Bike Talk: Women, Cycling, & The Media

As far as I have always known, the bicycle was a tool to liberate women. But what happens when you use something that has been liberating to reducing women to images that react to the desires of consumption? The basic theme remains the same: women are objects to sell, to be trained to consume and be sexually consumed. Very frequently now, I run across images on sites of our sisters half naked on a bike to sell a product, and I find it deeply offensive that bikes as tools of women's liberation are used to reduce women to this.

I get it, men are easy to buy, it's all part of the consumer-capitalist cycle targeting men to buy into a lifestyle of the commodification of all things human. Perhaps that's why ads, tested products, and stories are all geared towards men. All while, the cycling industry says that more women need to take cycling seriously if they want to be taken seriously. Really bro? As if putting a half naked woman or man on a product is going to appeal to us. I think it's you who needs to take us seriously.

It's not rocket science to get the data and find that women of all backgrounds are highly interested in cycling. Cities know that to have more women cycling, you have create the infrastructure, just how the industry needs to create the infrastructure to appeal to women to use their products. Unsurprisingly, women realize this is a problem, which is why they are rising in creating products and boutiques to sell to women, Cycle Chic and Po Campo are a great example.

If the industry wants women to represent their brand and buy their products, we need ordinary women who bike to relate to. Not models. We need stories, reviews, and ads that look like us, diverse in all our ways. Till then, women won't take your brand seriously. As women in cycling are growing, will the industry and media open it's doors to us? Is it prepared or willing to take on the status quo or ready to lead in creating the infrastructure for women to lead.

Image @pinterest