You may have seen the so-called funny pictures before. In one of the pictures, taken at a rather high altitude, you can see a parking lot and a line of cars, all parked in parallel except one, which has been parked perpendicular to the others. In another picture, apparently taken on the road, you see a car being pulled over by the police and the hose of a gasoline pump hanging from the side of the car. A third picture shows a car that has been driven off the road in some exotic way and a woman standing next to the car. You may have guessed it by now; all of these pictures are labelled "Yes, It's a Woman".

Another picture shows a dozen cars mingled together, apparently due to a massive landshed of some kind, or an earthquake. Sometimes you can find this picture labelled "Women Parking", sometimes "Annual Meeting of Women Drivers". And then there is this picture series under the heading "Women Tuning", showing pink racing wheels labelled "Lady Michelin" and a steering wheel with a make-up mirror in the middle. Now, I don't want to sound like somebody who doesn't have a sense of humour, but maybe I've just seen one too many "Yes - It's a Woman" -picture. And more to the point; why can't I find any "Yes - It's a Man" pictures out there? After all, if you want to play with gender stereotypes such pictures are not that difficult to come up with. I googled "Yes - It's a Woman" and found lots of pictures but looking for "Yes - It's a Man" I found none. Hence, I decided to create my own.

Let's see what we can use as a starting point. How about men and car technical skills? I mean, from what I've heard men know everything about cars; they know how to fix them and know how to use them properly, don't they? Below you will find two examples of men and car technical skills.

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I've heard men are excellent drivers and masters in managing their vehicles. So this is how men drive:

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Now, what happens when men drive like this? Let's use this news clip from real life to get the analytical engine running:

"Two 18-year old men were racing their parents' luxury vehicles at about 140 km/h in a 50 km/h zone when they accidentally rammed into a taxi, killing the driver. On one of the passenger seats of the racing cars the police found a video game about driving recklessly through city streets".

So, men and cars. Do they mix?

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What do you think happens when you increase the number of men and the number of cars?

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Oh, and let's not forget men and motorcycles. You may count the number of wheels in the next picture. You'll notice the middle wheel is not part of the car. How fast was the man on the motorcycle driving, do you think? A wee bit too fast, I'd say.

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The previous picture depicts the motorcycle of a well-known athlete who refused to wear a helmet. So it goes. But, let us not forget about men and boats. Here're some fine examples:

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The owner of the boat in the last picture is Teemu Selänne, by the way.

If you've made it this far and still haven't figured it out then I guess it's time to tell you how silly it is to create gender stereotypes. A stereotype is made up of simplifications, generalisations, exaggerations, racism, sexism, homophobia and other kinds of discrimination. Gender stereotypes associate people of one sex with a fixed set of presumed patterns and attributes, not taking into account individual variations. In the real world, however, there is a larger variation between individuals of one sex than there is between the average of two sexes.

Gender stereotyping creates illusions such as men being excellent drivers and women being technically inferior, but it does not take into account that the behavior of individuals is by large a consequence of socially enforced rules and values and that rules and values do change over time. The stereotypical man of today is not the same as the stereotypical man of, say, the 1950's. Since stereotypes change over time it should be obvious that trying to create a gender stereotype, i.e. to accredit a certain set of attributes, behaviour patterns or talents to a gender is plain ridiculous.

Some women are bad drivers but not because they have a vagina. Statistically speaking up to 50% of all people are worse drivers than average and the reason some women are bad drivers may be that they don't have much experience from driving a car. Just like many men. Another reason may be they have always been told they will never learn to drive as good as a man, anyhow. I believe women are capable of learning to drive just as good as any man and that men are capable of learning to, say, nurture a child just as good as any woman.

It is true that some men are careless drivers but this is not because they have a penis. I doubt any man would like to be classified as a mindless object with no will of his own and whose behaviour is dictated by a pair of testicles, only? The reason some men end up careless drivers may be they feel their social environment requires them to prove their manhood by driving fast and recklessly. But societies evolve and change, and it is possible to alter these destructive patterns. You can be part of this change by speaking out against gender stereotypes. Next time you sit in a car with somebody that is speeding; ask him to slow down and drive carefully.