"It comes down to freedom."
May 4, 2021 3:21 PM Subscribe
biking is (not just) for boys (from peopleforbikes) Roshun Austin grew up poor in Memphis, Tennessee, the middle of five girls raised in the Pentecostal Holiness Church. “Religiously, there were a lot of things that girls could not do,” said Austin. “In the Holiness Pentecostal tradition, whistling was considered sinful, as was skipping. We couldn’t even wear pants, so riding a bike wasn’t that acceptable.”
I am super interested in helmet designs that can accommodate braids, locs and more diverse hairstyles in general. Better and more various helmet design is a huge need for many reasons.
Relatedly, I'd like to see a lot more old-school bike designs become default rather than something you have to seek out - chain guards, kick-stands, fenders all make daily cycling much more manageable (why a kick-stand? I'm always having to find things to prop my bike against while, for instance, I unlock doors and bring packages in or out) and less messy.
There's just so much ancillary bike stuff that isn't obviously gendered but is really kind of gendered - like better rain gear. If you're biking around regularly in your regular clothes, which de facto you are if you're biking to school, running errands, making less aggro commutes, etc - you're going to be biking in the rain, and you need rain gear which is designed to be bike friendly and go over regular clothes. Like, it took me forever, a lot of luck and more than one hundred dollars to get a really good bike rain coat, because I needed one that was long and loose - I got a high end parka from Nike from an eBay clearance seller, and it can never wear out because I'll never find anything similar again. And of course, as a transmasculine person with kind of a big frame I was able to just wear a men's one which made it easier.
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I also think that there's this (obviously untrue, but) narrative that any kind of biking leaves you incredibly sweaty and gross and therefore of course women can't bike to work or run bike errands. Some of this stems from the "if you're biking you have to go as fast as you can" mentality.
Like, I went biking with a woman friend who took up bicycling late and most of whose friends were straight men. I seldom bike really fast - I'm not exactly built for speed, I have a trick kneecap and honestly my favorite thing about cycling is just going along at a relaxed middling speed. I get much of my best thinking done at about eleven miles an hour. Anyway, my friend told me that because she'd taken up cycling in company with her men friends, the point had always been to go as fast as you could and to compete with the others, and that it was fun and different to ride along more slowly so that you could, eg, look at the scenery.
Obviously if you're going as fast as possible you're going to be sweaty at the end, but there's no need to run errands and bike to work in racing mode.
posted by Frowner at 6:34 PM on May 4, 2021 [24 favorites]
Relatedly, I'd like to see a lot more old-school bike designs become default rather than something you have to seek out - chain guards, kick-stands, fenders all make daily cycling much more manageable (why a kick-stand? I'm always having to find things to prop my bike against while, for instance, I unlock doors and bring packages in or out) and less messy.
There's just so much ancillary bike stuff that isn't obviously gendered but is really kind of gendered - like better rain gear. If you're biking around regularly in your regular clothes, which de facto you are if you're biking to school, running errands, making less aggro commutes, etc - you're going to be biking in the rain, and you need rain gear which is designed to be bike friendly and go over regular clothes. Like, it took me forever, a lot of luck and more than one hundred dollars to get a really good bike rain coat, because I needed one that was long and loose - I got a high end parka from Nike from an eBay clearance seller, and it can never wear out because I'll never find anything similar again. And of course, as a transmasculine person with kind of a big frame I was able to just wear a men's one which made it easier.
~~
I also think that there's this (obviously untrue, but) narrative that any kind of biking leaves you incredibly sweaty and gross and therefore of course women can't bike to work or run bike errands. Some of this stems from the "if you're biking you have to go as fast as you can" mentality.
Like, I went biking with a woman friend who took up bicycling late and most of whose friends were straight men. I seldom bike really fast - I'm not exactly built for speed, I have a trick kneecap and honestly my favorite thing about cycling is just going along at a relaxed middling speed. I get much of my best thinking done at about eleven miles an hour. Anyway, my friend told me that because she'd taken up cycling in company with her men friends, the point had always been to go as fast as you could and to compete with the others, and that it was fun and different to ride along more slowly so that you could, eg, look at the scenery.
