Women Drivers: Difference between revisions

* In ''A Confederacy of Dunces'', the plot begins because Ignatius' mother crashes into a historic French Quarter balcony, forcing him to get a series of jobs to pay for the damage. [[Jerkass|He repeatedly complains to her about this]], which is made doubly annoying to her as she only hit it because he wouldn't shut up.

* In ''[[The Great Gatsby]]'', both female leads are awful drivers. {{spoiler|One is so bad they eventually kill someone who runs out into the middle of the road}}. The other driver admits to being a bad driver and doesn't care at all about other people. Her bad driving is another example of her extreme selfishness!

* [[Ephraim Kishon]]'s wife in his satirical stories.

* [[Zig Zagged]] ''and'' [[Justified Trope|Justified]] with [[Britains Worst Driver|Britain's Worst Driver]] and its international spinoffs: played straight in that the women are truly terrible, subverted in that the ''male'' contestants are no better, subverted the ''other'' way that judges are often women drivers who are anything from just fine to ''bona fide'' [[Badass Driver|Badass Drivers]], and justified in that the shows are [[Exactly What They Say On the Tins]] and literal [[Truth in Television]].

** [[Canada's Worst Driver|The Canadian version]] has gone through seven seasons now. So far the 'worsts' are three men and four women. Mind the season five "winner" was pretty much the [[Dumb Blonde]] brought to life, and the Season 6 runner-up was [[The Ditz|just as clueless.]]

* For all the [[Incredibly Lame Pun|stick]] they give to [[Acceptable Lifestyle Targets|some people]] the hosts of ''[[Top Gear]]'' never say bad things about women drivers. In fact, they even had racing driver Sabine Schmitz coaching Jeremy Clarkson (in a Jaguar) round the Nurburgring, and then trouncing his lap time. Then in a later episode nearly beating his time in a ''Transit van''. Having guest stars like Jennifer Saunders, Billie Piper, Jodie Kidd, and yachtswomen Ellen McArthur (who set the fastest lap in the old car) drive the Reasonably-Priced Car round the track quite rapidly also subverts this one rather nicely.

** "Look at me, I'm a man in my Porsche... and then suddenly they're overtaken by a ''Van'' driven by ''a girl''!" is how Richard Hammond described Sabine Schmitz's driving of the Ford Transit van around the Nurburgring.

* Fiona in ''[[Burn Notice]]'' has invoked this trope to create a distraction. Michael's monologue mentions taking advantage of other people's preconceptions in order to [[Obfuscating Stupidity|Obfuscate with Stupidity]].

* Always a goldmine of outmoded gender stereotypes, ''[[Home Improvement]]'' featured an episode in which Jill damaged a car by continuing to drive with the oil light on. When Tim confronted her about this, she claimed that she thought "it would blink, or a buzzer would go off" if it was serious. In another episode, she touches up a car's paint job with red nail polish.

* Trina from [[Victorious]] although this could be because she's so [[It's All About Me|egotistical]] that she thinks she's above the rules of the road.

{{quote|'''Cat''': Trina, maybe you should pull over if you're going to put on lip gloss.

** And then after a driver honks at her...

{{quote|'''Trina''': ''(Honks horn)'' YEAH, I GOT A HORN, TOO, BUDDY! ''(Honks horn again)''}}

** Parts of the novel ''Imzadi'' are set shortly after ''Generations.'' In it, Troi gets very tired of being teased with the phrase, "Nice landing."

*** (On the other hand, according to the ''[[All There in the Manual|Tech Manual]],'' deorbiting a ''Galaxy''-class saucer section had never been tried before, and it was generally regarded as ''extremely risky.'' "Minimal casualties" indicates some ''exceptional'' flying.)

'''Mike Nelson:''' Women drivers!

'''Tom Servo:''' Oh no you didn't. }}

* ''[[Laugh In]]'' had a joke about a feminist drive-a-thon being canceled, after all the participants got into their cars and promptly backed in to each other.

* In ''[[The Office]]'' (US version) episode "Diversity Day", everyone is supposed to treat the others as the race named on a card stuck to their forehead. Dwight demands that Pam treat him as his new ethnicity (Asian), so he could figure out what it was.

* Lisa Douglas of ''[[Green Acres]]'' plays this trope straight in an episode where she's forced to go to high school, though her lack of driving skills comes less from the fact that she's a woman then the fact that she's... well, [[Cloudcuckoolander|Lisa.]]

* ''[[Tosh.0]]'' devoted an entire segment to women drivers, specifically parallel parking. Two women managed to bump into the neighboring vehicles, one even asking in a bubbleheaded fashion, "Did I hit something?" One teenager who only had her learner's permit, though, completed the test successfully.

* Taken to an extreme with Lori Grimes in ''[[The Walking Dead]]'', who somehow manages to flip her car despite likely being '''''the only person driving on the entire planet''''' at that moment.

* Addressed by the [[Myth Busters]] in a 2012 episode. They determined there was no meaningful difference between gender and driving competency.

* Some pieces of Fan Art for ''[[Mass Effect]]'' depict Female Commander Shepard as this, such as [http://cerviero.deviantart.com/art/ME2-Just-like-old-times-153854073 this piece].

** This is more a joke about how ''nobody'' can drive the Mako in a straight line.

* [[Ridge Racer]] depicts [[Hood Ornament Hottie|Reiko Nagase]] as a professional racer driving the [[Cool Car|Absoluta Fatala]]. Rena Hyami, an ambulance driver turned racer, is a straighter version.

* ''[[Family Guy]]''. Peter is blindfolded, but still drives. When Lois asks if she should drive, since she's not blindfolded, he laughs her off. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

{{quote|[[You Fail Law Forever|Lois, you know it's illegal for women to drive]].}}

** The Asian woman version happens, too. "How much signal I need to cut across eight lane? None? I turn now. Good luck everybody else!" [[Hilarity Ensues|Pandemonium ensues]].

* Referenced in ''Little Rascals''. A female teacher is driving her brother, and when she brings the car to a hard stop he comments simple, "just another woman driver."

** In another gag, Johnny crashes while attempting to hit on a woman he's driving alongside. He blames woman drivers.

* Inverted in ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]''. Spongebob is the horrid driver and his driving instructor is a woman.

** Of course, it should be pointed out that her driving is likely less because she's a woman and more because she has absolutely no concern for traffic hazards since she's a mutant who can just phase through them.

** Kitty tries to convince either Scott or Jean to ride with her because she has a learner's permit. It's ''Jean'' who shoves Scott at Kitty and runs off.

* Any time there's a news report about distracted driving, they name down the usual suspects that distract drivers (talking on the phone, drinking coffee, changing the radio station) they also always explicitly mention putting on make-up, possibly because it's one of the worst offenders (with some of the others, you can at least halfway keep your eye on the road, but with make-up you ''have'' to look in the mirror to put it on,) and because it's one of the few distractions that almost solely performed by women.

* Inverted by auto insurance rates, especially for young drivers. Male drivers are often charged a higher premium because they're overrepresented in severe crashes that are more likely to total the car or result in serious injury or death. Women do tend to get into more accidents, but the vast majority of these are just minor brush-ups that don't cost insurance companies as much.

* Parallel parking in a confined space really does appear to be ''slightly'' more difficult for women than men, due to neurological differences in the sexes' processing of spatial arrangements.