Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg is wrong about a lot of things, but the importance of having female crash dummies is not one of them.
Recently, the Biden administration requested $20 million from Congress to create and test a variety of female crash dummies for transportation safety, citing that women are more likely to be injured in car crashes than men. In response, some critics claimed that this was a “woke” waste of money.
While the exorbitant fee might be overpriced — it’s a government project after all — the need for anthropomorphic test devices that anatomically reflect the differences between the sexes isn’t woke. Far from it. It actually proves there is a biological difference between men and women — something the radical gender ideology advocates deny.
“I just saw Fox News making fun of me for the work that we’re doing on safety, including the use of crash test dummies that simulate men, women, and children,” he said Tuesday evening in an interview with Comedy Central. “And somehow this is considered a woke priority to have female crash test dummies, even though that’s something that’s been around for a very long time.”
Buttigieg, believe it or not, is correct here.
Hiring women purely for being women and giving promotions out to minorities because of their skin color is woke. Advancing the rainbow agenda at all costs is woke. Punishing white Americans to rectify past discrimination is woke. Advocating the destruction of the American justice system to root out supposed inequalities is woke.
But making sure that we’re using models which reflect the contrasts in height, size, and bone density between men and women is not woke.
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For years now, adult crash test dummies have generally been the size of the average adult male. The average size of adult women is obviously smaller than that. They also have breasts. Those distinctions change the level of safety that seatbelts and airbags provide for drivers and passengers — but are not accounted for during testing because the male-sized dummies cannot accurately record potential injuries to women during studies.
In 2013, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published a safety report which found that women were “susceptible to neck and abdominal injuries” and more likely to be killed during a motorist accident, Car & Driver reported.
Astrid Linder, director of traffic safety at the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute, also has conducted research that suggests that those accidents can be reduced if they’re prevented by using female crash dummies to conduct safety tests.
Men and women “have differences in the shape of the torso and the center of gravity and the outline of our hips and pelvis,” Linder told media, explaining why female crash dummies are needed.
In turn, manufacturers can change the position of the seatbelt, airbag, and whatever else is needed to make sure both men and women are protected.
Men and women are not the same — spiritually, physically, or biologically. Crash dummies show that, but Buttigieg will never admit it.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
