Why does sex play such an important role in determining which cars are acceptable or unacceptable for a person to drive? Has anybody noticed that it seems as if men have a particularly difficult time driving mini-vans because they think it's a woman's vehicle? And that as a result, their driving is often more aggressive in a van than it would be in any other vehicle? During a conversation with a coworker, she said that her husband at the time refused to drive the van they owned. On the occasion he did have to drive it, his driving was often faster and involved more risk-taking to prove that he could still be a man in the vehicle. When they married, she had to get rid of the car she liked so that they could buy a van (a van that she didn't want). After they got divorced, she got stuck with the van because he refused to be a man who drove a van.
Even my fiancee doesn't like to ride in my car, a green VW Beetle. He jokes about being uncomfortable driving it and being seen in it, but I know he's serious. It's a "girl's car" he says. But it seems that even Volkswagen agrees. They're launching the redesigned Beetle this Autumn, and gave it bigger dimensions and a "sportier look" to make it appeal to more men and to make it feel like less of a woman's car.
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