"Imagine its possible to get laid with a man, not a Neanderthal. Golly gee whiz! "


Yep, we are all bad are we not.If I had said something along the lines of this statement including a woman, I would be lynched .On this forum ,anyways.
Get over it. Life is not fair.
Way to go, alwaysflat.
You do nothing but bitch in a myopic viewpoint about how bad it is here for you in the TC area. " I " "me" . that is all I read in your posts.Too many people think every business and the world, other people , should cater to them specifically . Well, good luck with that. The world sucks, and LIFE IS NOT FAIR.
What have you done to change it?

I have invited the Sibley bike co op womens night down here for some seminars on bike maintenance and frame prep, and even a basic frame building lesson or two.
Ya know why?
Because I know how women can be treated in the shops in the bike world. I know that they might be shy, unconfident, or feel out of place, or even, yes, objectified.
Realizing this, I thought it would be awesome to do some workshops to EMPOWER those who chose to take the class. Knowledge is power, and that is important here, in the highly male bike world.
I have been very vocal about this, but no one has taken me up on the offer. Oh well, offer is still on the table.
Low, lots of things make me uncomfortable. Look at ads with men, always tall, thin, a nice build, well groomed and so on. That stuff makes me feel fat, undesirable and , well fat again. Not many, in fact very few people acknowledge that men have an image to look up to also. Look at Ken, Barbie's boyfriend! I mean, I would kill to have his abs!!
I am done with this thread, I just wanted to get another perspective in on it.
Emma55jean, I wish you good luck in your letter, and I hope you find a beautiful solution .
Signed,
Mr. Bikerepairguyneanderthal.

I'm with you, P to the G... The male ideal is effed up.

And no one is going to call you out on not being a super awesome ally to everyone (especially women) on bikes. Because you're awesome.

So much to say.

Being human is difficult, and being female has its own set of conundrums.


I'm not entirely comfortable admitting this because I'm not sure what it mean, but the way I feel about the "objectification of women" tends to shift in one direction or the other depending on my own sense of self esteem. This has been my experience. If I feel like my gender/sexuality/body is a source of power, I have- not a favorable- but a more favorable opinion of women's bodies as sex objects or used to sell things etc. If I feel that my gender/sexuality/body is a source of weakness and oppression, I become incredible angry and want a world in which a few select men are allowed to live only for the sake of rudimentary genetic diversity. During these dark times it seems as if men only see women as an object to fuck or to laugh at.

Then I think of the super awesome men in my life and the amazing men that I don't know and I remember we should all be treated as individuals which is what human rights is all about.



Sometimes I look to biological anthropology to help me figure it out. Some of the conclusions are terribly unsatisfactory, but it may be looked at this way- women are the sexual power brokers of the heterosexual relationship. What if the objectification of women is a subconscious attempt by men to gain some of that power? Just throwin' it out there...





I gave the finger to the guy who whistled at me while I was riding tonight. Keep that shit to yourself bro.

That's an awesome response, ejm_msp, I liked reading that.

Sometimes I remind myself that "power" is not letting the holla affect me. Because, really, they can only holla at what you can't have. So ride on, above it.