Honda just unveiled its new car for women, the Honda She's. Is this sexist or brilliant? Should car makers determine a car's "gender identity" or should we simply be allowed to express ourselves through customization -- like MINI owners have been doing for years!

http://goo.gl/dWcp6

John Lindauer
DrivingMyMINI
www.DrivingMyMINI.blogspot.com

 

I found your post while seeing if anyone had discussed how they arrived at whether their MINI is male or female. It is sorta funny how we ascribe these sorts of things to inanimate objects. Then again, I anthropomorphize my cars, especially my MINI, in myriad other ways.

Historically I always thought modes of transportation were supposed to be female—ships and the like, for instance. But my MINI is, in my head, male. No idea why... He just... Was.

As for auto makers making those decisions for us? Peculiar, and seemingly a bit constraining from a marketing perspective.

 

Mine too! All my cars have been males for one reason or another. I do think its a little weird that Honda would advertise a car specifically for women, I'm sure theres a group out there protesting against this!

 

Yea, i'm trying not to be too offended by Honda's new marketing strategy...but I mean really? I played with plastic dinosaurs and hot wheels as a little girl. I'm not one to conform to any mold of what a "She" should be. I don't really think it's a car company's place to decide that either. And the fact that they made them all some shade of pink. Like that's clearly every woman's favorite color. Come on. Maybe i'm just taking this personally because I think the Fit is pretty hideous. Who knows.

As for my car, HIS name is Stitch. Horizon Blue Metallic + Devilish Mini Driving= a devious little cartoon character name. Sometimes also 626 but I don't want to confuse people by naming it another car (Mazda 626).

 

The Fit is beyond hideous, IMHO. I ended-up with Pretje (my plain MINI—or I guess "justa" in the parlance I'm seeing here) because I was trying to find an economical commuter car. (Then I discovered economical can be massive fun too, when you own a MINI.) The Fit kept coming-up in searches as something that met my criteria. Blecch. To me anyway, it has the aesthetic appeal of wad of aluminum foil, but no disrespect to those who own and love them. I'm sure they're out there... Somewhere.

Nearly went with a Fiat 500... So glad I discovered my MINI is only 4% heavier than the 500—but 20% more powerful. AND I get over 37 MPG.

Oh, and high-fives for Horizon Blue, Stitch. ;-)

 

Hahaha that sentence is perfection. Good call on not going with the Fiat. People love to compare MINI's to Fiats and I just can't see it really. MINI's are just well..better.

P.S. Does this mean you have Horizon Blue too??

 

Personally, I applaud it. The default in our society is male. So most cars are already designed not to offend the sensibilities of men. You have no ideas how hard it is for me to find a car. Most times it is the hideous interior that turns me off.

And why does it always seem to bring out teeth gnashing when an auto (or scooter) is pink? While searching for examples of pink MINIs I found a post on a forum where a man wrapped a MINI in pink for his daughter. OMG, the pure filth it brought out was unreal. But had he wrapped one in a matte black for his son, not a word would have been said. Why is that? People are just weird.

 

Selling he MINI and moving to Japan

 

It's not there's anything wrong with pink, or asserting your femininity through whichever means you'd like, in this case; a vehicle. I don't care if your a guy or a girl, if pink is your favorite color, then knock yourself out, more power to you. It's the assumption that wrapping everything in pink automatically makes it girly. Not to mention the "special features" they included in this concept:
-A windshield that was specifically engineered to block more UV Rays due to women's naturally "sensitive skin"
-"Plasma Cluster" air conditioning, also meant to help prevent dry skin.

It's like they dumbed the car down because it was meant to be driven by women. I don't know how to take that in a positive way.

Thanks for thinking we're so special I guess?

 

Indeed! I have yet to get the right combination of clean car + good weather + good location + decent camera with me to get a good "glamour shot," but he's Horizon Blue, black top, and generally very plain, I suppose, as MINIs go—but the best car I've ever owned, and the most fun I've ever had behind the wheel of a car in my (many) years of driving.

 

Hmm, I have nothing against offering additional color options such as pink, purple, etc. for those so inclined. Where I take offense is slapping pink and hearts on something and saying it is for women. They do this with all types of products these days. It's fine to offer variety in colors, styles, sizes... But just offer it as variety. Don't label it to be gender-specific.

I also find the Fit to be hideous so wonder why they think women have no taste in cars just because its pink. But perhaps other women out there love it. Personally, I much prefer my Wonder Woman and I'm definitely anthropomorphizing her to be super girly, lol.

But under the hood, she's a mean JCW CM and I got her for her power and performance and was more concerned with the technical specs than whether I could get it in pink or not.

Allowing more customization in vehicles? Awesome. Pigeon-holing people into gender specific cars? Fail. Just my two cents!

 

I would say that the pink VW bug is a womens car
Never seen a man driving one yet