Girls and Sexism and Cars

Since I was a little girl I've enjoyed cars. I love to drive fast, I love to work on cars, and I love to admire beautiful cars. For the past two years I've even had jobs in the automotive field.And I generally enjoy my job. There are definitely negatives like sexist old men that don't value my opinion. But I can brush that off telling myself that it's their loss if they don't want to listen to my opinion.

But the sexism that eats away at me and makes me wonder what the hell I'm doing is when women undervalue my opinion or brush me off because I am a woman. I get that sexism isn't just restricted to old men, but it still hurts. The woman that a few years ago refused to let me work on her car because I am a women stayed with me for a long time. However, I've always been lucky to work with guys that appreciate me and the knowledge that I bring to work. My manager refused to service her car. Women are just as capable of enforcing gender stereotypes.

What brings me to write this post is a recent incident between a friend and myself. She has been having issues with one of her cars and me being my nosey self started asking her questions in attempt at a diagnosis. She said that she didn't know because she's a girl and that she isn't a "cool" girl like me. I was floored. I don't consider myself a "cool" girl. I know I get a long with men because we share the same interests. I know I get along with men because I grew up with a younger brother and all boy cousins. I know how to interact with men but I have never, ever, thought that it placed me on some "cool" girl pedestal. I can understand that other women could look at me and be jealous about my easy going nature with men, and that being "one of the guys" is an advantage to something.

I've never felt that way. Instead I get stuck with messy, noisy, inconsiderate boys. I have very few female friends that want to spend a night in and drink wine. I learned how to do my makeup through online videos because I didn't have a sister or a girlfriend to show me how. I don't know how to do my hair. I don't have a girl that I can confide to. Instead I'm one of the "cool" girls.

It's so easy to look at other women and see attributes and personality traits that seem to give them a heads up in the world and either define it as uncool or cool. I think that's very unfair. I don't consider myself cool, I just do what I love. And other girls probably don't consider themselves cool and just do what they love. I think it's so easy to get caught up in being cool, girly, or manly, or smart, or funny without looking inside and understanding that no matter where someone falls on the "cool" scale they probably struggle with similar issues.