8 January 2012

The chauvinist drives in Canberra?

| astrojax
Join the conversation
40

is it just me, or am i in the wrong spot at the right time..? but collecting astress from her place of work (west civic precinct is all i’ll say) of late i have noticed a phenomenon that i thought society divested itself of two or three decades ago.

car pulls up; she waits. he comes out of office – she gets out of driver’s seat, they kiss [or not] and he gets in the driver’s seat and she the passenger seat and off he drives.

what, she’s good enough to drive when he isn’t in the car, but when he’s in the vehicle only he can drive? is this just a canberra phenomenon? am i missing something?

for the record, astress has licence and drives as often, if not more, than i do; but i often pick up astromonkey, then astress and so simply keep one driver for continuity. and also for the record, i have witnessed this above-described behaviour some dozen or so times in the past three or four collections but have not witnessed the inverse [ie, she drives home once collected by him]. also, for clarity, it has only once or twice been a ‘bloke’s car’, like a v8 beast thing – usually is nondescript, common marque…

any thoughts? are you one of these collectees/ors?? please explain.

Join the conversation

40
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

I let my partner drive so that I can keep an eye out for perverts watching us get in and out of our car. Once I spot one we follow them home, break in and rearrange the numbers on their speed dial. Just sayin’.

Mumbucks said :

Perhaps the blokes don’t get to drive the car much hence the change over.I don’t have a problem with changing drivers.As long as you are sober and not talking on the phone . Maybe people like it that way. Why should they be reprimanded for living a peaceful life. I didn’t think there was anything called fem road rage
until now.

who’s reprimanding? all i was doing is seeking explanations for behaviour that intrigued me, s’all. and i have had it in the replies [thanks].

TheDancingDjinn10:20 am 09 Jan 12

dpm said :

TheDancingDjinn said :

OP why do you give enough of a crap about people who you don’t know or have no bareing on your life so much that you decided to write an essay on it, and share it with the rest of us?Seriously? you have an issue if a man drives and a woman doesn’t? – what you probably caught was me, i hate driving in Civic or Barton or any other stupid place filled with people wearing ties – (you’d think that them having such jobs would require the intelligence to cross the road without me having to swerve to miss them.) I plain refuse to drive in Civic, won’t do it – never will! What you caught was probably the furthest from chauvinist as you could get. Try knowing the people your talking about rather than just labeling them women haters.

To me, it’s always a little concering when someone with a drivers licence avoids driving in certain (normal) conditions. For example, I have a friend who plans all trips based on only making left hand turns too. I say, if you have a fear (that is not actually dangerous), you should meet it! 🙂

How did you get fear from my post? – i don’t drive in Civic for the plain reason that it has changed alot and i don’t go there too often. So on the times i do have to be in Civic i don’t know the way around anymore – what used to be carparks are now builings and what were bulidings became car parks- if your not there everyday then how would you know all the changes and be able to navigate the place and find where i need to go ? My not driving in Civic has not one thing to do with fear – i also hate having to jam my breaks on for Public Servent asshat’s who think that they can out run my car and so run into the road – if the little green man is not beeping and in a walking motiong flashing on that tiny screen then don’t walk into the road – if i hit you then i am going to make sure you get me a new car for your stupidity.

TheDancingDjinn said :

OP why do you give enough of a crap about people who you don’t know or have no bareing on your life so much that you decided to write an essay on it, and share it with the rest of us?Seriously? you have an issue if a man drives and a woman doesn’t? – what you probably caught was me, i hate driving in Civic or Barton or any other stupid place filled with people wearing ties – (you’d think that them having such jobs would require the intelligence to cross the road without me having to swerve to miss them.) I plain refuse to drive in Civic, won’t do it – never will! What you caught was probably the furthest from chauvinist as you could get. Try knowing the people your talking about rather than just labeling them women haters.

To me, it’s always a little concering when someone with a drivers licence avoids driving in certain (normal) conditions. For example, I have a friend who plans all trips based on only making left hand turns too. I say, if you have a fear (that is not actually dangerous), you should meet it! 🙂

Peewee Slasher9:01 am 09 Jan 12

Does it really matter? “Some girls do, some girls don’t” and I imagine, the same goes for men.
Yes, I’ve seen it happen outside my office. What they do is their business and observing them doing so doesn’t implicitly reveal anything about their relationship.

