My perception is that there is a fairly good gender balance at the auto shows I regularly attend at the LeMay Collections at Marymount. Thus, it is curious how few women appear to participate in U.S. auto history media, either as writers or commentators. That seems to be a general pattern regardless of media outlet, including here at Indie Auto.
Is it thus a coincidence that this topic is rarely discussed? I can recall only one example — a Curbside Classic post titled, “QOTD: Are There Any Ladies in The House?” (Stopford, 2016). Below you will find a rather pointed response by “longtime lurker” Patricia Elger.
In light of the current administration’s war on “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives, I suspect that some may find Elger’s quote to be controversial. If so, know that the whole point of Indie Auto is to offer an independent perspective rather than only discuss what’s popular — and makes that cash register ring!
“Longtime Lurker, but I would say that despite being an earnest attempt to open up dialogue, some of the above comments would probably point to why there isn’t actually a lot of female participation on Curbside Classic, nevermind folks of color, LGBT enthusiasts, etc.
In my time of staying in the shadows it seems that the majority of enthusiasts that comment here are White, Male, Older, Conservative and speak in a lot of ‘in my day’ terms that paint a rosy picture that’s rather escapist of the now.
It doesn’t seem that open to dialogue from alternate perspectives for many of the ‘others’ to have their own interpretation of that ‘then.’ Or that now for that matter. It’s a bit better, but some of the comments you see on a regular basis here fit in the ‘don’t read the comments’ realm or seem like mansplaining 101. It might be space for a certain archetype to pine and lament for an America that once was more reflective of how they interpreted culture, and that’s fine. Just don’t expect others to engage in that with you.
You’d have to perpetually be in a Joan Crawford vs. The Pepsi Board of directors mode to comment here.”
— Patricia Elger, Curbside Classic (2016)
RE:SOURCES
- Elger, Patricia; 2016. Commentator in “QOTD: Are There Any Ladies in The House?” Curbside Classic. Posted August 22 at 1:48 pm.
- Stopford, William; 2016. “QOTD: Are There Any Ladies in The House?” Curbside Classic. Posted August 22.
PHOTOGRAPHY:
- Joan Crawford: 1969 publicity photo for her appearance on the NBC television show, “Night Gallery.” From Wikipedia; public domain.
There is a lot of validity in this criticism. Old car sites are either Muscle Car oriented, or they are just about all kinds of older American cars. These sites attract and are designed to appeal to the fans of these cars , who are mostly Older,(sometimes surprisingly older!) men, primarily Caucasian, That’s really a an assumption. (hard to tell unless we see their picture). Look in Grand Pa’s closet, you shouldn’t be surprised to find, old, dusty, out of fashion clothing, that’s out of touch with the times, and probably doesn’t even fit anymore!
I know that there a lot of sites that aren’t very welcoming to different views. Some are quite hostile, I avoid such sites. There are sites like Curbside Classics which are more welcoming. I am interested in hearing anyone’s thoughtful comments about old cars. Yes, nostalgia is going to play a big part on those sites. Different viewpoints and experiences are good for all of us to encourage.
While I am now older, a male, and straight. My ethnicity and social class was not historically always welcomed as a participant
Laurence Jones started his site, Dynamic Drives openly stating that his views were those of a specific Gay Black man. I know that his life experiences are somewhat different than mine, but there are probably similarities and common ground. Let your voice be heard.
Agreed. Diversity feels like a tricky topic with auto history media. One of the first stories I wrote for Indie Auto was, “How 1960s car design reflected the good old (boy) days.” I analyzed a late-60s Ford p.r. film using the lenses of gender, race, class and orientation. If this had been published on a major website, I assume that the story would have received heavy pushback.
The auto history field just isn’t used to talking about this stuff. And as long as websites are primarily focused on entertaining rather than educating, I can see why editors would decide to not take too many risks. Yet we need to in order to open up the conversation. So thank you for responding to this post.