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Women: Why? Men: Why Not?
So yesterday as I was running errands around town (north central Texas), I saw a car that looked like a banana.
After confirming I was not hallucinating, I mentioned it to Mrs. Tabby. She responded, “Why?” Whereas male friends generally responded, “Cool. What’s it built on?” (An old Ford pickup chassis, for those interested.)
The Banana Car is a homemade affair and apparently travels around the country to do publicity appearances. As a homemade, the Banana Car is a little different from the commercially prepared Oscar Mayer Weinermobiles, of which several travel the country for Oscar Mayer.
(There’s a good story behind the Weinermobiles: https://www.mashed.com/1210268/the-story-behind-oscar-mayers-wienermobile-and-other-popular-food-vehicles/)
Mrs. Tabby’s “Why?” versus my male friends’ “Sounds great!” responses to the Banana Car reminded me of responses I encountered many years ago (during the early days of robotics) when several students at a nearby university (with a large engineering school) developed a robot to retrieve soft drinks from the hallway vending machine in the dormitory while they were playing video games. To this student robot project, women almost universally asked, “Why?” while most men responded, “Cool” or “Great idea!” Around that time, some of the same students also produced an early prototype of a couch with a built-in refrigerator for beer or soft drinks. It generated the same divergence of responses.
This “Why?” versus “Why Not?” difference has long stood for me as emblematic of some personality traits that tend to be different between men and women. Men’s “why not?” approach is why most innovators and entrepreneurs are men. Of course, it’s also why boys and men do things that cause them to be hurt and die in accidents at play and at work at higher rates than women do.
And of course, like all such broad generalizations, they are not universal. MOST.
I (a man) do not have the “Why Not?” response (though I’m fascinated that people do such things). Our daughter-in-law has a fair amount of the “Why Not?” response.
Are you “Why?” or “Why not?”
Published in Culture
I would say that person is quite unique!
The unaired pilot was very different, and even the aired pilot carried across a few elements that were quickly dismissed as if they’d never happened.
Another show that’s worth seeing all the way through like that? Charmed. The original version, I mean.
Also Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
I heard Buffy is coming back with some of the original cast.
But not Michelle Trachtenberg. :-( Probably not a good idea overall, really.
Interesting. A few months ago I was smoking a stogie at the cigar store nearest my house in Columbus, and a banana car much like the one in the picture (maybe the one for all I know,) tore up and down High Street for about 30 minutes. The people in the car looked delighted. The ‘naner was fairly loud, but I don’t remember hearing it peel out.
I do. That’s how I get in so much trouble.
Yeah, it works out that way for me too.
Stupid Emerson.
It apparently goes all over the country, and was built in Ohio and Pennsylvania, so an appearance in Columbus wouldn’t surprise me.