[hserus]

Here's an image of their poll - quite a few women have responded with disgust to this sexist stereotype.

Link to the tweet poll https://twitter.com/fordindia/status/820473557465632768

[Samurai]

They still haven't taken it down. These things are usually done by PR companies, we can't be sure PR company takes approval from the client for every tweet. It will be interesting to see how Ford will react once this comes tweet storm comes to their notice.

[Vid6639]

How is it sexist against women? Shouldn't it be stereotyping guys? It's the guys who honk and even cabbies get irritated when they see a slower car in front and when they realise there's a women driving.

Ford India isn't saying anything sexist unless I am reading this all wrong.

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

How is it sexist against women? Shouldn't it be stereotyping guys? It's the guys who honk and even cabbies get irritated when they see a slower car in front and when they realise there's a women driving.

Ford India isn't saying anything sexist unless I am reading this all wrong.

+1

It looks like someone saw "women" and "drive" in the same sentence and jumped the gun.

[SmartCat]

Agree with Vidyut - I can't find anything sexist here. Perhaps the bracketing of women drivers with elderly drivers or L-boarders is the issue (implying women are bad drivers)? Then the question by Ford is ageist and anti-L-boardist too.

Idiotic question and answer choices though!

[400notout]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

How is it sexist against women? Shouldn't it be stereotyping guys?

"women/elderly and other people learning to drive" implies women/elderly are not "people" or somehow different from "people learning to drive". Quite a careless and insensitive generalisation about them driving slow. I agree, more than sexism, its a case of stereotyping.

[drpudhi]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

How is it sexist against women? Shouldn't it be stereotyping guys? It's the guys who honk and even cabbies get irritated when they see a slower car in front and when they realise there's a women driving.

Ford India isn't saying anything sexist unless I am reading this all wrong.

It is sexist, because ford stereotypes all women/elderly as beginners to driving / poor drivers.

They could have easily stopped short, saying " How do people behave when they are following people learning to drive".

[400notout]

Originally Posted by drpudhi

It is sexist, because ford stereotypes all women/elderly as beginners to driving / poor drivers.

They could have easily stopped short, saying " How do people behave when they are following people learning to drive".

"Women/elderly cant drive" is a stereotype, a generalisation of driving habits.

It would be sexist if it said "women shouldn't drive". Difference.

[Arjun Reddy]

They should omit the women in their statement. Learners/Beginners would make a lot more sense.

I know of a lot of women who are good drivers and so with the elderly. What's Ford smoking nowadays? If they are onto a serious survey they should appoint a market research team. Cost cutting I suppose.

They got into trouble recently with their advertising campaign for the Figo.

[lapis_lazuli]

This part of the country, the male ego is too strong to withstand a sane woman driver ahead. Not always, but widely noticeable. Honk, flash and swearing is a natural response.

Could be pointing to this particular "alpha" male attitude than "lack of skills" in women, IMHO.

[drpudhi]

Originally Posted by 400notout

"Women/elderly cant drive" is a stereotype, a generalisation of driving habits.

It would be sexist if it said "women shouldn't drive". Difference.

Stereotyping based on gender is sexism.

[deerhunter]

Originally Posted by 400notout

"Women/elderly cant drive" is a stereotype, a generalisation of driving habits.

It would be sexist if it said "women shouldn't drive". Difference.

It is sexist because they did not mention 'men'. That means they see men as more capable. It is also stereotyping, doesnt mean that it is not sexist.

But I dont think this is anything intentional. Our culture has made sexism a part of our daily existence. The prevalence of sexism has made it look as if it is absolutely normal to be sexist. So the PR person who tweeted this might not have thought about this, instead he put a tweet based on his social upbringing.

Originally Posted by F150

If statistical analysis is done on the type of slow drivers and if the results are classified in to the categories mentioned in the post , 1. Learners 2. Elderly 3. Women and 4. People who prefer to drive slow, would it still be sexist ?

Yes. Why only women? Why not add men too to the classification?


The fact that many are even questioning whether this tweet is sexist or not shows the whole Indian social set-up. Sexism is ingrained so deep in our psyche that we no longer are able to identify sexism when it occurs.

[//M6]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

How is it sexist against women? Shouldn't it be stereotyping guys? It's the guys who honk and even cabbies get irritated when they see a slower car in front and when they realise there's a women driving.

Ford India isn't saying anything sexist unless I am reading this all wrong.

I will not call it sexist either but they are trying to say that women and elderly are similar to people learning to drive which is not good to say or correct. I recently went to Chandigarh and every other car was being driven by a lady driver and I felt good about it.

I do agree that people learning to drive do piss me off when they do it in crowded office going traffic. They should avoid doing so. If you know how to drive slow and have control over clutch, you will be able to drive in heavy traffic as well there is no point in trying to learn that explicitly.

[F150]

If statistical analysis is done on the type of slow drivers and if the results are classified in to the categories mentioned in the post , 1. Learners 2. Elderly 3. Women and 4. People who prefer to drive slow, would it still be sexist ?

[hserus]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

How is it sexist against women? Shouldn't it be stereotyping guys? It's the guys who honk and even cabbies get irritated when they see a slower car in front and when they realise there's a women driving.

Ford India isn't saying anything sexist unless I am reading this all wrong.

That is sexist behavior yes.

Ford is being sexist (and ageist) in assuming that elderly people and women are, by default, poor drivers, and as a class need special attention when on the road.

That is "as soon as you see an aged or a woman driver, assume that they will drive like they have an L board"

Stereotyping is a powerful tool for sexism, as well as racism ("a particular community" or "people of a certain colour" are violent thugs etc etc type blanket statements should be distressingly familiar)

And while this sounds innocuous and harmless, look at how it extends .. the passenger sun visor in cars usually has a vanity mirror. "Husband drives, wife checks her makeup in the mirror" is an interesting stereotype eh. Why shouldn't the driver side visor have a mirror too? Nobody is advocating checking makeup while driving of course.