http://blog.bikeleague.org/blog/2012/03/how-to-engage-more-women-in-bicycling-nbs12
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
"How to Engage More Women in Bicycling"
(14 posts)-
Posted 13 years ago #
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Being engaged to one woman is enough
Posted 13 years ago # -
I would have thought going down on one knee would mean you were taking a corner too fast...
Posted 13 years ago # -
From the article:
"In the U.S., men still ride at three times the rate of women."Blimey. A slow pootle would be say 10mph, so the men must be riding at 30mph.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Amir, I think that comment was referring to the proportion of women cycling compared with men. From conversations with Mr MeepMeep about how heaving the male changing rooms are and through general observation, it's probably about the same here (most women in the changing rooms at work are runners). I would be interested to see what the actual figures are for numbers of women who cycle... But not interested enough to go out my way to trawl the depths of the internet, I hasten to add!
Posted 13 years ago # -
I harbour a theory, which is sexist to each gender and therefore not proudly held, that every female becoming a cyclist is worth X male cyclists, where X is the number of men who will in their lifetime become or try to become their Significant Other.
I can vouch that The You're Being Unsexy Look is like hydrofluoric acid to any objections you might have about cycling when you'd much prefer it was the You're Being Sexy Look and you know those objections are the problem.
As sweet little nothings or chat-up lines go, 'hello there, I'm scared of that thing you do routinely' fails pretty hard.
Posted 13 years ago # -
@Uberuce - sorry, read that a couple of times, and perhaps I'm being tiredly dim, but I still don't understand the middle paragraph...
It looks like you've said that each woman attracts several men (probably uncontentious), then something??, then suggesting that the attracted men need to be brave.
I'm sure the thesis is worth exploring though; could you rephrase for the hard of thinking?
Robert
Posted 13 years ago # -
@Uberuce - eh??? Please explain... or perhaps rephrase.
@Roibeard, I am glad I am not the only one not to get it!! I have read it several times and still don't understand...
I remember reading a Guardian article and getting to the end of it, and thinking WHAT??? I really could not be bothered to re-read it though as it was very lengthy. I decided that I was totally thick or I was just not really meant to understand it, like someone once said to me, if you see and advert on telly and you don't understand it then it is not aimed at you (the person worked in advertising), does the same apply.
Posted 13 years ago # -
my reading of the first bit was that if a woman cycled, any bloke who wanted to date her would also take up cycling because he didn't want to be 'out-done' by her. the final para seemed to confirm that - the need to appear macho would drive man to cycle.
but the hydrofluorcarbons confused me
Posted 13 years ago # -
+1 here for bafflement.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I am the Marlene Dietrich of CCE... Or a rambling muffin.
SRD got it, aside from the hydrofluoric acid part. Hydroflurocarbons include Teflon, so can't all be bad, but hydrofluoric acid is just evil incarnate; it'll eat anything that is even remotely polar, even glass.
To rephrase what Roibeard generously calls a thesis: let us posit that there are objections to cycling that are generally agreed on by the non-cycling populace, and at least some of them could be described as wimpy. Examples include being feart of traffic; not wanting to get rained on; not thinking oneself fit enough. If you're a fella, conditioned to seem macho if possible, you might get away with those objections to a non-cycling lady, but you really, really, really won't if the lady commutes or sportives on a bike.
She will instead look at you with an expression that conveys both pity and the dread certainty that any chance you had of interacting with the contents of her cyclechic has become zero and will remain zero unless you harden the **** up.
(A lady friend gave me this look the day before I took up cycling.)
The same is not true in reverse, thus if you're wanting to maximise cycling uptake and are on a tight budget, ignore men.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Ah, I follow you now. Women are too sensible to imitate men, but men can't stand to be outdone by women* - so just try to get the ladies onto two wheels and all the rest comes automatically?
* despite being someone who is perpetually outclassed by his wife, I still haven't quite learned to resist this natural instinct ;-)
Posted 13 years ago # -
I stress it's not a theory I like, but yep. Them's the social conditioning breaks.
I was listening to Day of the Triffids on Radio 4 last week and was struck by how little things have changed since 1953. There's a personally unpleasant but idealistic character in it called Croker, who bemoans at some length the big lie that women need men's help for everything mechanical or burly.
I think that idea has thankfully passed, but we can still see its tail lights.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I had similar experience in a Nando's in Zimbabwe in about 1995. Was eating lunch with a middle aged gentleman from Latin America. he ordered his chicken 'medium'; I ordered mine 'hot'; he then changed his order to 'hot'. Not because he liked spicy food, but because he couldn't be seen to be outdone on something he rated as 'macho'. ironic in that he was otherwise very progressive and working for Oxfam!
Posted 13 years ago #
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