My wife doesn’t have a driver’s licence – completely her choice. Someone observing me get into my ecology destroyer might assume I’m being chauvinistic. “A picture tells a thousand words” but not all of them are accurate.

EvanJames said :

I’ve not seen it in the US

Yes, the US is such a beacon of enlightenment

Perhaps the blokes don’t get to drive the car much hence the change over.I don’t have a problem with changing drivers.As long as you are sober and not talking on the phone . Maybe people like it that way. Why should they be reprimanded for living a peaceful life. I didn’t think there was anything called fem road rage
until now.

I feel that it does not matter.

My wife and I do this kind of swap weekly (on days I don’t ride to work) – and I get dropped off on the western side of the city (dun dun dun…). So I could be THE collectee under critical observation!

My wife prefers not to drive/enjoys being driven. Don’t worry I’m entirely useless with directions so she’s always the navigator! Its only if I’m tired that I might ask to be driven instead.

Deref said :

astrojax said :

but the title was deliberately baiting to get you to notice.

Have you always been a troll or is it a new hobby for you?

who’s that stomping on my bridge?

screaming banshee5:26 pm 08 Jan 12

Personally I’d drive about 90 percent of the time when we are both in the car but on a pickup or drop off pickee/dropee always rides shotgun.

Another one if seen is the fuel stop, where the passenger fills the car. As a driver I always fill, as a passenger I’ll volunteer to fill for points but other times I’ve plainly said.”you’re drivin’!”

I couldn’t stop laughing one day when I saw a late 80’s mazda 323 pull up with a rather large female driver. A rake skinny guy got out of the passenger side to fill the car…I call him cletis.

It’s not that she can’t drive, more the fact that I feel uneasy when i’m not driving.

Waiting For Godot4:30 pm 08 Jan 12

This is done for safety reasons. Everybody knows about woman drivers and the many crashes they have. Women’s brains are ten percent smaller than men’s brains so it stands to reason they have trouble with the basics of driving and complying with road rules.

Deref said :

astrojax said :

but the title was deliberately baiting to get you to notice.

Have you always been a troll or is it a new hobby for you?

There’s a bit of troll in everyone.

astrojax said :

but the title was deliberately baiting to get you to notice.

Have you always been a troll or is it a new hobby for you?

ps0104 said :

Me thinks you are reading into things a little too much astrojax…

i suspect you’re probably right – i just get bored waiting for astress taking too long and read too much into the daily goings on of folk about whom i know nothing, so the fertile brain goes into overdrive and makes it up. s’fun but!

You have quite possibly observed me (and my wife)! We do exactly this. There is nothing chauvinist or sinister about it. She is a perfectly capable driver but doesnt particularly like driving. I don’t mind driving, and most of the time actually quite enjoy it. The solution? She drives from her workplace to mine, picks me up, and then I drive the rest of the way home. Everyone is happy.

Me thinks you are reading into things a little too much astrojax…

And another reason that I remember for another couple was – the car was not insured for another driver so the owner took over the driving asap.

Other reasons I haven’t seen here are:
– because of a disability it is painful for one partner to drive and they choose not to whenever possible;
– the taller partner drives when there is a third passenger as we suspect it is safer for a backseat passenger to sit on the left hand side of the car especially when there is more leg room over there.

Yeah, yeah I’ve got thoughts, why is that people can’t go about their own lives without having to justify themselves to other people?

No one wonder people think Canberra is full of backward thinking asshats, I think it’s because it kinda is full of those people.

The reason my wife hops out and gets in the passenger seat when she picks me up, is that half the time she’s napping on the way home (seriously, she can grab a nap during a 10 minute drive sometimes!) At various other times over the past couple of years, she’s also been pregnant and either exhausted after a day at work, or feeling sick. She was feeling like that a long time before she looked obviously pregnant too.

We usually do this simply because my wife prefers me to drive. It makes her feel like she’s being looked after and cared for. She can relax, listen to the music and enjoy the ride while I deal with the traffic.

seems a few posters have missed the bits where i genuinely ask for clarification – which a few illuminating folk have offered; thanks – but the title was deliberately baiting to get you to notice.

and i think it was once a getz, or a ditzy little toy car like that [deliberate provocative comment, in case it goes over heads] – i know it can be for many plausible and non-chauvinistic reasons [like derr] and some responses provide explanations, but it was prevalent enough and evocative of a past chauvinistic era i recall to mention it here for the hive mind to consider. i give a crap enough about it to try to get to know the minds of people i am otherwise not going to get out of my car abandoning astromonkey to stop them and have them explain their behaviour; i find it interesting – don’t you? thanks for answers… oh, & this is why this is called a ‘social’ network site. derr…

Instant Mash12:48 pm 08 Jan 12

I guess it’s just how some people roll. Never really considered it out of the ordinary.

