Thursday, August 09, 2007
Women Aren’t Handicapped. They’re Otherly Abled.
The idea of making car designers acknowledge women’s needs, wants, and differences in automotive preferences seems like good business sense. In one way, I applaud GM for taking the step of dressing their designers in drag--putting them in high heels, giving them fabulous nails, stuff of that nature--to give them a taste of how their truck lines work (or not) for the ladies amongst us. All well and good.
This description from The Car Connection via Autoblog cracks me up, though:
They wore high-heels, fake press-on nails and garbage bag skirts to simulate what The Car Connection refers to as “female handicaps” (are we really calling them that?) while operating various features of their new ‘utes. The result was at least three features on GM’s new SUVs that wouldn’t have been there otherwise: retractable running boards for easier entry/exit in a skirt, a larger center console that can hold a purse and an easier to operate rear lift gate.
“Female handicaps.”
Yeah, I’m betting someone out there is mighty cranky about that little slip…
Comments & Trackbacks
Did anyone think to maybe get some actual, you know, women for this experiment?
I know they’re engineers, but . . .
Solutions that simple rarely cross the mind of a really good engineer.
And designers just like wearing skirts when they get a chance.
They’re wasting their time. Everyone knows women can’t drive.
I’m so telling your wife.
Maybe they were really trying to capture the cross-dressing market?
Gee, and all I want is a pretty car that outruns the police.
Just thinking the clutch should engage a little higher off the floor to accommodate my 3” heels. I wonder did they think of that?
This truck overcomes “female handicaps”? You mean, there’s a module in there that causes the woman driving it to suddenly realize that putting decorative pillows* on the bed in the morning, closing the bedroom door, and returning twelve hours later to the unused bedroom to remove the pillows to allow actual access to the bed, is a pointless exercise?
*Ladies - they actually come right out and call the pillows “shams”. That’s how little the pillow industry respects your intelligence.
Robert, Robert, Robert ... its a truck, not a freakin’ Vatican-certified, full-out Holy Ghost miracle.
“… retractable running boards for easier entry/exit in a skirt, a larger center console that can hold a purse and an easier to operate rear lift gate.”
Am I the only one here who looks at that as a veritable gauntlet of double entendres? Or did you guys just think “easier entry/exit in a skirt” was too obvious to comment upon?
Dorkafork, we have pride.
Well, some of us have pride. The rest just didn’t see it.
I don’t have pride.
All I know is, an SUV is what you get when you let a man design a minivan.
Wait, the garbage bags imitated the skirt, but what did they do to represent a woman’s slip?
Man, the people who said that were high, or perhaps just heels. They are probably hosed for saying that, too. You think there is a chance to make-up with the female consumer after such an affront?
I’m willing to make some fashion sacrifices for a good driving machine. For instance, I wear kitten-heels when driving the Miata so I can heel-and-toe more comfortably when I downshift on that fast little ess-shaped exit from the freeway into the main parkway for the mall. Gotta keep the rpms up for the super-charger, you know.
But the biggest mistake they make is in seat design. Most women are 9-12” shorter than a man. We just love having that curved-in head of the seat pushing our head forward into the steering wheel. How do American automakers they miss that, year after year after year?
They should sell his n’ hers cars. Most cars don’t have quite enough head room for me--and the economy cars force me to tilt my head to one side or the other to fit. I also have a hard time fitting my shoulders comfortably (I have a wingspan of 77” fingertip to fingertip). But to see my girlfriend sitting in the same space (she’s about a foot shorter than I am) is to see someone with space to spare.
Actually, this is one of the reasons I really like my Millenia. It isn’t the fastest car, but it’s actually remarkably comfortable for me while still being a little on the smaller side. Nice.
You should post some pictures of your dog in your car. I’m fond of the Miata and the dog might make it look sort of Road Warrior-ish.
Just sayin’.