You clearly don’t know many fairly well-off (or aspirationally well-off) women / mothers, if this is surprising to you.
Its not a theory. Its… many of them will just tell you that, verbatim, if you ask them.
“I just don’t feel safe in a smaller car.”
Its a primary component of the marketing angle the US entire auto industry has been using to market to ‘the affluent careerist modern woman’ / ‘responsible and practical mom’ for … two decades now?
Big car = You are safe.
(and stylish or powerful or practical or eco-conscious or rugged or w/e other adjective)
For moms, an SUV is a minivan from the 90s, but with more style and performance.
For yuppie women, an SUV is a luxury sedan or coupe, but tank-sized, more authority commanding, more intimidating.
(Modern US SUVs are routinely as large or larger than actual M4 Sherman tanks from WW2, sans cannon barrel, if you go by volume, ‘bounding box’)
… I’m surprised that you’re surprised by this.
With women truck drivers, I can understand that somewhat more, as you apparently just don’t know too many white trash women, who are disproportionately Republican.
Makes sense here on lemmy.
For the entire MAGA type of people, well, trucks are real cars, everything else is “gay” or at least not as strong, or capable.
… even though that hardly ever actually is the case in any kind of practical or realistic terms.
Its all marketing, all appealing to the consumer, in ways said consumer both does and does not realize they are being appealed to.
It’s all about how buying, “owning”, and operating some kind of vehicle makes you feel, and what your exact choice, what message you think that sends to other people.
Here, I found this after writing my first section, and its almost verbatim what I said:
Married and single women love SUVs for many reasons. They are multi-purpose and, depending on your needs, come in varying sizes. If you have a family, an SUV is easy to drive and still provides room for the kids, the soccer balls and your groceries – and it’s so much cooler than a minivan.
For single women, the same multi-purpose features are attractive. The interior of an SUV is spacious and the elevation in the vehicle provides a better view of the road. The SUVs are also durable, reliable and most of all safe. And safety ranks higher with women than with men. Maybe it’s our nurturing nature – whether we’re nurturing our kids or our friends.
Yeah that’s from 2016.
This has just been how SUV marketing in particular has worked basically since I got out of high school. almost 20 years ago now.
You clearly don’t know many fairly well-off (or aspirationally well-off) women / mothers, if this is surprising to you.
Its not a theory. Its… many of them will just tell you that, verbatim, if you ask them.
“I just don’t feel safe in a smaller car.”
Its a primary component of the marketing angle the US entire auto industry has been using to market to ‘the affluent careerist modern woman’ / ‘responsible and practical mom’ for … two decades now?
Big car = You are safe.
(and stylish or powerful or practical or eco-conscious or rugged or w/e other adjective)
For moms, an SUV is a minivan from the 90s, but with more style and performance.
For yuppie women, an SUV is a luxury sedan or coupe, but tank-sized, more authority commanding, more intimidating.
(Modern US SUVs are routinely as large or larger than actual M4 Sherman tanks from WW2, sans cannon barrel, if you go by volume, ‘bounding box’)
… I’m surprised that you’re surprised by this.
With women truck drivers, I can understand that somewhat more, as you apparently just don’t know too many white trash women, who are disproportionately Republican.
Makes sense here on lemmy.
For the entire MAGA type of people, well, trucks are real cars, everything else is “gay” or at least not as strong, or capable.
… even though that hardly ever actually is the case in any kind of practical or realistic terms.
Its all marketing, all appealing to the consumer, in ways said consumer both does and does not realize they are being appealed to.
It’s all about how buying, “owning”, and operating some kind of vehicle makes you feel, and what your exact choice, what message you think that sends to other people.
Here, I found this after writing my first section, and its almost verbatim what I said:
https://agirlsguidetocars.com/women-driving-suv-sales
Yeah that’s from 2016.
This has just been how SUV marketing in particular has worked basically since I got out of high school. almost 20 years ago now.
kinda wild how weaponized psychology is, and everyone kind of thinks they’re immune to it themselves till one day it smacks em in the face