What exactly was Adam's point about the car repair? Knowing how to change a tire or boost a battery is what makes a man? Sorry, but that's idiotic. Is it also important for a man to know how to make a fire using only sticks? Or skin a deer? Do women need to know how to sew? People need to know the skills that relate to the responsibiliti…
What exactly was Adam's point about the car repair? Knowing how to change a tire or boost a battery is what makes a man? Sorry, but that's idiotic. Is it also important for a man to know how to make a fire using only sticks? Or skin a deer? Do women need to know how to sew? People need to know the skills that relate to the responsibilities they are relied on for in the era they live.
I get that there are things that can reasonably be considered to be masculine traits, but being into cars is not one of them.
You have to admit that his implication that if necessary, you should be willing and able to get into a brainless fistfight in traffic provides food for thought.
I’m sorry, the idea that car knowledge isn’t coded as masculine is laughable.
I get your point that men and women would both be well served to know the basics and I agree. However, as someone who does this for a living, I can count on one hand(and don’t need any fingers on that hand) the number of female technicians/mechanics I’ve seen in the field. I know they’re out there and that they exist, but I’ve been doing this for a while and have never worked with or seen one in the buildings I frequent. That alone is a really good indicator as to how heavily male-dominated the mechanical repair industries are. What he said is not by any means a stretch.
Of course you're right that car knowledge is coded as masculine. But that doesn't mean that if you don't have that car knowledge, you're "less of" a man. That's what he is implying when he's mocking someone for not having that knowledge. Hunting is also coded as masculine. But would anyone think it's reasonable to think someone is less of a man if they don't hunt?
I still think his point was accurate in that the breadth of baseline knowledge about cars or hunting or construction or any other example that you can pull out of a hat was much higher and more commonplace in the past.
Any current conversation about man-cards being revoked will lead to the same rabbit hole. The standards have shifted slightly for today’s society, but that’s partially his point.
I would agree with Adam's assessment because clearly we all need to know how to change a tire or jump a car. Nobody needs to know how to skin a deer to survive. You might as well be saying, why learn to cook because we have Uber Eats? Where would the "modern conveniences make life better in all ways" argument logically end?
But we *don't* need to know how to change a tire or jump a car! We can easily call AAA or a mechanic or a buddy and have someone else do it for us just fine. Just like we have people who kill and prepare our meat, there are plenty of people who can perform this job the few times in our life it arises.
Plus, if it were indeed true that we all needed to know that, then why would it be a "man" thing to know? Why wouldn't women also need to know this skill?
When I got a nail in a tire on my new car, I was surprised to find that there was no spare tire in the trunk, and I was told that the company stopped including them because it offers roadside service. I'm a tad skeptical of this. But I was going to struggle to change it without help.
For me, I know how to do enough things. A doctor ought to be able to pay someone else to make his car and his appliances and his technology work.
What exactly was Adam's point about the car repair? Knowing how to change a tire or boost a battery is what makes a man? Sorry, but that's idiotic. Is it also important for a man to know how to make a fire using only sticks? Or skin a deer? Do women need to know how to sew? People need to know the skills that relate to the responsibilities they are relied on for in the era they live.
I get that there are things that can reasonably be considered to be masculine traits, but being into cars is not one of them.
You have to admit that his implication that if necessary, you should be willing and able to get into a brainless fistfight in traffic provides food for thought.
I’m sorry, the idea that car knowledge isn’t coded as masculine is laughable.
I get your point that men and women would both be well served to know the basics and I agree. However, as someone who does this for a living, I can count on one hand(and don’t need any fingers on that hand) the number of female technicians/mechanics I’ve seen in the field. I know they’re out there and that they exist, but I’ve been doing this for a while and have never worked with or seen one in the buildings I frequent. That alone is a really good indicator as to how heavily male-dominated the mechanical repair industries are. What he said is not by any means a stretch.
Of course you're right that car knowledge is coded as masculine. But that doesn't mean that if you don't have that car knowledge, you're "less of" a man. That's what he is implying when he's mocking someone for not having that knowledge. Hunting is also coded as masculine. But would anyone think it's reasonable to think someone is less of a man if they don't hunt?
Your point is well made.
I still think his point was accurate in that the breadth of baseline knowledge about cars or hunting or construction or any other example that you can pull out of a hat was much higher and more commonplace in the past.
Any current conversation about man-cards being revoked will lead to the same rabbit hole. The standards have shifted slightly for today’s society, but that’s partially his point.
I would agree with Adam's assessment because clearly we all need to know how to change a tire or jump a car. Nobody needs to know how to skin a deer to survive. You might as well be saying, why learn to cook because we have Uber Eats? Where would the "modern conveniences make life better in all ways" argument logically end?
But we *don't* need to know how to change a tire or jump a car! We can easily call AAA or a mechanic or a buddy and have someone else do it for us just fine. Just like we have people who kill and prepare our meat, there are plenty of people who can perform this job the few times in our life it arises.
Plus, if it were indeed true that we all needed to know that, then why would it be a "man" thing to know? Why wouldn't women also need to know this skill?
Women should know it, too.
When I got a nail in a tire on my new car, I was surprised to find that there was no spare tire in the trunk, and I was told that the company stopped including them because it offers roadside service. I'm a tad skeptical of this. But I was going to struggle to change it without help.
For me, I know how to do enough things. A doctor ought to be able to pay someone else to make his car and his appliances and his technology work.
This very same thing happened to me just a few months ago. I was flabbergasted when I discovered there was no spare, just a Fix-a-Flat air compressor!