Auto Bodies vs. Women's Bodies

I find it an amusement that often times when people talk about cars they apply female pronouns to the object that is only meant to get them from point A to point B. Statements like "I love hearing her purr" or "She's a real beaut" perfectly encapsulates how heteronormative our society is along with the constant objectification of women. Mad Men did a perfect sequence of this in their fifth season when SCDP were trying to land the Jaguar account and were coming up with advertisement ideas to pitch to the company. They went with the mistress angle without saying the word "mistress" because apparently cheating on your wife is tacky even though every man who worked at SCDP was a womanizer and slamming other people's pussy without blinking an eye. But I guess the sanctity of marriage or something, right? 

Considering the fact that women and cars go together hand in hand, you would expect women would be treated with a certain respect when going to a mechanic or any auto parts store. Obviously if you treat your car like the precious, beautiful, feminine, treasure it should logically follow that any human woman or woman identifying individual would be treated in the exact same manner. Often times though, that is hardly the case.

I will be the first to admit I am not a car person whatsoever. Every thing I know about cars is what my dad taught me. Every time I have had a car problem in the past, I have gone to my father. He's not a mechanic but he has been fixing his own cars for the past 30 + years and often times my car has had relatively easy fixes. Usually my dad will see what's wrong with the car and instruct me what to ask for when I have to pick up a part or go to the mechanic to get something fixed or replaced. He advises me what I should look for and what to ask. He educates me as best he can because he knows that my gender will often times put me in a position that will fuck me over. His education from identifying car issues to getting them fixed to fixing them myself is all in a bid to make me more independent so I don't have to rely on someone else or to rely on any man. I honestly don't know how I'd cope without him sometimes.

Going to Auto Zone is always an adventure in my patience. It's a hit or miss and I yield different results each time I go. Sometimes the people who work there will be helpful and sometimes even educate me on things I wasn't aware of. Other times I find myself looking like a crazy person asking for something the person behind the counter has never heard of and I am accused of making it up or not knowing what the hell I'm talking about.

Last year I had to replace my signal wand because it broke off. I guess using your blinker too much can really break the whole thing off. I went to Auto Zone and asked the older gentleman behind the counter, naively thinking he would know what I was talking about. Without making the effort of actually looking up the item, he gave me a weird look and said he never heard of it and I would have to go to the manufacturer to get the part. He was condescending towards me in speech and gave me a look as if I was a woman therefore I know jack shit about cars. I was invading his territory with such silly questions and wasting his precious time staring into space and helping customers who knew something about fixing cars. I bought oil cylinder lubricant and stormed out of the store in a huff. The next day I went to Pep Boys, expecting the same treatment or worse, where to my delightful surprise they found the part with little to no struggle.  I was out of the store within five minutes.

A few months ago my check engine light came on. In my ten years of driving I never encountered the light before so I was nervous. I first changed my spark plugs because I had realized that in my four years owning my car I had never changed them. While it didn't turn the light off, it was something that needed to be replaced. My next fix was my gas cap, which still didn't turn my light off but when both of those failed I went to Pep Boys to see if they could do the test to see what was going on with my car. When they told me it would be $89 and they could only give me the codes and not the actual diagnosis, I realized I was screwed. Then I discovered that Auto Zone did the test for free so I went to get my test done there where I found it was my throttle body unit that was fucking every thing up. Because the part was so expensive I had to wait to buy the part.

Last weekend I had my tax return and my dad had the time to replace the part. I decided to head to the auto parts to pick up the part then head to my dad's to where he could fix it. I went to Pep Boys first since I have had good luck with them and it was on the way to my dad's. I asked the gentleman behind the counter for the part. He was taken aback and said "I've never heard of that". He asked if it was the fuel injector and I told him no that it was the throttle body. He immediately admitted he was surprised I knew what that was and spent five minutes sputzing on the computer, trying to find the part. I even googled the image for him on my phone to help out his investigation. He finally gave up and said they didn't carry it. I tried not to be frustrated, told him thanks and moved on to Auto Zone. Obviously they should have it since they diagnosed the problem for me to begin with and gave me price listings on the part. 

I went to the Auto Zone down the road where I thought my efforts would be better met. Again, I found myself to be the insane woman throwing around terms that have no meaning. The man behind the counter gave me that famous confused look I have seen time and time again when getting anything at the auto parts. He proceeded to tell me at first the part didn't exist, then insisted I wanted the fuel injector. I told him no, I wanted the throttle body and specifically mentioned that it was their store that diagnosed my issue. I told him I have a picture of what it looks like. He asked me to bring it, so I had to go back to my car, find the chapter in my repair manual book about throttle body units and show it to him. After seeing it, he conferred with a colleague and the light bulb went on and he was able to search what I was talking about and order me the part that would come later in the day. 

I understand many people who work at the auto parts may not know everything about car parts and the like, however I feel like I would be treated differently in one of those places if I were a man. If someone like my dad had walked in and asked for that, they wouldn't give him a confused look. They would probably give an answer like "Let me see if we have that at this store" and furiously look it up. They wouldn't insist he wanted something else. If there's anything I hate more is being treated like an idiot, and men in auto parts stores make me feel like that on a regular basis. 

If you want to equate your cars to female characteristics and give your hunk of metal the gender of being female, then in turn you must treat any woman with the respect you give your car because unlike your object you drive around in, women are actually human with minds and feelings. We can think for ourselves, we can read up on repairing cars and we can fix our own cars. And surprise! We don't need men doing that shit for us. Women fixing their own shit has been a thing for a while. Sorry if that's too much of a scary thought for you.