OK... I'm no gender studies bunny (duh!) but...
06-14-2001, 08:55 AM
#1
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OK... I'm no gender studies bunny (duh!) but...
"If the S8 was a woman, then she had just pulled her skirt above the knee leaving us wondering what was next."
Come on, for Pete's sake!!!
This is a very unfortunate formulation. Leaving aside bad grammar (the appropriate conditional form is "if the S8 WERE a woman, then she'd have..."), this metaphor is quite objectifying toward a small (and likely to get smaller if you keep it up) but important portion of your readership. The S8 is NOT a woman. More importantly, a woman is NOT a vehicle that just sits around until someone (presumably with an impressively thick... wallet) decides to step up and drive her off the lot. Should we then impute that all it takes to get to "what's next," to get "intimately acquainted" with her, is to push her hard enough? That all it takes for her to dutifully obey your every whim, and provide you with much excitement and pleasure, is to maintain her properly and invest in a few well-chosen "upgrades"? I could go on, but hopefully by now you get my point. Women don't need a "driver" to complete them as functional entities, and thank heavens that this is so. If your relationship with one is a matter of pure mechanics, control, and button-pushing, you're well advised to seek counseling for the sake of greatly enriching your own life.
Yes, I'm aware of frequent threads of the "if your XXX were a woman, who would she be" type by forum participants. Invariably, they choose women whom they know not as women, but as media icons - shallow distillates of fetishist qualities and objects in their own right. The difference is that these participants do not represent AudiWorld.com, whereas you do. By equating women to just another one of those prized possessions that we drool over, you're alienating them as an audience. Perhaps even more importantly, your equivocation of concepts as vastly different as a human being and a machine severely hurts your credibility when it comes to making much finer distinctions, which is what being a car enthusiast is all about.
Gordan
Come on, for Pete's sake!!!
This is a very unfortunate formulation. Leaving aside bad grammar (the appropriate conditional form is "if the S8 WERE a woman, then she'd have..."), this metaphor is quite objectifying toward a small (and likely to get smaller if you keep it up) but important portion of your readership. The S8 is NOT a woman. More importantly, a woman is NOT a vehicle that just sits around until someone (presumably with an impressively thick... wallet) decides to step up and drive her off the lot. Should we then impute that all it takes to get to "what's next," to get "intimately acquainted" with her, is to push her hard enough? That all it takes for her to dutifully obey your every whim, and provide you with much excitement and pleasure, is to maintain her properly and invest in a few well-chosen "upgrades"? I could go on, but hopefully by now you get my point. Women don't need a "driver" to complete them as functional entities, and thank heavens that this is so. If your relationship with one is a matter of pure mechanics, control, and button-pushing, you're well advised to seek counseling for the sake of greatly enriching your own life.
Yes, I'm aware of frequent threads of the "if your XXX were a woman, who would she be" type by forum participants. Invariably, they choose women whom they know not as women, but as media icons - shallow distillates of fetishist qualities and objects in their own right. The difference is that these participants do not represent AudiWorld.com, whereas you do. By equating women to just another one of those prized possessions that we drool over, you're alienating them as an audience. Perhaps even more importantly, your equivocation of concepts as vastly different as a human being and a machine severely hurts your credibility when it comes to making much finer distinctions, which is what being a car enthusiast is all about.
Gordan
06-14-2001, 01:40 PM
#2
Just came through to make a similar comment
i've read some great things here on AW, but that one sentence just about killed the entire article. Never mind the flowery language. I'm all for the SEC's plain English rule!
06-14-2001, 10:01 PM
#3
Well I think you were reading way too much into that, but...
Your analysis of that sentence was way off IMHO. I find it hard to believe that an open minded reader (male or female) would have a hard time understanding the analogy for what it is: an example of heightened sensory perception and expectations. The reader knows that both writers are male and therefore the analogy is logical. There is a certain sexual overtone to the statement, but that's intended.
Futhermore there is a long history of assigning a gender to varioius inanimate objects. Boats, for instance, are thought of as "shes". Do you agree that it would be appropriate, if one was reviewing a very powerful speedboat, to use the analogy of "pulling its skirt above the knee"?
Ultimately I see your arguments and examples as being counterproductive to what you seem to trying to accomplish. By trying to make the point that the comparison was sexist and demeaning to women I believe you are in fact yourself saying that women need people like you to defend them. THAT appears to be far more sexist then the original sentence. Let's give women credit enough to understand the difference between being objectified (a prized possession to be drooled over is how you put it) and being used peripherally to illustrate a point.
If the media or the people who, as you put it, would be "well advised to seek counseling for the sake of greatly enriching [their] own life" have perpetuated systematic degradation of women vis-a-vis automobiles, then I'm certainly not aware of it.
The bottom line is that that sentence never had anything to do with women per se and you have incorrectly assigned it meanings that were never insinuated or intended by the writers. It was a sexual reference; nothing more, nothing less.
For what it's worth I have changed the wording anyway. It now reads: "It was like getting a sensual first kiss from a new acquaintance and wondering what was next." I believe this sentence retains our original intent, while remaining gender neutral.
Futhermore there is a long history of assigning a gender to varioius inanimate objects. Boats, for instance, are thought of as "shes". Do you agree that it would be appropriate, if one was reviewing a very powerful speedboat, to use the analogy of "pulling its skirt above the knee"?
Ultimately I see your arguments and examples as being counterproductive to what you seem to trying to accomplish. By trying to make the point that the comparison was sexist and demeaning to women I believe you are in fact yourself saying that women need people like you to defend them. THAT appears to be far more sexist then the original sentence. Let's give women credit enough to understand the difference between being objectified (a prized possession to be drooled over is how you put it) and being used peripherally to illustrate a point.
If the media or the people who, as you put it, would be "well advised to seek counseling for the sake of greatly enriching [their] own life" have perpetuated systematic degradation of women vis-a-vis automobiles, then I'm certainly not aware of it.
The bottom line is that that sentence never had anything to do with women per se and you have incorrectly assigned it meanings that were never insinuated or intended by the writers. It was a sexual reference; nothing more, nothing less.
For what it's worth I have changed the wording anyway. It now reads: "It was like getting a sensual first kiss from a new acquaintance and wondering what was next." I believe this sentence retains our original intent, while remaining gender neutral.
06-15-2001, 03:21 AM
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Good lord... you need help...
And to be honest... you have nerve calling Mr. Teller on something so insignificant, and nitpicking like that...
I'm certainly not as eloquent as Jason... but isn't there something better you can focus your energy on?
I'm certainly not as eloquent as Jason... but isn't there something better you can focus your energy on?
