Subliminal Sexism Or Tradition?
We had a bit of a shock today. Suze took her car in for MOT and the bloody thing failed. Badly. The cost of the repairs required now and within the next six months are about twice what the vehicle is worth, so we went out looking for a new car.
Finances are stretched already. However Suze and I need a car each to get into work due to the differences in our working hours, place of work and total lack of effective public transport. So the decision was made. I’ll not bore you with the details, but we think we’ve found a car and negotiated a price with the salesman. Nice guy, about mid twenties, no bullshit, no fancy deals just straight. The way we like business to be conducted. However he made one faux pas, both when he presented his final deal to us, and when we departed to think about the purchase before committing he addressed me, not Suze. I corrected him when he pushed the quote across the desk to me, but a few minutes later he still handed me his business card.
The guy wasn’t a sexist at all, but I think he’d been conditioned into thinking that a car purchase is controlled by the male half of a couple. True, that is probably the case in the vast majority of instances, but I quite plainly said “I’m not buying the car, Suze is”. It’s her car, her repayments, her choice. Like I said the guy wasn’t being deliberately sexist and was listening to Suze, discussing the purchase with her and addressing both of us when he responded.
We don’t make large purchases lightly, even when we really need something so we spent the rest of the day touring car showrooms to look at alternatives.
As we drove around I noticed something. Certain businesses are male and some are female. One local skip company I’ve seen is “Mr Skip” (inventive huh). Then there’s “Mr Exhaust” the national exhaust fitting chain. But when you come to sandwich shops they tend to be “Mrs J’s” or “Mrs B’s”, I looked up domestic cleaning companies on yell.com and found six different “Mrs Mop” domestic cleaners.
The gender may be part of the advertising/image maker’s shorthand for the business concerned but why do all cleaners and sandwich shop proprietors have to be female, and are there no female motor engineers?
Strangely there is a female building contractor based about four miles from where we live. But she hides her gender by naming the firm using her initials as the name of the firm. I.E. “JS Contractors”, not “Mrs Joan Smith The Builder”
It really did start me thinking, would I be less likely to buy a car from a dealership with an identifiably female name?
Insurers have picked up on the gender of a firm. For example “Sheila’s Wheels” is actually a trading name of HBOS, specifically aimed at female drivers (With, I might add the most appallingly stereotyped advertising campaign with kangaroos in spangly pink frocks).
For those of you who aren’t Simpson’s fans, Homer once started a business called “Mr Plough”, when he bought and hired out a snowplough. Hence the image 🙂
Late edit: It looks like the good people at YouTube have been forced to remove the “Mr Plough” episode from their service, a small matter of copyright I suspect, however this German version is still available “Mr SneepFlug“, Gutten Aben meine freundin.
Tags: sexism, marketing, gender, gender stereotypes
Good Saturday afternoon Alex and Suze – or Suze and Alex, as the case may be !
Gender differences/stereotypes are so ingrained in our society. It is true, and sad.
Maybe the next generation will be different.
Bit I suspect people will ALWAYS find a way to differentiate themselves from one-another. Be it by gender, by race, by religion, by politics, whatever…
I hope Suze enjoys her new car, by the way !
Hope that you have a lovely weekend,
Loving Annie
Very good post Alex. What you said is true. Thankefully, things are slowly changing (who thought a few decades ago there would be women in the army, the navy, the police etc) but it will take long before a full equality is seen as natural. I, personally, would be pleased to see a female plumber or mechanics taking care of my needs lol but I’m not sure everybody is ready for it.
Mr SD and I experienced the same when buying my new car. Even though Mr SD kept pointing out I was buying the car the only questin the salesman directed at me was the colour choice!
Stereotypes are hard to break – I know it is unusual to come across a female engineer in my field.
Enjoy the new car Suze,
Ms SD
Hi,
the stereotype thing’s everywhere! We try to change it bit by tiny bit, but if honest there is still some of this behavior inside everyone of us (I sometimes catch myself thinking – sometimes acting – the same way as your salesman).
At least I work as an enigineer, does that make up for the occasional slip? I know it’s anoying, cause I have been mistaken as the secretary more than once!
Alex: nice to read a German line in one of my favorite blogs!
Netkid
nowadays…i think people are so used to sexism in certain ways that they do not even know that they are in fact being sexist…ie…the salesman dealing with you rather than Suze….it is sad how certain things are ingrained into us and we do not really realize how wrong they are….lol
xoxo
There’s always an undercurrent. I’ve noticed it everywhere I’ve worked, and even women play into this as well. Previously, when I managed an account, they had no one else to bitch to about their complaint, so they’d be stuck with me (much to their annoyance). They’d say something like, “I’d like to speak to your superior!” meaning ‘male’ or hopefully male, and I’d come back with, “I’m the account manager, you speak to me,” and they’d grudgingly accept it. Funnily enough, I never had a problem with male clients.
Now, in a different workplace, I do have people who whine and carry on, and the moment they speak to a male manager, after they’ve been told the same thing by me or another ‘underling’, they absorb it easily, and accept the explanation. It’s annoying, but I don’t care about it in my current workplace, because it’s only a means to a financial end, for the bills.
I remember friends buying cars as I was growing up, and if they were female, they were always advised to take a guy with them, or possibly a friend-mechanic. Car salesmen, lots of stories can be written about them. They’re unbelievable the way they go on, I used to date one, and some of the stuff he’d come out with would simultaneously annoy and amuse me.
This struck a chord, Alex: H. and I had a similar experience when buying a new car from a main dealership. We were to meet at the showroom after work and H. happened to get there first. She was completely ignored as she inspected the car we were considering and it was only when I joined her that a salesman appeared from his office.
Needless to say we bought that model… only elsewhere.
When I was a postgrad I shared an office with a militantly feminist PhD. It was a standing joke in the department that you could frequently hear her strident tones ringing down the corridor “NO!!!! This is not Dr. *****’s secretary: This is Dr. ***** speaking!”