A quick question: I'm stuck and you can help me out.I download podcasts of radio shows to listen to when working out at the gym. Car Talk on NPR is one of my favorites.
I've noticed that when women describe the problem their car is having they usually explain it with very realistic sound effects.
Men, who can accurately imitate 423 gross body noises, will use words to describe the noise a car is making. Men rarely give sound effects and, when they do, the sounds are pretty lame.
Why is this? Is this genetic, cultural, a tin ear syndrome ...? How come women have a knack for this and men don't? A man can imitate the sound of any make of car accelerating zero-to-sixty, but can't seem to bring himself to imitate a car that's sick. Is there a hidden message here? Are men more sensitive than we think?
I am finishing a book called "The BrotherHood — NOT!" about why men shoot themselves in the foot and what they can do to avoid that.
A clever answer from you might make it into that book. No attribution credit, but you'd have the satisfaction of seeing your words in print and pointing them out to your friends.
You could do that anyway, of course, but your conscience will be clearer if you actually give me your thoughts below. (All thoughts are acceptable. This is a humor book and need not be grounded in any scientific fact.)
Thanks.
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Comments: 182
And what is it with "CHECK ENGINE?" Check if there is one?
Sorry, John. ROFL.
Speak at their level. LOL
And you are right about the spelling ... exactly my thought the second I read "Squeeeeeeeeiiiiich...ka-clump!"
Thanks.
http://www.womenshealthresearch.org/site/PageServer?pagename=hs_facts_brain
Thanks John~
(Hmmm "noisy testosterone" - there must be something there I can use.)
1) One reason I wouldn't try to imitate the sound would be the fear of looking stupid.
2) It just occurred to me that on the Car Talk program women are explaining something over the phone. Does that make a difference?
What does peaking the eyebrows do?
the strongest, longest lasting, and often most pejorative UNION in the world is the 'sisterhood' of women aligned against men for any reason.. and men get to pay the dues... how about that!
};~)>
As far as noises go, last year, in a trying year with a very trying woman, her driving a honest 50 mile per gallon (her numbers, not mine), older Honda I found her she complained that the brakes squeaked... now this car wasn't "her" as in it didn't come with, a "bling" factor... and she shortly after deciding the same thing about ME, traded it for about four hundred a month's payment SUV that got about 16-18 miles per gallon...
Anyway the disc pads squeaked... as disc pads do..
my response, running up and down three flights of stairs caring for two dysfunctional wimmen???
"TURN THE RADIO UP..."
Trying to get a movie CD to play in the meantime.
or
is it
women are all sound and no sense?
Which is it John?
Though I do like the idea of communicating on their level.
Have to say though, never been an issue for me. Mom used to race cars, and Daddy's always been a car nut, so I grew up knowing about cars. Had to be able to pass my Mom's homemade car exam before I was allowed to get my permit, much less be allowed out on the road on my own.
That said, when I can hire it done, or bat my eyelashes to get it done for me (particularly effective in Southern states and rural areas) I will.
But I will also NEVER be taken advantage of by a mechanic. In fact, had one in New Orleans (when I was in college) try to tell me that I needed to replace my entire brake system. All I actually needed was new rear calipers and discs. But he pulled out the "But sweetheart, you wouldn't want your car to be BROKEN would you?" crap. I promptly went to a different mechanic...
It is so odd cause when small it's boys who learn to imitate a car running with their little lips vibrating . My sons were around 2 years of age when they could do a very good likeness of a car running.
Now my husband is a different story altogether. He has very little car "sense" and while he is getting better at it, still has difficulty in describing a car issue. Heck, after we were married I had to teach him how to change a tire and the spark plugs! LOL!
I now get more respect since that happened. I think its because traditionally women spent a lot of time communicating with babies and they learned how to make sounds to entertain the kids. At least thats my opinion. My daughter does this also.
Interesting article!
"No pocketa-pocketa?"
"Nope."
So a few days later I set out for home, leaving at five a.m. to beat the L.A. rush hour. I got about thirty miles when the "pocketa-pocketa" kicked in, and as I went over the Sepulveda pass, the dashboard dials leapt from the left to the right and the car began to gasp, which, combined with the pocketa-pocketa, made it sound like an asthmatic clog dancer. I managed to get halfway up an offramp before the car died. The sun was just creeping over the horizon. After about fifteen minutes a police car came along. The officer surveyed worried woman, car with hood up, and sleeping children in back seat, and said, "You can't park here."
I won't keep you in suspense: it was the water pump, which, because I didn't take care of it right away, led to a blown head gasket, and a $$$ repair bill.
Women empathize with the car. Therefore we can sound like it.
I think the issue is one of performance anxiety (no, not that kind...) Men are, as a rule, extremely leery of appearing ridiculous in front of their friends, or worse, strangers (at least after they have passed the fraternity-membership stage of life) and will generally attempt to pretend that they have some idea of what's going on in any circumstance.
So instead of making a funny noise that will tell Tom and Ray in five seconds exactly what's going on, men will instead say "It sounds as if the alternator is causing friction with the brake disc rotors connected to the spark plug wires," thereby revealing that if they actually did attempt any maintenance on their cars themselves, there would be at least one fatality the next time they went driving.
BTW, Doc knows all.
Randall, I used to have a car like that.
I've noticed that men seem better at answering that question than the women on Car Talk.
That's an interesting theory, Mary. Maybe women do more sound effects for situation than men, expect for the male "classics" that we needn't go into here.
"pocketa-pocketa" - there we go with that ability to spell it theme again.
I quess making the sound is a way to empathize with it as well.
Especially looking stupid about mechanical things. This is why we are so conflicted about washing machines.
What I noticed was men rarely mimic the noise.
"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." Our mothers always told us that when our younger sisters stole our clothes and acted just like us. And it's a well-known fact that cars require flattery to continue working properly. So we're doing our best to flatter the car while describing the problem, so it doesn't feel bad about itself!
Though, we are talking about females, so maybe that holds water.
I'm putting it on my possible list. (And it's high on the Humor Potential Meter)
Thanks.
Thanks.
Women have to get to work and dont want to break down on the side of the road.
They have to transport children to school and want to make them there on time and not have children stranded too in hot sun or freezing weather. If the car dont work, neither does the heater or a/c.
When I was having problems with my car and accurately described what it was doing , all the men laughed at me. some said battery, I bought a new one. No dice. Some said its like your home you have to clean it. So they once again cleaned the battery post. I knew to do that and how. It would be running fine then just die going home. Everyman would just laugh and have me buying parts and things that I could not afford and support 3 children. then finally one day, no start to go to work. No lights, no nothing with new battery. cleaned post. So finally this being the first year they put those expensive brains for lack of better word, in the cars. One man told me let him go get one of those. It was the problem all along. After installing it, which took unscrewing two screws and installing new one putting screws back. really simple. I quit asking men and started referring to my owners manual. would raise the hood. sit with my legs on each side looking at each part and learning to diagnose my own car.
I am Donalds other half Norma.
"Damn, auto parts shop. You'd thin they'd know I needed a (insert mechanical word here.)
I've made piece with my mechanical inability as you can readily see in: Windshield wiper mania
Turning up the radio is a guy trick. If we heard the noise, we'd have to stop and fix the car and, unless we are well versed in the mechanical arts, that situation could precipitate a male identity crisis.
I'm not sure what the definition of a "metrosexual" is but I don't think it involves greasy hands.