Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on April 6, 2017 at 7:21am

Ha!

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Permalink Reply by kb on April 12, 2017 at 6:23am

Catcalling, honks, leering, sometimes even being followed are daily occurrences when the weather gets a bit nicer. I've had people throw things at me and yell profanity but never have been touched thankfully. 

I usually say "GROSS" really loud or spit as a way to deflect but am open to alternative suggestions for dealing with creeps!

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Permalink Reply by M G on April 13, 2017 at 6:11am

This is a constant, last weekend's nice weather made it worse than it has been in the winter because more people were out on the street. I have a close friend who stopped biking because of the horrible things men yelled at her from their cars. More than once she got to my house (having biked from Old Irving to Bucktown) in tears after being subjected to lewd, mean things. Comments on her weight, breasts, etc were the usual.

That is something that makes me so sad and angry to think about. 

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Permalink Reply by Tom A.K. on April 13, 2017 at 10:34am

M G, if I may ask, how did you respond to your friend's decision to stop biking? Understanding? Acceptance? Encouragement? This is what prompted me to reply. The feeling of anger because of the discouragement of the will of a community member to ride because of harassment. I will step back from this discussion but I do want to know what you think we need to do as a community to stand together in dealing with this issue?

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Permalink Reply by M G on April 14, 2017 at 2:52am

Understanding. I meant sad and angry at the state of women's experiences just existing in public. Power is at the center of so much sexual harassment (and assault) and the dynamic of car:bike only exacerbates it. I was scared for her many times, and I know how upsetting those moments are, so I understand her decision. I just wish it didn't have to be that way. 

And to Anne's point of power in numbers, that is also frustratingly true. I was recently biking with my partner (a man) in Oakland (CA) when I missed a light and stopped, he had made the light and continued for about a block. In that time of one red light and a block, I was catcalled/shouted at 3 times. It didn't happen when we were biking together before or after that. I don't know what that says other than, this is exhausting to deal with and men often don't understand it because they don't see it. 

I think the real solution is so much deeper than what the bike community alone can address, but I do agree with @Caiken that part of the answer is "talk[ing] about misogynistic, dangerous behavior targeted towards non-dudes." And dudes listening to that earnestly and working to understand how they contribute to that behavior, teaching their children or nephews or brothers or fathers to listen and be better. 

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Permalink Reply by Caiken on April 14, 2017 at 3:08am

Hey Tom, I definitely am not wanting to to not be a part of this discussion, which involves listening. I think your questions are GREAT and I am glad you are angry on behalf of people who are being hurt by this violence. 

I just think that it's important for all of us to feel uncomfortable and grow. Listening is hard. Accepting we're all complicit in a system that's meant to make us feel like shit to progress so few people's lives is terrifying. But if we want to embody community, we have to make sure we're dealing with every part of it, right? And calling things out and getting better. 

I hope it makes sense. It makes me uncomfortable sometimes to step and say things, but I still have the energy to do so in this exhausting world, and I want to keep doing it so people stop feeling so isolated and discouraged by some of the mentalities running rampant alongside our #hashtagbikes ethos. 

Also MG I came up for a few years in Oakland and oh my god, MacArthur Blvd used to require the ability to stare straight ahead if you were gonna walk to the bus. So many complicated feelings.

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Permalink Reply by Tom A.K. on April 13, 2017 at 8:31am

Not to be insensitive to the serious issue of sexual harassment, but there has always been some degree of harassment, ridicule and bullying (of all nature) for most in our cycling community from the quickly passing 'vehicle community'. ("Nice bike, you #☆g.") And other insults and actions of all types. It is understandable that these things are hurtful from these ignorant, insensitive jerks. But, we must endure and not be run off the roads. My skin is much thicker now from my years of riding and my recommendation is to keep riding. Hopefully, things will get better. Otherwise, society as we know it, is doomed. . .

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Permalink Reply by Caiken on April 13, 2017 at 8:39am

You're not being insensitive, but it's not contributing to this discussion which is about how gender changes your experience riding a bike. 

Because: institutionalized and reified misogyny does not equal harassment from drivers of vehicles to cyclists because being a cyclist does not equal being a non-cis dude in this here world. Does that make sense?

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Permalink Reply by Matthew Adams on April 13, 2017 at 9:00am

I'm not sure I'm following, I'd like to rephrase to see if I'm understanding correctly.

We live in a misogynistic culture where women are harassed as they (women and basically any who is a non cis gendered heterosexual white man) are outside of the group that has set itself up as the more privileged group. Since bicycling is a mode of transportation then general bullying of cyclists falls outside the scope of this conversation because the question asked is "how does gender effect the bicycling experience?"

Is that a fair rephrase?

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Permalink Reply by Caiken on April 13, 2017 at 9:20am

I mean it's a fair rephrase of something? But that wasn't what I was getting at, and I don't know if I was asking that. But yeah, I don't want to talk about general bullying. I want to talk about misogynistic, dangerous behavior targeted towards non-dudes. (I do think the original post is asking how being not a dude makes being harassed as a cyclist different, and, you know, worse.)

I'm not calling Tom out, but this statement, "Not to be insensitive to the serious issue of sexual harassment, but there has always been some degree of harassment, ridicule and bullying (of all nature) for most in our cycling community from the quickly passing 'vehicle community'" can be heard as: 

"I recognize misogyny and sexual harassment and assault is bad. But also #ALLCYCLISTS deal with this, and isn't that also important?" Which, the whole internet is full of people who know that drivers can be dangerous and people suck, and right now we're not talking about cyclists who are dudes. So no, I don't want to hear about it when we're talking about how it affects women. 

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Gordon on April 13, 2017 at 9:21am

I agree entirely.  You said it much better than I could.

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Permalink Reply by kb on April 13, 2017 at 9:16am

Caiken that was well said.

Tom, in the attempt to give perceptive, I'd say for every "Get off the road!" kind of comment I get, I get 10 street harassment related comments or actions. Most women/women identifying/femme folks will tell you the same thing if you listen. It's just different. 

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