME for making everything so difficult when I say I can’t stand it 🙁
Funny how his dementia makes him forget what day it is, but I am now the “WATCH OUT! WOMAN DRIVER!” forever and after for avoiding an accident that was never my fault to begin with.
And an interesting take on the Jello era:
http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/08/history-of-jell-o-salad.html