Many of my women and car projects have involved interviewing women about their relationship with cars. While the interviews include a set of pre-planned questions, I also encourage women to go off script and tell a story about the car that has particular meaning to them. As noted in earlier blogs, the answers are often influenced by the type of car a woman has parked in her driveway. Muscle car stories are often steeped in nostalgia, whereas chick car stories are filled with joy. The stories that evolved from conversations with pickup truck owners were often focused on what the vehicle allowed the women to do, and what driving a pickup allowed them to be.
Unlike the chick car and muscle car, the pickup is a vehicle with a purpose. It was originally developed as a mechanized workhorse to assist in the performance of daily tasks on the ranch, the farm, construction site, or small business. As auto journalist Lukach writes, ‘Unlike more frivolous automobiles that gained their notoriety by being faster, fancier, or more exotic, the pickup truck had to prove itself to a potential buyer as capable of enduring hard work’ (1998: 109). Many of the stories told reflected the pickup’s value as an important partner in getting something done. Darci tells of driving her Nissan Frontier to her boyfriend’s tree farm during a cold December. As she recalled, ‘there was quite a bit of snow up there. But we ended up taking it up there, four wheeling, and got our Christmas tree. And that was pretty cool.’ Rebecca built her ‘dream monster truck’ from the ground up. As she noted, ‘I took that thing everywhere, I took it through the mud, and the mountains, the desert, everywhere.’ The truck became the vehicle that allowed her to go places and do things that were not remotely possible in a minivan or family sedan. Behind the wheel of her F-150, work became an adventure; it was the 20,000 ‘toy’ hauler used not only for work but ‘to go have fun.’
Although the pickup assisted women in their work, they also relied on it for adventure and good times. Many of the participants engaged in recreational activities that required the transport of equipment or livestock. Dirt bikes, motorcycles, boats, snowmobiles, campers, outdoor gear, kayaks and classic cars are just a few of the ‘toys’ that can be found in the bed of a truck or pulled along behind it. Kirsten shared a love of trucks with her brother; together they ‘liked to take our old Ford pickups out in the mud.’ While Kristen valued her F-150’s ability to haul and transport things, she also appreciated its function as an ‘off road mud toy.’ Stacey would concur; as she exclaimed the Ford F-150 FX4 Supercrew ‘has allowed me to go dirt biking, snowmobiling, help people move, and do my own landscaping.” As the women’s stories suggest, the pickup is valued as a strong and dependable workhorse. However, it is also called upon as both a means to and a source of recreation and fun.
Although the acquisition of a pickup truck is often purpose-driven, women often discovered that pickup truck ownership came with extra, often surprising, benefits. And that was changing the way not only how they were regarded by others, but by how the truck made them feel about themselves. The women told stories of how getting behind the wheel of an F-150 or Silverado or Dodge Ram caused others to think about them differently. As Brenda exclaimed, ‘I don’t feel like a mom driving it. I feel like I’m really bad driving my Ford truck.’ Jennifer related how her El Camino brings a great deal of pleasure to her life; as she remarked, ‘I enjoy the attention that it draws; you get a lot of thumbs up, and smiles, and waves.’ Of her F-150, Betty noted, ‘when I drove it, I always felt I was younger and fun.’ Women of shorter stature remarked how driving truck was a bit of an ego booster. Said Heather, ‘I’m a little person and I feel like guys take me a lot more seriously when I pull up in it; they’re like holy crap, that’s a sweet truck.’ Ronni Jo, who also describes herself as a little person, enjoys how her Ford F-350 King Ranch Dually makes her feel like ‘I am a little bigger than everyone else.’ Behind the wheel of her Dodge Dakota, states Susan, ‘I feel a bit powerful.’ In her F-150, Brenda exclaims, ‘I don’t feel quite so girly.’ And of her F-150 XLT Heather remarks, ‘I love driving it on sunny days. I feel like, you know, it’s a head turner. So I guess it boosts my ego, sitting way up there.’
As the stories suggest, the pickup serves women in multiple and interesting ways. It is a work partner, a means to adventure and fun, and as they handle a big and bulky pickup truck skillfully and assertively on rural roads, in city traffic, or in suburban parking lots, a source of female empowerment.
