Women Drivers: Difference between revisions

* Subverted in ''[[Wangan Midnight]]'' when Yamamoto gives a highly tuned Skyline GT-R demo car with over 600bhp to resident chick Reina Akikawa to drive, his fellow tuner Gaa-chan starts to doubt her ability and Yamamoto's judgement. Reina then proceeds to show complete mastery of the car, no surprise since she has a highly tuned GT-R of her own.

* Highly averted in ''[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/over_rev/ Over Rev!]'', a manga similar to ''[[Initial D]]'' (street racing specializing in drifting), but with female protagonists.

* Averted in [[Ronin Warriors]], Mia is actually very capable of driving (And is shown driving the team throughout the series and in the second OVA).

* Subverted in [[You're Under Arrest]], Natsumi's the only female shown to exhibit this "ability".

== Film ==

* Played with in ''[[Adams Rib|Adam's Rib]]'': Amanda is driving down a busy street and arguing heatedly with her husband about the [[Double Standard]], and suddenly pulls over in front of a cabbie who grumbles about "lady drivers."

 

 

* 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.

 

* This trope was such a staple of old sitcoms that on at least one occasion, [[Nickelodeon|Nick at Nite]] devoted an entire marathon to episodes featuring bad women drivers.

* [[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]].

* An old ''Candid Camera'' prank invokes this trope by placing a car in a garage door in such a way that the frame of the door is only an inch away from the bumper. Then they had an attractive woman call a mechanic (or some other professional) to help her out before "Her husband comes back and see what she did to the car".

* 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.

** 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.)

* ''[[Thunderbirds]]'' mined this for humor more than once - Lady Penelope in particular was a frightening driver. The plot of the episode "City of Fire" began when a careless female motorist crashes her car in a parking garage and sets the entirety of the world's tallest building on fire. The end of the episode shows her alive, well, and once more driving like a maniac behind the wheel of another car.

** A later episode of the series showed that Lady Penelope's driving skills had improved since the first time she tried it.

'''Dwight''': Aw, man! Am I a woman? }}

* 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.]]

* Shows up in [[Doctor Who]], of all places. In "[[Doctor Who/2011 CS the Doctor the Widow And The Wardrobe/Recap|The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe]]", the 2011 Christmas special, the Doctor lands in 1938, wearing a space suit backwards, and is found by Madge Arwell. When Madge tries to drive the Doctor to the TARDIS, he comments that "We seem to bump into quite a lot of things" when she crashes to a stop. Her excuse: "Well, a lot of things get in the way, it's hardly my fault."

* 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.

== Radio ==

* The 40s-50s comedy series ''[[Our Miss Brooks]]'' used this at least once when the titular character drove her own car (which was not that often since her vehicle was usually broken down & in the shop). She got rides to school from one of her students, Walter, who sometimes mentioned how many mistakes his mother made while driving.

 

 

== Video Games ==

* Yuka Suzuki of ''[[Racing Lagoon]]'' is a lone female racer of BLR, and she's the worst driver comparing to other males. This is subverted for the Queen team, though.

* 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].

== Western Animation ==

* Referenced in several [[Looney Tunes]] shorts, usually by Bugs Bunny: "[[Had the Silly Thing In Reverse|I had the silly thing in reverse!]]"

** He might be adressing the cars themselves, though.

*** or they could've actually been women.

* Possibly spoofed in the ''[[Johnny Bravo]]'' episode "My Date With an Antelope". The reason Johnny's date Carol (the titular antelope) can't drive is not because she's a woman (despite one surly cabbie's remark about "Crazy women antelope drivers!"), but because she doesn't have opposable thumbs.

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

** 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.

 

== Web Animation ==

{{quote| '''Strong Bad:''' Say, Bubs, your comedy club bears a striking resemblance to the side of your concession stand.<br />

'''Bubs:''' Aw, that's rich. You know something else that bears a striking resemblance to something else?<br />