RX8 - A girl car??

From dictionary.com:

sex·ism

- Discrimination based on gender, especially discrimination against women.
- Attitudes, conditions, or behaviors that promote stereotyping of social roles based on gender.

sexist

adj. : discriminatory on the basis of sex (usually said of men's attitude toward women) n : a man with a chauvinistic belief in the inferiority of women [syn: male chauvinist]

male chauvinist n. : A man whose behavior and attitude toward women indicate a belief that they are innately inferior to men.

male chauvinist n : a man with a chauvinistic belief in the inferiority of women [syn: sexist]

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A couple of days ago, a rather sensitive issue was brought to light at Mr BR's blog.

Quite a number of regular visitors gave their personal observation and some others felt provoked. This is not a new subject and I am sure the 'people at the top offices' should have realised this with the number of female undergrads entering UBD alone and many others furthering their studies abroad.

I'm not going to throw more oil into an already hot burning fire but rather share with you a recent 'conflict of interest' at my workplace.

I was standing at my friend's table viewing car parts for our car make "4G63's". Out of the blue I asked him if he knew the price of an RX8. After a brief estimation about the price, I made a statement which annoyed a colleague sitting nearby.

My statement,

"The RX8 is a very nice car. A sleeper at 1.3 per chamber. But really ah, the RX8 is a 'girl' car"

Colleague's reply,

"That's a sexist remark" - Sounds something like that, but the word sexist was very clear. I clarified it with another colleague who sat next to her at that time.

I was appalled.

My friend and I jokingly continued talking about how the RX8 really suits a girl and the colleague kept on giving us the 'LOOK'.

The colleague was serious.

So we got the hint and I moved back to my table to get ready for another lesson.

The colleague went out of the room and I asked the 'other people' if my statement was a sexist remark? They didn't feel I made such an atrocious statement. I was only stating my point of view which was shared with my friend and was not ment to agitate anyone, both woman and man.

Honestly many would agree that the RX8 is a girl car but that doesn't mean that a man would not look good driving an RX8 as well.

The point is am I sexist? I googled 'sexist' and first entry was from wikipedia and I found this;

Sexism can refer to subtly different beliefs or attitudes:

• The belief that one sex is superior or more valuable to the other;
• The belief that everyone belongs to either the male sex or the female sex;
• The attitute of misogyny (hatred of females) or misandry (hatred of males);
• The attitute of imposing a limited notion of masculinity (gender) on males (sex) and a limited notion of femininity (gender) on females (sex).

I guess I fall into the second belief - Why do I have to segregate cars to be either Male or Female? I do believe I am not the only car-mad person to give gender to cars.

I have some suggested reasons for why the statement ticked the colleague off;

1. Maybe the colleague knows a man who drives an RX8
2. Maybe the colleague knows a relative who drives an RX8 and the person is not a girl
3. Or simply I am 'SEXIST'

Note: No offence to Male RX8 owners. Its a wonderful car.

I would like to make my point clear that I did not intend to be sexist. If you need some examples of how to avoid being sexist in writing there is a very interesting article from the University of Teeside Charter about how not to discriminate anyone in academic writing.

Bet you also didn't know that in old-fashion writing 'He' refers to both male and female.

Gender inequality is not a new thing. There are so many aspects or angles from which to view this discrimination. It exist everywhere and everywhere in the world women are joining associations and groups to push for better women rights and equality. I have met young women in the commonwealth who are independent and dare to challenge but again we are so different in so many different aspects that we cannot really apply what they have done and make it into our own.

So help me out and vote on the poll on the sidebar, if I really am sexist by saying "An RX8 is a 'girl' car".