Sweat & Pink Streamers
I hate to interrupt the Tour like this, but I have some pretty incredible news! A journalist named Margaret Wente from the Globe and Mail has figured out why women don’t ride bikes.
Her ground-breaking article (entitled “Where are all the female cyclists?”) was inspired by a story she read in the New York Times about the imbalance of male and female riders using New York’s Citi Bike bike share program, and not only sheds light on the reason for the gender gap, but also debunks some myths about the female psyche that were, until now, completely undebunkable.
Margaret writes, “Personally, I believe this is a lost cause. I know why women don’t cycle to work. It’s not just the fear that they’ll be wiped out at any moment by car doors and streetcar tracks. It’s the sweat. How, exactly, are you supposed to arrive at your job fresh-smelling and well-groomed after a hot ride in July? It’s not possible. Presumably the answer is to stuff your work clothes in your backpack, towel yourself down in the ladies’ room, and reapply your makeup before that 9 a.m. meeting. Which still doesn’t address the problem of helmet head.”
EXACTLY! It makes perfect sense we don’t want to wear helmets because, hello… HAIR! How are we going to attract the attention of Bruce the IT guy if our hair doesn’t look 100% sexy?
She goes on to explain that hygiene was the main reason she stopped biking to work 30 years ago. Fast forward to today – she reads the article in The Times and WHAMMO – puts two and two together and comes up with this stunning revelation. Bloody genius.
Mags is right, sweat is super yucky and I don’t want it anywhere near this pristine temple of cleanliness. I prefer, like all women, to smell like a flowery unicorn fart in a tropical rainforest. Sweating is an unfortunate and predominantly male habit, which we of the fairer sex merely tolerate in order to have someone around who will open jars for us.
Furthermore, I wouldn’t think to go into a meeting without full makeup. How would people know where my eyes are? Or my mouth? Had they been allowed in the boardroom back at the turn of the century, or even when Mags cycled to work that one time thirty years ago, women would certainly not be taken seriously without perfectly separated eyelashes and the latest shade of Mabelline Baby Lips Moisturizing lip gloss.
All this talk about infrastructure and safety is such a waste of time. Brassiere technology has come a long way in the last century, and hardly anyone gets stabbed in the boob by an underwire anymore. So all of you data-obsessed, bike-advocating geeks can pack up your clipboards and calculators and head back the the hippie commune from whence you came. It appears you’ve had it all wrong – women don’t avoid cycling because of lack of time, infrastructure issues, or safety concerns – we just want to look and smell pretty at work!
Margaret had lots of smart stuff to say about bike share programs as well:
“It’s difficult to see how bike-sharing programs will ever become a material part of our urban transportation networks. Active users are only a minute fraction of the commuting public. A lot of folks use bike sharing for recreation, not regular commuting. Which is fine, so long as other people don’t have to subsidize it.”
But she really hit the nail on the head when she addressed how we could go about getting more women on bikes:
“As for attracting women, maybe they should try pink streamers.”
Specialized are you listening? Trek? Giant? You guys have got to get ON THIS, like right fucking now. Why are you wasting all your time on stupid things like women’s specific geometry? Geometry may be hard, but I’m pretty sure the answers to all of those test questions were the same, whether you were a boy or a girl. Dummies.
The article does raise a bit of a conundrum though – pink streamers are the obvious solution to getting women ON the bikes, but we still won’t RIDE them because we’ll get all sweaty and gross. Perhaps she’ll have to write a follow up article. I can’t wait.
I would like to personally congratulate Ms. Wente for her excellent reporting, and more notably, her diligent research, which she conducted in the women’s bathroom at a Moxies in Scarborough on all-you-can-drink Marguerita night.
Keep ’em coming Mags. Maybe you’ll land a job at the Onion.
That’s pretty insulting. I think sarcasm is the appropriate response. We’ll written!
I don’t understand what you are saying here. I love opening jars.
You know we only let you do that so you feel useful, right?
Are you implying men need to perform physical tasks to feel useful? Wow that’s not sexist at all.
Hi Robert. Graham is a good friend of mine, and I am just teasing him. He would get that, but others might not. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
Hi robert, the Chic knows I was talking nonsense. I’ve given worse back.
Thanks Graham. Now don’t you have a deck to build or something?
Oh the horror of subsidized bikes. Maggie understands the truth, that all our car infrastructure lands magically on the ground without a penny of public funding. I think it’s related to the unicorn farts. Maggie could explain it, I’m sure.
Brilliant! You should publish that in the Globe!!
And I love the smell of a flowery unicorn fart in a tropical rainforest
I read this after a sweaty July ride to work. I want to post a witty rejoinder to the column, but Peggie stopped me at: “Presumably the answer is to stuff your work clothes in your backpack, towel yourself down in the ladies’ room, and reapply your makeup before that 9 a.m. meeting.” I literally stopped reading. Afterall, she wasn’t talking about me: I don’t wear makeup. #unqualified
Ride on Catherine. You are twice the woman that dingbat will ever be.
Kidding, sexism, and sarcasm aside, is there any research done on this?
