Bike vs Bike

by Elly Blue, Kristin Tieche

October 17, 2011

Yellow Shoes

Photo by Mikael Colville-Andersen/ copenhagenize.eu

Does the cycle chic movement encourage more women to think of cycling as a viable mode of transportation or objectify women and make it seem exclusive?

By Elly Blue & Kristin Tieche

In an effort to spark debate about hot topics hitting the bikeosphere, Momentum columnist Elly Blue, of Portland, OR, and guest columnist Kristin Tieche, of San Francisco, CA, will duke it out to see which bike steers the truer course.

Kristin's Defense

Cycle chic combines bicycles and fashion. It has inspired many women to not only ride a bike for everyday transportation, but to also photograph what they're wearing and share those images and stories with kindred spirits through social media.

The numerous bike fashion blogs that have exploded in cyberspace show urban and suburban women that they can wear whatever they want on a bicycle. Suddenly, in their eyes, biking became not only a sport for Lycra-clad men, but an easy and enjoyable way for any woman to go to work, run errands and socialize with friends.

What is remarkable about this movement is that it emerged not from the marketing offices of haute couture designers, but from the streets. Fashion-minded women parade their unique styles while riding bikes for everyone to see and take notice. This movement has made female cyclists more visible both on the streets and in the mainstream media.

A fashionable cyclist is not necessarily the same woman who attends a Critical Mass ride. But, she may join a tweed ride, a bike party and a cycle chic group ride, and may even be a member of her city's bicycle coalition. She is a bicycle advocate in her own right, simply by choosing to put her high-heeled foot on her pedal and push off the curb.

We all ride side-by-side in the same bike lane. So it seems divisive to accuse a stylish cyclist of elitism, as some critics do, when she is simply demonstrating her own sense of empowerment, liberation and freedom of movement.

Kristin Tieche is a film producer and editor who lives in San Francisco, CA. Find out more about her at velovogue.com, kristintieche.com and facebook.com/velovogue.

Elly's Rebuttal

I just can't get excited about the 'chic' bicycling movement.

Cycle chic is tied inextricably to fashion - particularly to the mainstream idea of fashion - as the realm of leggy Scandinavian blondes who presumably devote themselves to meeting a standard of attractiveness tailored to the whims of a cadre of drooling men. Want more women to bike? Don't tell us we need to dress better and be even more conscious of our body image. That's the problem, not the solution.

Also problematic is the conflation of marketing with advocacy. The founder of cycle chic praises the women he surreptitiously photographs as 'high-heeled bike advocates' while deriding North American activists working for better riding conditions.

But cyclists are flocking to the streets in places like Manhattan not because there is now an $1,100 Kate Spade mixte, but thanks to bold new networks of bike lanes, the attendant awareness and a support system of longtime activists.

There is nothing at all wrong with bicycling while wearing fashionable, expensive clothes - or your work uniform, a clown suit or even Lycra if you're tiny or male enough to find it in your size. But to suggest that doing so is a mark of progress towards widespread, accessible bicycle transportation is a hindrance.

If bike advocates - male and female - listen to women rather than buying into our objectification, then we might just find ourselves in the midst of a truly effective movement.

Elly Blue lives in Portland, OR. She writes about bicycling, including a column about the bicycle economy for grist.org, a regular news roundup for bikeportland.org and a zine called Taking the Lane. She is the cofounder of pdxbybike.com.

Add your voice to the debate: momentumplanet.com/COLUMNS/bike-vs-bike

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by Elly Blue, Kristin Tieche

October 17, 2011

Latest Comments

  • It's all cycling; it's all good

    I wear Lycra. I wear wool. I wear jeans and Danskos and Bontrager shoes with Keo pedals and sometime flip flops. I love to be on a bike. Sometimes I ride to work in my work clothes. Sometimes I'm in my club kit putting in hills and miles. Sometimes I am downtown on a coffee ride. But no matter, I always have a good time on my bike, and I always seem to enjoy the other people on bikes. It strikes me as silly to try to divide cycling into a right way or a wrong way. There are so many ways to enjoy a bike, and so far, they are all pretty dang fun. So wear what ever strikes you today, and enjoy the ride.

    Posted by Kristie Shaw March 19, 2012 21:37:12

  • False dichotomies

    Where is the middle way in this debate? Kristen and Elly both seem to present a false dichotomy: Lycra or hundred-dollar heels.

    The cycle chic asthetic (though not the brand) was part of my inspiration to ride more, because I saw that I could wear my ordinary work or "going-out" clothes, rather than believing (as I saw on the streets of my town at the time) that I had to don Lycra or my grubbiest jeans and Ts. Yet I never for a moment thought I had to buy designer dresses or heels or a "chic" bicycle to fit some mold of what a woman cyclist should look like. I wear the same skirts, dresses, and slacks I've owned for years--most purchased at Target or in thrift stores for very cheap.

    Some folks, of all genders, always want what's in and what's perceived as stylish. If they weren't spending $1,100 on a loop frame bike, they'd be spending it on a teacup poodle or membership to an oxygen bar. Marketers will market to these folks; nothing we can do about it.

    I haven't heard a single woman say that the increase in cycle chic products and marketing has made her feel bad about herself or her body, I *have* heard several women say that it's made them feel more comfortable riding more often--or at all. Even if they never buy a product marketed that way, the fact that we are no longer an invisible demographic helps us feel more welcome all around. And that has to be a plus.

    Posted by Eli Effinger-Weintraub March 06, 2012 08:31:26

  • I don't think that Elly quite gets it

    Elly's rebuttal posits a false dilemma: that there is either the "cycle chic" movement for encouraging women to ride, or there is no movement for encouraging women to ride. In fact, there is a multiplicity of such movements to suit the ideology of just about any woman, including dykes, grrrls, whoever. Cycle chic merely suits the sensibilities of one segment of the potential female ridership.

    Elly wrote "Cycle chic is tied inextricably to fashion" -- and so to, apparently, are a large percentage of women, riders and not-yet riders. Has Elly considered the possibility that the "cycle chic" subculture may be instrumental in bringing some women to cycling who previously wouldn't have thought it could work with their aesthetic?

    She continued "Also problematic is the conflation of marketing with advocacy". I don't know if it's news to Elly, but *cycling* itself is tied to marketing. Even if one were only addressing male cyclists, and even if only those male cyclists who are spreading the gospel of cycling to the masses, marketing looms large. Manufacturers must market to stay alive and produce the bicycles that will (hopefully!) be needed by the growing number of people who transition from cars and taxis to cycles.

    So ultimately, Elly has some sound concerns, but they're framed as if they're binary; either "my way" or "no way". That's simply not reflective of the heterodoxal reality in cycling today.

    Posted by Robert December 13, 2011 11:00:02

  • sf vs. portland

    That's the difference between San Francisco and Portland right there...

    Posted by francis December 09, 2011 13:51:03

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