Dialogue: Sexism of billboards clouds a strong traffic-safety message

By TAMSIN GEORGE

You might have seen the billboard message, "Speak Up To Slow Him Down", and perhaps your first reaction was a kind of horror at the sexist implications and the stereotypical typecasting.

Although not directly stated, it seems the billboard is addressing a female. Is there really a need to address people in our society like that?

Surely if you are travelling in a car with a driver - male or female - and you are uncomfortable with the speed at which the car is travelling, you would naturally have the courage to ask the driver to slow down.

I guess not. Not if Roadsafe Auckland deems it necessary to stage what it calls this new innovative roadsafe campaign.

It worked on me. The message interested me enough to check the website, called Passenger Power. According to the powers-that-be at Roadsafe Auckland, passengers are now blessed with the power to speak up to slow him down. Lucky passengers, fortunate to finally be granted that power.

Ironies aside, as I read further through the website the whole message, although rather dubiously put across, is a good one. I just doubt the necessity of setting the tone of the billboard in a sexist way.

The billboard assumes that all drivers are male, that all male drivers are arrogant enough to drive fast and dangerously, that female passengers are the only ones likely to speak up, and that, previously, women have been too afraid to speak up to the dimwitted male who perceives himself to be a Possum Bourne in the making.

This year's campaign is directed at slowing down male drivers between 15 and 44 who enjoy speeding and consider themselves superior drivers. This group is apparently over-represented in crash statistics. In particular, Roadsafe Auckland is calling on women passengers to speak out and stop men speeding.

Rather than focusing on the issue in a sexist way, it would be more effective to address it as a non-gender-based community approach to stopping speeding (which is mentioned only slightly on the website).

Until now, speeding campaigns have targeted individual drivers and made it their responsibility to slow down. Now the focus is shifting to include all participants on a journey. If you are travelling in a car, not being in the driver's seat does not make you are any less a part of the driving. You are a participant. If the car crashes, you will be involved. You may be hurt. Speeding drivers not only kill and maim themselves but they also kill and maim their passengers.

With this in mind it follows that since you (the passenger) will be an active part of the conclusion of any accident, you should be an active part of the journey and the prevention of any accident. If you wield your own power that is.

Most males - especially young males, fresh to the road with the ink drying on their drivers' licences - have a curious attitude towards driving. I have no idea what makes them think this is their ticket to life on the roads as a rally driver.

A car is a huge, clumsy hunk of metal with a powerful engine. In the hands of the wrong people it is a deadly weapon.

If we all had to graduate through an extensive defensive driving course, we would be let loose on the roads with the skills to drive out of any dangerous situation. Then it would make sense to have an arrogant attitude towards driving.

But arrogance for the sake of arrogance, or for the appeal of appearing more knowledgeable, is foolish.

Socrates always claimed he knew little, probably the wisest thing he ever said. So for young males to approach driving arrogantly is silly.

Unfortunately there is a perception that women find male drivers' speeding to be attractive. Just like having a car lowered, souped up, with a loud stereo is attractive. We are familiar with the boy racer stereotype, a favourite of the Mayor of Auckland.

The most effective billboard on the Roadsafe website is "Speak Up And Live. Shut Up And Die". Although harsh, it does not have sexist implications and puts the message across loudly and clearly.

One would have hoped that male-female roles have moved beyond nagging, fear-driven emotive women and arrogant, unthinking males who need to be told what to do.

This innovative campaign is empowering to neither male or female. It is, however, effective at getting its message across. The true test will be, of course, the holiday road statistics.

Hopefully, many an argument will be generated as driver and passenger debate the merits of the speed at which they are travelling, and decide to take their time reaching that holiday destination.

Passenger Power