Sure there is. All over the interwebs. It varies greatly depending on where you are, but universally the percentages of female riders is rising. And yes, women do ride. Or so I’ve heard.
Wente did exactly zero research. She took one source (The NYT article), plus her personal, 30 year old anecdotal experience, and wrapped in up in one ridiculous, sexist, self-centred article. The trouble is, the Globe and Mail is read by over 300,000 people a day, who now think a) women don’t bike b) it’s impossible to bike to work without being a hot mess all day c) women are more concerned about their appearance than men d) women are more concerned about their appearance than their safety.
Holy hell.
FWIW, this is Margaret Wente’s approach to literally every column she has ever written. Doesn’t make this any less galling, of course, it’s just not surprising.
Margaret really needs to go into a bike shop. I worked at Gord’s part time for a couple of years and from what I could see, the bike manufacturing companies don’t need any more lame and completely out of touch ideas to target women. They’ve already nailed the art of unnecessary “pinkification”.
Yes, the “shrink it and pink it” approach to marketing for women. I am familiar. It’s hard not to go into a full-on tyrannosaur rampage when I see the nonsense some companies put out for women. Clueless.
Your posts made me laugh! Great response to Ms. Wente.
I live in Toronto (cycle to work & everywhere) & us “Lady cyclists” had the best time with her article. She clearly never comes down to the city, otherwise she would see that the gender split of Toronto cyclists is pretty much even.
She didn’t do her research correctly or try to find current stat’s on Toronto cycling .
Well I guess we’ll see what she writes next ..
God help us all. She should have her pen plucked from her nasty, sexist, backwater fingers. I’m glad nobody there (or anywhere) is taking her seriously. Except maybe those gals she polled in the loo at Moxies.
I loved this, thank you for a rainbow wrapped Unicorn fart scented take down. Wente was the reason I cancelled my Globe subscription. I don’t even know, if she knows it but she has become a Professional Troll.
I am hearing more comments like this from folks in Ontario especially. It’s hard to fathom a (I thought) well-respected Canadian newspaper giving someone like that a voice. Are writers that hard to come by? Are they just looking for clicks, be damned that it’s for inaccurate, offensive, and misleading content?
If so, I send a rainbow fart in their general direction.
Margaret Wente has written for The Globe and Mail since 1986. She was the editor for the business section. Apparently she has been found plagiarizing in later years. See Wikipedia.
I’m sure she’s writing for different audience.
Here in Japan I’ve seen both men and women dressed in their best, cycling to work and going out for a night on the town.
We’re a little behind, here in North America, but more and more people are embracing cycling as a cheap, healthy, fun, and convenient way to get around. No lycra, no special equipment. Just hop on your bike and go. We have a long way to go – I would love to experience (and inhabit) a country like you describe.
Andrea what a great response to a totally offensive article!
Thanks for an hilarious and clever rebuttal of that damaging and silly article. The strangest thing is that the basic premise is outrageous – of course women ride bikes! (I should know – hundreds of them pass me every day on my bike commute). Apart from that, the stats bear it out – the gap in percentage share is closing rapidly.
I am going to promote this post on my Facebook page – it deserves to be very widely read.
Loved the pictures too!
http://www.modernbike.com/dimension-kids-bike-streamers-magenta-pink-pair
Catching up on my CycleChick reading… and helping the cause.
Well, I missed that article, would have made me scream! Humans sweat, so what, and you’d have to have a really arduous long commute to get that sweaty. While the weather is good I bike to work in the mornings in a t shirt or tank top(in the winter it gets a bit more sweaty with sweaters, coats and all), do a smell check and off to work I go. I work in a bakery, it’s really hot, everyone gets sweaty. It’s also silly to assume that all women still wear make up to work. Or deodorant! Or cycling in heels!? Why? That just isn’t very safe or even remotely practical. Cycling is very egalitarian, people of abilities can do it, it’s mostly pretty easy. As I see it, it’s a great way for women to let go of unnecessary feminine traps, at least while on the bicycle. Carry those shoes in a bag, do a quick change at work, no big deal. And why shouldn’t women just roll out of bed, get dressed and be done like men?
That said, I am only one of a few women that bike in my area and it drives me nuts. Why is it still a guy’s domain? Why do the mens lament to me about why their wives/girlfriends won’t ride, or if they do they get a silly cruiser bike? I see do see this far too much-guys who are serious cyclists, who ride long distance, long commutes, but wives barely ride at all. Marry or date a lady cyclist! I can only fathom that women are more cautious, and thus afraid, unless many many women are really as superficial as Wente .
I’m a recovering cyclist ie. I broke my elbow in a cycling race in May and still haven’t regained full motion after 2 surgeries.
I have to say, however poorly interpreted or written, Margaret Wente shouldn’t be vilified for her comments as she has been the centre of all that that is feminist in Toronto for decades. She is a runner who tries hard and deserves our respect. I don’t distinguish her running from cycling. Its all sweat.
I for one would not and do not cycle the 75K from the burbs like my husband does cause a) its unsafe and b) there are no showers at work. He’ll NOT happily bird bath it at a sink but, its sub-optimal for him and would be not my idea of a fun time but, I may not be as committed as others would be to the fitness and the cause.