Jane Jason and the origin of the joke "women are bad drivers"

This is 18 in the 24-episode series, which tells every episode of 1962-63 "The Jason Family" TV series.

Before becoming an authority on etiquette, Emily Post was a roving soldier. "The problem with these overpasses is that they were out of date when they were built." This is the worst traffic I have ever seen, "declared George Gjertsen as he drove around in his flying car.

It is the first episode of 18 of "The Gjertsen Family" which premiered on 19631October 27th, and is called "Jane's driving lesson". As expected, this episode is about flying cars in 2063. Specifically, the female driver in 2063.

This episode proudly shows its sexism in every corner. When men are constantly afraid of the woman behind the steering wheel, or as the case may be, treat it as a laughing stock. George stopped behind a young female driver, and the bee was confused by her gesture. "Female driver, this is the problem! George shouted at the woman.

When we watched the Jason Family episode 15, the title was Astro Boy, and I wrote about the socio-economic conservatism of this program. This episode is another example of conservatism in the play. It is also not the political significance of "Red State vs Blue State", but an affirmation of the social status quo. But where does this myth that female drivers are worse than male drivers come from? "

Michael L. Berger wrote in his 1986 paper "Female drivers! The emergence of folklore and stereotypes about women's car behavior "the history of stereotypes about women being bad drivers." Just like Jason's joke that "women are bad drivers", humor has been used to continue this sexist rhetoric for a long time:

Because although it often appears in the humorous context, the folklore about female drivers, at the same time, due to very serious social reasons, has also appeared negative stereotypes. They try to keep women in their positions and protect them from the influence of social and self-corruption.

As Berg pointed out in his paper, the view that women are bad drivers is deeply rooted in class and wealth. However, it was not until the 1920s that American middle-class women began to have the opportunity to use cars, and this stereotype was really taken seriously. Before that, only a few rich people (including men and women) could afford luxury goods like cars:

As long as driving is limited to wealthy urban women, people rarely criticize their ability as drivers. They are all women with high social and economic status and work in their spare time. Few people will criticize them if they choose to drive in the city instead of drinking tea at home. This change poses little or no threat to the established social order, so there is no need for negative stereotypes. 19 10 s，

Car prices are falling, and many people are going to fight a war, so that women have both the "need and the opportunity" to learn to drive. For those women who have not yet learned to drive:

By the end of the year, cars are indeed likely to be adopted by a large number of middle-class women. It is from this period, rather than the initial introduction of cars, that we can trace back to the origin and folklore of the stereotype of female drivers, which is part of it.

Jane Gjertsen was a frequent visitor to the American middle class in 2063-1963 women should identify with this woman in the program. On the other hand, the girls in 1963 should regard this woman as their future.

Jane's driving skills are so bad that even a bank robber asked to go to jail instead of staying with her in the car for a while. Jane learned to drive on the show, but when the coach wanted to stop and check his safe (and his life insurance policy), a bank robber appeared and jumped into the car. Jane kept driving. G, I believe he must be another driving instructor. The bank robber was afraid of Jane driving. At the end of this episode, he begged to be put in prison instead of sitting in the car with Jane and enduring more time.

After George found Jane at the police station, things got better (George was handcuffed again). Jane explained, "You know George, but I'm really not good at driving anyway.

George replied, "well, it might be better if you don't drive." Driving requires a person's skills; A person's judgment; A person's technical knowledge

There's another person's sight, George? Jane replied, just before George realized that he had run a red light and hit a parked car. Just like the metaphor of "women are not good at doing things" in the middle of many centuries, it is destined to be a kind of * * *. The audience was winked tactfully. Isn't it ridiculous that men are as terrible as women sitting on the steering wheel? Thanks to an indifferent judge (the parked car that George hit was owned by the judge), George had to take the flying bus. Interestingly, in this episode, the only bus stop we saw (except in the early stage of this episode) was in the first episode, when Rosie tried to escape glumly.

George waited at the bus stop after his driver's license was revoked (the Gjertsen family) (1963), which is very similar to other episodes of The Gjertsen family. We have to think about what realistic impact different descriptions of the future will have on the world we live in today. Obviously, this episode is just a long joke about "women are terrible drivers", which is easy to be ignored, but children all over the world have seen this scene repeatedly throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Time and time again, we see "Gjertsen" being used to talk about the future we live in now.

Nowadays, people like Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, point to products like iPhone and say, "We use this to broadcast Gjertsen live". What if the Jetsons reference point used by people in 2 1 century is not only technical? If someone can point out other forms of progress and say, "This is the Jason family. We really live in the future.