We have a lot of fun here at Jalopnik. Sometimes, that fun comes at a certain automaker’s expense. Now, in our defense, Dodge can be pretty goofy, and we’re certainly not above seizing the low-hanging fruit. There’s no denying, however, that Dodge makes cars and at least a few of them are good. Which one is your favorite? <\/p>\n
Dodge doesn’t have much of a lineup at the moment. It technically only sells three cars; the Dodge Durango and the electric Charger in two- and four-door versions. More are coming, as Dodge will eventually get the Ram treatment, but right now the lineup is sparse. There was a time, however, when Dodge displayed some of the most colorful and powerful vehicles in the United States. There’s a lot of history there, going as far back as old Henry Ford himself, and a ton of options to pull from. So what’s your favorite product by those rascally Dodge boys and their company?<\/p>\n
Did the Dodge La Femme sell well? No, it did not. Was it just a pink and tan Dodge Royal Lancer? Yes, sure. But it is what this car represents that I find so cool. <\/p>\n
Okay, maybe marketing a car to an entire class of people unable to work or engage with credit was always doomed, but I love that they tried. In the early history of the automotive industry, cars were seen as quirky machines for fun. In that vein, men and women engaged cars for drives with friends to scenic areas or down specially built cruising roads. Automakers marketed their cars, especially early electric ones, to women specifically, as such cars were quiet, produced less soot, and didn’t require nearly breaking your arm to turn the motor over by hand.<\/p>\n
After that, women were largely forgotten by the mainstream automotive industry for decades. If you ever wonder why women don’t have the same enthusiasm for cars as men historically, a large part of it has to do with how cars were advertised. Cars meant freedom, independence, and status to men, but for women, cars were frequently marketed as just another appliance to complete household tasks. It is understandably difficult to develop a deep enthusiast passion when it comes to, say, your washing machine or kitchen blender. <\/p>\n
That is precisely why the La Femme holds such a fascinating place in automotive history. In 1954, someone at Dodge looked at the market and essentially said, "Hey, women exist. What about a car designed specifically for them?" Now, I am an entirely modern lady, but a 1954 version of myself would have been absolutely floored by a Dodge sedan finished in Dusty Rose pink, complete with a specialized gold badge on the fender and a matching purse packed with coordinated accessories. I don’t even like carrying a purse in my day-to-day life, but I bet the 1950s version of me wouldn’t have minded at all. The rosebud fabric interior is straight-up adorable. Back then, if I had my own independent money and hadn’t spent it all on various lifestyle distractions, this certainly would have been the car for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We have a lot of fun here at Jalopnik. Sometimes, that fun comes at a certain automaker’s expense. Now, in our defense, Dodge can be pretty goofy, and we’re certainly not above seizing the low-hanging fruit. There’s no denying, however, that Dodge makes cars and at least a few of them are good. Which one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[834],"tags":[835,464,836,4443,4444,310,3147,2886,3037,1285,3933,837],"class_list":["post-2450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-automotive-news","tag-automotive","tag-back","tag-cars","tag-dodge","tag-femme","tag-historic","tag-icons","tag-like","tag-looking","tag-modern","tag-quirks","tag-vehicles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xesi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xesi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xesi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xesi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xesi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xesi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xesi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xesi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xesi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xesi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}