You silly women. Once — just once — would I like to receive a story about you jokers doing something right, but it seems like you're determined to play the wacky haphazard-prone neighbor in this crazy little sitcom called life. "What am I doing wrong now," you ask, in your dumb girl voice with your dumb girl mouth. I'll tell you: You're getting angry. More, specifically, you're getting angry in cars. Cars that you probably don't know how to drive to begin with.
According to a study by the Harris Interactive and affirmed by the eSurance blog (add it to your RSS feed now), women are currently experiencing road rage at a higher rate than men:
When it comes to stereotypical gender traits, men typically get the rap for being more likely to speed or drink and drive. When it comes to getting wound up on the road, however, women's gears tend to run a bit tighter than men's. In a poll of nearly 4,000 motorists conducted by Harris Interactive, 61 percent of women admitted to having road rage.
That's not to say that men came off looking like easy riders. Males reported road rage at 56 percent. But while this 5-point difference may not seem like a lot, it is outside the study's margin of error (translation: the results are legit).
According to this legit study, women experience more road rage because they admit to having it more than men. The results have nothing to do with actual road rage related incidents like accidents, traffic violations or occurrences of roadside violence. 2 legit 2 quit.
But why do we get so lady-mad on the road? eSurance has a theory:
According to some experts, this gender divide isn't a random occurrence. Rather, it likely stems from women's possible subconscious need to break free of society's expectations (well … of course).
Oh, okay.
In case your eyes just glazed over like Krispy Kremes, let's rephrase in plain English. Essentially, they're saying women might feel forced into a nurturing, non-aggressive role in public. This can result in pent-up frustration — frustration that comes out behind the anonymity of the wheel.
Thank goodness they rephrased one simple sentence as another simple sentence so that we could all better understand.
I suppose eSurance has its heart in the right place here (assuming for the moment that insurance companies have hearts). Women are angry because of society's expectations (or, in plain English for the donut eyes, vagina-haver feel grumpy-grump because she no wanna be nice no more) — that's certainly true to an extent, but is it really a fair justification for anytime a woman gets angry? People — of any gender — feel frustrated while driving because driving is frustrating. To say that women have road rage because of their pent-up anger regarding societal expectations is only feeding the societal expectation that women are irrationally emotional or that when we say we're mad about one thing, we're actually mad about another.
Of the 61% of women who admitted to having road rage, there is the possibility that some are using their time in the car to rage against the machine, but there is also the possibility that they are mad at another driver who didn't use their turn signal or that traffic is moving too slow or how the radio keeps playing that ONE song by The Wanted and — goddammit — now, it will be in their head all day. Women, like bros, get mad for a variety of reasons. Hahah, JK. I'm only saying that because of society's expectations.
New Study (Politely) Suggests Women Are More Prone to Road Rage [eSurance]
Image via Monika Wisniewska/Shutterstock.