Other way round in our family. I taught my husband to drive in the first place so initially I did all our driving. I only taught him to drive as I got over trying to stay awake to take him to work at midnight and then up again to collect him at 730am. I try my best to make him drive on the highway so i can sleep!

Deref said :

Why would you automatically jump to the conclusion that it’s misogynistic behaviour? There are plenty of possible explanations besides that.

Definitely says more about the OP than the ‘issue’ itself.

keepitup said :

Simple. If she doesn’t vacate the drivers seat – she’ll get sat on.

Your name is interesting.

I make my missus drive everywhere when I am in the car. She doesn’t want a traditional relationship – fine. She can drive and mow the lawn. She always says “All the other guys drive their wives around!”, “It’s the mans turn to be looked after now” I reply. Fair yes?

I drive about 200kms a day in my day job anyway.

Why would you automatically jump to the conclusion that it’s misogynistic behaviour? There are plenty of possible explanations besides that.

The Antichrist12:20 pm 08 Jan 12

gooterz said :

The ladies in canberra like it both ways

really ? where do I find a chick like that ?

Road Rage. A common stres.s relief technique in Canberra

Funny how when something like this is always firstly blamed on the man by some.
When infact its more likely that she chooses not to drive.

The ladies in canberra like it both ways, some really like guys that treat them like 1950’s housewives and others don’t.

One thing i have noticed is that some females tend not to even get a licence and put it onto someone else to drive them everywhere.

The reactions of the people who do it are illuminating. Yes, it’s a stupid hangover of a stupid practice. I’ve not seen it in the US, but here in Australia it seems that men have a real problem with being in a car driven by a female. I recently saw this seat-swap in a Getz, and mused that someone needed to tell the guy that being in the driver’s seat wouldn’t help, it was still a Getz.

keepitup said :

Simple. If she doesn’t vacate the drivers seat – she’ll get sat on.

She’s lucky to even be in the front right eh!! I mean really, what’s she even doing out of the kitchen ehh. Cause all us male canberr drivers are like that eh! Now fetch my pipe and slippers and be doll and grab me the paper.

Simple. If she doesn’t vacate the drivers seat – she’ll get sat on.

TheDancingDjinn10:38 am 08 Jan 12

OP why do you give enough of a crap about people who you don’t know or have no bareing on your life so much that you decided to write an essay on it, and share it with the rest of us?Seriously? you have an issue if a man drives and a woman doesn’t? – what you probably caught was me, i hate driving in Civic or Barton or any other stupid place filled with people wearing ties – (you’d think that them having such jobs would require the intelligence to cross the road without me having to swerve to miss them.) I plain refuse to drive in Civic, won’t do it – never will! What you caught was probably the furthest from chauvinist as you could get. Try knowing the people your talking about rather than just labeling them women haters.

Believe it or not but some women still like the door to be opened for them too! What is the 50s?? 😉

We’ve done this too. My partner is a terrible passenger and always interjects helpful little comments when I’m driving. Eventually I just told him that if he’s in the car he can drive.

I do whatever I can to drive the V8 in our family as opposed to the hideous Camry but I prefer driving it alone. If I had to pick up Mr Poetix in whatever car (and I can’t imagine how that would happen, unless he lost his licence, in which case his life would be hell) I’d drive us home. If we were going out of the ACT, I would probably prefer him to drive, and the undignified swap thing might occur.

When my daughter was a tiny baby we’d sometimes swap so I could ride in the back seat near her. That’s called Taliban style.

To change the topic slightly, it’s always a giggle how some people want to race you in a V8.

This happens all the time with me. Missus picks me up and makes me drive home. The reason? Neither of us enjoy driving, so it’s a constant battle of wills as to who does the driving. Since I am being picked up, it’s my turn to drive home.

We have other rules as well:
If the destination is her family, she drives, if it’s mine I drive.
If the destination is her choice (ie shopping for earings, etc): she drives, otherwise I drive (ie getting an xbox game).
Sometimes we split the difference and we drive half.

I could go on about how sometimes I get drunk before being picked up or at the destination to force her to drive, but that’s another story.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.