Stereotypes
Sep. 9th, 2002 03:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kayreWhy is calling drivers of SUVs “arrogant and obnoxious” more acceptable than any other sweeping generalization?
A close friend nearly had a serious accident today. He mentioned in his journal that the driver who endangered him was driving an SUV. Several folk who responded made assumptions based on that fact, including the “arrogant and obnoxious” remark.
I drive a Blazer on occasion. (Are y’all gonna drop me from your ‘friends’ lists now?) I do not for a minute dispute the facts that many people who own SUVs don’t need them, and some (I can’t from my own experience say what proportion) of those folk indeed drive in an arrogant and obnoxious, or at least careless and dangerous, manner. I even agree that having a more stringent driving test for large vehicles (pickups and vans included) might be a good idea. My problem is with the difference between the words “some”, “many”, and “all” (whether stated or implied).
I live in a rural area, in the north, on the fringes of a small town. There are quite a few days in the winter when most of the roads in the area are safely drivable-- if we can make it the few hundred yards out of our dead-end road, which seldom gets plowed at all, certainly not until at least 2 days after a winter storm. We also own a horse. She’s boarded about 10 miles away; the mile-long driveway is safe only in 4-wheel drive vehicles when it’s snowy or muddy. We also feel that we need the capacity to tow her in a horse trailer in an emergency, though we generally prefer to leave that task to our trainer. We bought the smallest vehicle we could afford that can handle both snowy roads and towing. It gets the same mileage as the Aerostar we replaced, and handles about the same under normal road conditions.
Have I become the devil incarnate yet?
Now it gets trickier. I’m going to visit a friend in a big city next week. Normally I would drive my Honda Civic, but my teenager needs to have a vehicle available the evening I’ll be gone. We don’t let her drive the Blazer because it *is* more difficult to drive (we didn’t let her drive the Aerostar, either). Should I 1) tell her tough luck, she can’t ride that day because I’ll be gone, in the Civic? 2) buy a third vehicle I can’t afford, just so we can not drive the Blazer under circumstances where it’s more than we need? 3) rent a car for the trip? or 4) drive the Blazer, and become an “arrogant and obnoxious” person driving an SUV in a big city?
I’m going to drive the Blazer.
Please read carefully before you respond: I agree that there is some basis for the stereotype of arrogant, careless, dangerous, obnoxious SUV drivers. I still don’t think that makes stereotyping okay, in this or any other context.
A close friend nearly had a serious accident today. He mentioned in his journal that the driver who endangered him was driving an SUV. Several folk who responded made assumptions based on that fact, including the “arrogant and obnoxious” remark.
I drive a Blazer on occasion. (Are y’all gonna drop me from your ‘friends’ lists now?) I do not for a minute dispute the facts that many people who own SUVs don’t need them, and some (I can’t from my own experience say what proportion) of those folk indeed drive in an arrogant and obnoxious, or at least careless and dangerous, manner. I even agree that having a more stringent driving test for large vehicles (pickups and vans included) might be a good idea. My problem is with the difference between the words “some”, “many”, and “all” (whether stated or implied).
I live in a rural area, in the north, on the fringes of a small town. There are quite a few days in the winter when most of the roads in the area are safely drivable-- if we can make it the few hundred yards out of our dead-end road, which seldom gets plowed at all, certainly not until at least 2 days after a winter storm. We also own a horse. She’s boarded about 10 miles away; the mile-long driveway is safe only in 4-wheel drive vehicles when it’s snowy or muddy. We also feel that we need the capacity to tow her in a horse trailer in an emergency, though we generally prefer to leave that task to our trainer. We bought the smallest vehicle we could afford that can handle both snowy roads and towing. It gets the same mileage as the Aerostar we replaced, and handles about the same under normal road conditions.
Have I become the devil incarnate yet?
Now it gets trickier. I’m going to visit a friend in a big city next week. Normally I would drive my Honda Civic, but my teenager needs to have a vehicle available the evening I’ll be gone. We don’t let her drive the Blazer because it *is* more difficult to drive (we didn’t let her drive the Aerostar, either). Should I 1) tell her tough luck, she can’t ride that day because I’ll be gone, in the Civic? 2) buy a third vehicle I can’t afford, just so we can not drive the Blazer under circumstances where it’s more than we need? 3) rent a car for the trip? or 4) drive the Blazer, and become an “arrogant and obnoxious” person driving an SUV in a big city?
I’m going to drive the Blazer.
Please read carefully before you respond: I agree that there is some basis for the stereotype of arrogant, careless, dangerous, obnoxious SUV drivers. I still don’t think that makes stereotyping okay, in this or any other context.
