I drove past a car wash today, and it made me uncomfortable.
I don't mean one of those automatic car washes where you drive your car onto this conveyor belt of sorts and ride through this complicated system of sprays and giant fluffy cylinders that rub against the sides of your car.
Those are AWESOME.
They're like the poor person's haunted ride at a carnival. My sister and I used to call these "monster car washes," and our mom would take us to them as a special treat.
No, I mean the bikini washes that are starting to sprinkle the local parking lots. The ones where school groups or other such organizations need money and decide to hold a car wash fundraiser. I remember partaking in one for the high school band once. I remember feeling inadequate because I didn't get selected to stand on the streetcorner in a bikini waving a sign and shaking my ass. Though it was never presented that way to us, it was common knowledge that this was a job reserved for pretty girls.
Hmmm... a tradition in which skantily-clad, often dripping wet, attractive underage girls stand on street corners dancing, shimmying, hollering, singing, and whatever else they can do to entice passersby to give them money. The car washes are "free," mind you.
Donations accepted.
Am I getting prudish in my old age, or does this sound remarkably like another, much more illegal, activity? And why is this acceptable? If it were really as innocent as people say, we'd see just as many boys out there holding signs.
I'm not saying bikini car washes don't have their place. I'm just saying that it is a common narrative in our society. One which has a very specific meaning. And having underage girls in bikinis advertising car washes draws upon this narrative.
As does the following. But this I find funny, not irksome. Go figure.
Free Car Wash - The funniest home videos are here
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Are Car Washes Sexist?
Posted by
Anomie
at
5:39 PM
Labels: sex and gender
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2 comments:
I think the answer is an obvious yes.
I feel like the better question to ask is, how pernicious is this practice? Indeed, it seems that that is what you're actually trying to get at. It is as if you're trying to use the threshold of whether this practice bothers you to decide whether or not it is sexist. That comes from being trapped in a sexist/non-sexist binary. Thus, why I feel it's best to get past this and focus on the real issue -- how much this bothers you, or, rather, how pernicious the practice is.
The video you posted bothers me more because of its simplistic (attempt at) humor rather than its sexism, though it doesn't seem very pernicious, which may be why it gets a pass from you.
Bikini car washes have a different dynamic because they are (a) public and (b) enact discipline on those who see the practice as well as those who are urged to participate, as you noted in your own experience.
Yeah, I guess it was a bad choice for post title. I definitely think they're sexist; the post was meant to be my answer to the question...and apparently that approach to post titling isn't readily obvious.
Estimating the perniciousness level was more my goal. Actually, I think it's the age issue that bothers me more than the sexism of it. Maybe. Still working out my thoughts on that one.
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