Obviously if you're going as fast as possible you're going to be sweaty at the end, but there's no need to run errands and bike to work in racing mode.
posted by Frowner at 6:34 PM on May 4, 2021 [24 favorites]
I feel like some of this may also be a safety component related to general societal privilege, in that cyclists are fairly reliant on automobile drivers to treat them with some amount of respect, courtesy, and care, and it's difficult for me to imagine that the general problems of the world don't manifest here at least as much as they do everywhere else.
posted by aubilenon at 7:18 PM on May 4, 2021 [11 favorites]
posted by aubilenon at 7:18 PM on May 4, 2021 [11 favorites]
I also think that there's this (obviously untrue, but) narrative any kind of biking leaves you incredibly sweaty and gross
Hi. I'm a bit woozy right now, recovering from surgery on my elbow. An injury I sustained falling off a bicycle. My olecranon snapped clean off last January (x-ray). If you must break your arm, this is perhaps the ideal way to do it, just the tip, and a clean break. The pins that held it in place were removed this morning and I am really stoned right now.
I feel like I'm on the moon, but the upside is that I'm down under in reality, and the bill for my surgery is zero bucks. I'm trying to say I live in tropical Australia and that's where I bicycled.
I must challenge your assertion. It is not possible to cycle in tropical Australia and not sweat. I'm going to buy elbow pads, but there's nothing I can do to avoid sweating.
I know I'm rambling now, and this is not the topic at hand, but I look forward to getting back on the bike and sweating buckets under the blazing sun. To bring it back, there are only two choices here, you get sweaty or you don't bike.
the perception of bicycling as a sexualized activity. “Women have said they were prevented from riding bicycles as a young girl because they were deemed to be promiscuous,”
Yeah, I've heard that the Italian invention of the scooter was so good Catholic girls could ride with their knees pressed chastely together for Jesus while navigating the narrow medieval laneways, rather than straddling a throbbing motorcycle engine like a whore.
“When we’re thinking through solutions, we should target all women,” said Brown. “But at the same time, we also need specific solutions that take into consideration the differences between racial, ethnic and religious minority groups.”
Oh fuck that. All the objections cited are coming from misogynists. Target them. If someone has a problem with you riding a bike in a bikini, then they have a problem. The problem with women riding bicycles is men.
- Reading further I see that's not at all what they mean by targeting women. I stand by my point however. In general terms you'll rarely go wrong in stating that if men STFU and mind their own fucking business we'd all be better off.
posted by adept256 at 12:17 AM on May 5, 2021 [2 favorites]
Hi. I'm a bit woozy right now, recovering from surgery on my elbow. An injury I sustained falling off a bicycle. My olecranon snapped clean off last January (x-ray). If you must break your arm, this is perhaps the ideal way to do it, just the tip, and a clean break. The pins that held it in place were removed this morning and I am really stoned right now.
I feel like I'm on the moon, but the upside is that I'm down under in reality, and the bill for my surgery is zero bucks. I'm trying to say I live in tropical Australia and that's where I bicycled.
I must challenge your assertion. It is not possible to cycle in tropical Australia and not sweat. I'm going to buy elbow pads, but there's nothing I can do to avoid sweating.
I know I'm rambling now, and this is not the topic at hand, but I look forward to getting back on the bike and sweating buckets under the blazing sun. To bring it back, there are only two choices here, you get sweaty or you don't bike.
the perception of bicycling as a sexualized activity. “Women have said they were prevented from riding bicycles as a young girl because they were deemed to be promiscuous,”
Yeah, I've heard that the Italian invention of the scooter was so good Catholic girls could ride with their knees pressed chastely together for Jesus while navigating the narrow medieval laneways, rather than straddling a throbbing motorcycle engine like a whore.
“When we’re thinking through solutions, we should target all women,” said Brown. “But at the same time, we also need specific solutions that take into consideration the differences between racial, ethnic and religious minority groups.”
Oh fuck that. All the objections cited are coming from misogynists. Target them. If someone has a problem with you riding a bike in a bikini, then they have a problem. The problem with women riding bicycles is men.
- Reading further I see that's not at all what they mean by targeting women. I stand by my point however. In general terms you'll rarely go wrong in stating that if men STFU and mind their own fucking business we'd all be better off.
posted by adept256 at 12:17 AM on May 5, 2021 [2 favorites]
Thanks for posting this... I could have realised that biking is so much more gendered in other countries and other cultural groups than mine. And it's such a shame if people miss out on a healthy, cheap and independent mode of transport because of their gender and of cultural biases!
Here in the Netherlands, the history of female cyclists is strongly linked to the history of feminism. Biking represents freedom in several different ways. Unsurprisingly, it's also linked to the freedom to wear pants and other clothing that allows one to move around... and to ditch corsets.
Early advertising, intended to sell bicycles to women, always looks super stylish. Like so and so (featuring a rider in a skirt), or like so (showing a rider in 'Turkish pants') and so (similar). The intention always seems to be to clearly disprove the idea that women on a bicycle are scandalous and/or unfeminine.
