I had the interesting opportunity to peruse articles by
Taki Magazine. The name of the article was
Why Are New Cars So Ugly? by
Gavin McInnes. Now, there are many things posted on Taki that I disagree with. Many of my views are diametrically different from what I am finding. This article that I perused basically lambasted the new cars that have been coming out.
A direct quote from Gavin McInnes:
"I looked out my bedroom window last night and saw Will Smith stepping into a 1967
Ford Galaxie. He was leaving the old-timey diner across the street with Tommy Lee Jones because they were shooting scenes for the upcoming
Men in Black sequel.
For three days our entire street has been lined with cars from the
60s and early 70s. There are Chevy Novas, old Mercs, and breathtaking
Dodge Darts with their reverse fins jutting out the back. After walking
through the set today on my way to work, I laid eyes on a 2010
Volkswagen Touareg and puked"
Okay I get it. You don't like the new cars coming out. I get it. However, to go as far as to call some of these new cars "ugly" is quite a stretch. Now, I will be a biased. I don't see anything ugly about the Volkswagen Touareg. The gas mileage could use a little work(average varies from 19-22 mpg combined hwy and city. Other than that, for being an SUV, the gas mileage could be worse. "Ugly" is in the eyes of the beholder, just as the beauty.
According to McInnes, this was his view of the Ford Galaxie vs today's cars:
"The Galaxie was more than a cool-looking car. It defined Western
opulence. It was a proud example of why we are and always will be the
best. Today, this sense of pride in design has been replaced with
aerodynamic minivans manufactured solely to transport middle-class
children to well-organized soccer games where shin guards are mandatory"
Aerodynamic design shouldn't be reduced to airplanes. Aerodynamic design for automobiles made for less wind resistance and therefore, in its own way, is a sense of pride. In my view, it is a sense of pride in the sense that technology can progress and make vehicles more efficient. So it's shaped like "a cough drop"?
And opulence is luxury as told by sumptuous living. Sumptuous living means extravagant living. The Ford Galaxie looks opulent, yes. But a car doesn't have to be opulent looking to work properly and to be of good quality. It is the thought that you put into it that makes a car quality. Aerodynamics is a sign of quality because of what it DOES, not so much its looks.
Another quote from McInnes:
"I’ve been screaming about this while drunk in bars for a long time and
have finally reached a conclusion: It’s women’s fault. After being
liberated out of the kitchen, women expanded their rules to include
major family decisions such as whom to vote for, where to live, where to
send the kids to school, what kind of car to drive, and where to drive
it. Castrated men are happy to hand over the keys and even ask the wife
what book to read while she’s driving. Women buy up to
80% of fiction books,
and my colleagues tell me even the books men read have been procured
for them by a lady friend. If you see a guy reading Adam Carolla’s
In 50 Years We’ll All be Chicks, odds are a chick bought it for him"
So a man is castrated because he is willing to ask his wife for a suggestion on fiction books? So a man is castrated because he lets his wife have a say? Excuse me, but in order for a family to be happy, shouldn't the wife have a say?So what if a woman suggests a book for a man to read? What is the big deal? Are the men who write fiction novels "castrated"? I, a male, read fiction books. I plan to finish my sci-fi novel by the end of this spring(I won't tell the title though). Am I a "castrated man" because of it?
And for what it is worth, many fiction books I have read have been suggested by males friends, and my father. Among them are Native Son, Invisible Man, The Outsiders, etc.
Gavin McInnes goes on to say that men hate the new cars and would go as far as to pay for extra gas to have cars with "hard edges". Sounds alot like subjective thinking to me and McInnes is entitled to it. With that said, I don't agree with him, and I don't find much that is objective in this article on the subject matter. I am a male and I don't drive at all. One of the reasons include gasoline prices. With rising gas prices, I would rather ride a bicycle and/or walk in order to save money. If I get a car, I want one that has decent gasoline mileage, or even a car that doesn't use regular gasoline. A hybrid car would be fine by me. I consider it a technological innovation.
