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South Korea debuts new parking spaces that are wide, pink, and really sexist


(Marshall Astor/Flickr)

What better way to promote gender stereotypes than to paint them all over the ground in a city of 10 million people?

South Korea has a message for the women of Seoul: you are bad drivers, but we care about you, so here, enjoy these new parking spaces that are wide enough to accommodate your terrible driving and painted pink so you know they’re designed specially for you!

The spaces are part of a new $100-million campaign to make the city more “female friendly.” An official with the city’s department for Women and Family Affairs said of the campaign, “It is like adding a female touch to a universal design and make things more comfortable for women.”

Other female touches include 7,000 new female-only toilets (seems like a plus) and resurfaced, spongy sidewalks that will make it easier for women to walk in high heels (huh?).

South Korea isn’t the first country to create women-only parking spaces. You can find them in some places in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Kuwait, Italy, and Germany. Officials explain that these spaces improve public safety, allowing women to park in well-lit areas that are closer to exits/entrances.

They have a harder time explaing why the pink spaces need to be larger than other spaces. Safety from a biologically predetermined inability to drive well, perhaps?

Original Source URL:

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/140602/south-korea-debuts-new-parking-spaces-are-wide-pink-and-sexist


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