On the other hand, these two (a poster for a sports event) appear to be having way too much fun...
posted by Too-Ticky at 2:02 AM on May 5, 2021 [4 favorites]
Here in the Netherlands, the history of female cyclists is strongly linked to the history of feminism. Biking represents freedom in several different ways. Unsurprisingly, it's also linked to the freedom to wear pants and other clothing that allows one to move around... and to ditch corsets.
Early advertising, intended to sell bicycles to women, always looks super stylish. Like so and so (featuring a rider in a skirt), or like so (showing a rider in 'Turkish pants') and so (similar). The intention always seems to be to clearly disprove the idea that women on a bicycle are scandalous and/or unfeminine.
On the other hand, these two (a poster for a sports event) appear to be having way too much fun...
posted by Too-Ticky at 2:02 AM on May 5, 2021 [4 favorites]
In honor of this thread we've turned on our livestream of the Magere Brug in Amsterdam today. I feel like it doesn't work to just say that if you build good infrastructure then people don't need helmets and the population on bikes reflects the general populations (so women, kids, the elderly, politicians, police, delivery people, everyone is on bikes). You actually have to see it. So here, you can see it.
It will probably be a bit slow because, well, corona, but also the weather is unseasonably cold and it's a national holiday today. That said, I just saw a dad bike across with a toddler and a ~5 year old.
Bonus -- you might see the king go by on his way to the theatre to celebrate Liberation Day.
posted by antinomia at 3:05 AM on May 5, 2021 [5 favorites]
It will probably be a bit slow because, well, corona, but also the weather is unseasonably cold and it's a national holiday today. That said, I just saw a dad bike across with a toddler and a ~5 year old.
Bonus -- you might see the king go by on his way to the theatre to celebrate Liberation Day.
posted by antinomia at 3:05 AM on May 5, 2021 [5 favorites]
Frowner, I'm in total agreement. When there's bad infrastructure (like what I dealt with in NYC, although even that is better than most places in the US) there's pressure to bike fast to get out of people's blind spots, to reduce the number of people honking at and abusing you, etc. I felt like I was always in a race. Here in Amsterdam people don't bike fast enough to get out of breath. You're just going to the shop, or to work, or to meet a friend for dinner, after all, you're not in a race. The thing that allows cycling speeds to adjust downwards towards comfort is good infrastructure that separates you from fast car traffic. You can still bike fast if you want, the bike lanes here are wide enough to include room to pass, but you don't feel pressured to.
posted by antinomia at 3:14 AM on May 5, 2021 [11 favorites]
posted by antinomia at 3:14 AM on May 5, 2021 [11 favorites]
Holy shit how timely, I just got out of my English lesson where I found out that most Uzbek girls are not allowed to ride bikes or learn how to swim. So it is not just a Christian Southern thing, women are limited internationally.
posted by Meatbomb at 5:07 AM on May 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Meatbomb at 5:07 AM on May 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
You're just going to the shop, or to work, or to meet a friend for dinner, after all, you're not in a race.
All of those things involve rushing if you're in a place that involves a lot of commuting but doesn't offer leisure time.
Biking is, in theory, the fastest way to get around here, but only if you aren't in want of a place to store your bike on either end, don't have to change outfits before or after, and feel safe taking the direct route. If not, you're stuck scrambling to make up the difference. We need both better infrastructure and the ability for people to travel calmly from point A to B, which isn't true for any mode of transportation as things stand.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 7:48 AM on May 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
All of those things involve rushing if you're in a place that involves a lot of commuting but doesn't offer leisure time.
Biking is, in theory, the fastest way to get around here, but only if you aren't in want of a place to store your bike on either end, don't have to change outfits before or after, and feel safe taking the direct route. If not, you're stuck scrambling to make up the difference. We need both better infrastructure and the ability for people to travel calmly from point A to B, which isn't true for any mode of transportation as things stand.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 7:48 AM on May 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
evidenceofabsence: Biking is, in theory, the fastest way to get around here
And where might that be?
posted by Too-Ticky at 8:17 AM on May 5, 2021
And where might that be?
posted by Too-Ticky at 8:17 AM on May 5, 2021
I’ll have what adept256 is having.
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 12:42 PM on May 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 12:42 PM on May 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
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In the U.S., however, the majority of bike commuters (about 72%) are men, according to the 2019 American Community Survey census data. For recreational riders, the split is slightly better: 56% male and 44% female, according to a PeopleForBikes study.
posted by travertina at 3:41 PM on May 4, 2021 [3 favorites]