You guys, I have a feminist conundrum, and I thought I would throw it out to you.
The other day I was getting the oil in my car changed, and when they went to charge me, I noticed the bill was much lower than I thought it would be. You know I love money, right? There was absolutely no way I was going to tell them they made a mistake, and then I noticed the reason why they gave me the discount and it made me skeeve out a little bit.
It was Ladies’ Day.
Ladies’ Day, people. I got the discount because it happened to be Ladies’ Day, and I happen to BE A LADY.
This is where I enter “quandary” territory. I think by now we should all be equal, so on principle I object to a theme day that seems sexist, like, I know the dealership only has this day because women, the “weaker” sex, are supposed to be afraid of going to the big bad car dealership and talking to scary men about cars. This is where I go all grad school and declare that I don’t need the patriarchy condescending to me, that I am perfectly capable of getting my car serviced, that I’ve worked really hard to achieve what I have in my life, and I don’t need a discount based solely on my gender, that they don't know me, and if they did they would know I was just going there anyway and didn't take their discount "bait." This is the part that makes me want to pay the half-price bill and then call Gloria Allred becasue I feel like my rights have been violated. Do you think they considered OTHER disenfranchised members of society when they came up with this promotion? Are they going to have an African American Day, for instance? What about a Gay Day? Transgender Day? Would THOSE be offensive? They would, wouldn’t they? And yet, they are based on the same principle—give someone a discount based solely on what they ARE, because that group traditionally is underrepresented in their statistics.
I think what bothers me about it is that it’s trying to be INCLUSIVE of women because they obviously don’t go to the dealership as much, but it’s achieving this by POINTING OUT THAT WE’RE DIFFERENT. Dude!
I know, I’m blowing it out of proportion, but something about it strikes me as sexist. Did I mention the manicurist in the waiting room?
What do you think? By accepting this discount, am I inherently agreeing with the still-existent social disparity, even though I am probably smarter and more successful than most of the sausages that work at that dealership?
See how I disparaged them back by calling them “sausages,” which does not take into account that they are individuals, who worked hard to get where they are, and don’t deserve to be lumped in to a totally arbitrary category based on man or lady parts and thereby given a discount? Gah!
I’m only partially kidding. I took the discount, so obviously it must not have offended my feminist sensibilities that much. I still object to the stereotype that women don’t know about cars, and that we somehow NEED a discount to incentivize us to get our cars fixed. Separate but equal, man! Si se puede!
Your thoughts?
By the way, the picture is of a Georgia O'Keefe painting. Get your mind out of the gutter. It's a FLOWER, ok?
