Question: Why does this NYTimes style article about “bicycle chic” make me want to barf?
Is it:
A) The increase of women on bikes finally picks up, but it’s only fit to print couched in the angle of rich, sexy women riding bikes.
B) The ladies sound like annoying, entitled riders, one merrily laughing off people who “shake their canes” at her while she “speeds down the sidewalk” and another choosing to ride a singlespeed because “everyone in Brooklyn rides one.”
C) I’m probably just jealous that they’re New York supermodels with fabulous careers and custom built tricycles that they use to haul cute dogs named Stitch and I have none of these things.
Yes, yes, and yes! But mostly because the women interviewed seem to view their bikes as fashion accessories, the sidewalk-biking lady describes her bike as a “a kind of rustic enhancement” to her outfit. To them, riding a bike is a stylish fad and, with a change in the seasons, that “rustic enhancement” might go out of style and these ladies will be getting around by Land Rover or Razr scooter or whatever the next fad is.
Slate also sounds off about the article, arguing that there’s only been a small increase in women riding bikes and, besides, the current Times bears a strong resemblance to a trend story (“The Spokes-Models” oh god) the paper published in 2007. That story began: “Meet the beautiful bicycle girls of New York, a breed that bears little resemblance to the hard-charging, Spandex-short-wearing species of 20 years ago.”
If you’re looking for bike news, stories, and, yes, fashion for down-to-earth, practical lady riders, I recommend Momentum Magazine.
ANYWAY, speaking of beautiful people on bikes, here’s a cute video about cute people on cute bikes that Graham sent in:
I can’t tell if it’s more patronizing to bicyclists or to women. Either way, barfing is the correct reaction.
BICYCLES!!!
or
“I think, Oh my God, I look like a 35-year-old on a child’s bike”
“But mostly because the women interviewed seem to view their bikes as fashion accessories, the sidewalk-biking lady describes her bike as a “a kind of rustic enhancement” to her outfit. To them, riding a bike is a stylish fad and, with a change in the seasons, that “rustic enhancement” might go out of style and these ladies will be getting around by Land Rover or Razr scooter or whatever the next fad is.”
I would say this description fits about a quarter of the people I know who ride. Like it or not, it is what it is.
I found it this weekend through Slate’s critique (and I’m pretty sure you saw it on my FB profile and then blogged about it) and it was just, so, expected. The NYT has become just awful with this stuff.
Whether it’s a new food cart pod in Portland, some restaurateur gimmick that will fade in a month or hot girls in pretty dresses on bikes, the NYT just has this completely mindless trend-whore approach to it.
And I think we need to pass a law that bans Oregonians from talking to anyone affiliated with NYT style, travel, food and leisure sections of all stripes.
Cars have no shortage of fashion write ups, fads, style magazines, and pretty douches & ditzes warbling incoherently at reporters about their rides. This is just one of the queasy markers of success.
When David Byrne hosts “Pimp My Bike”, then you should be concerned.
Oregonmetry,
The Salon link came from a friend who emailed it to me, not FB. But I’m glad we’re all agreed on the trend-whore front!
“Sometimes she’s done up in sparkly necklaces and towering heels; other times she coasts to appointments, sans helmet, in a blazer and fresh-pressed jeans.”
“They are a far cry ‘from the image of the adult cyclist as infantry solider [sic] with a helmet,’ Mr. Bliss said, referring mostly to the athletes and messengers who whiz by in that all-too-familiar forward-thrust posture that has, he said, ‘alienated every pedestrian.'”
“And most are turning their backs on the once-customary aerodynamic helmets and latex shorts in favor of a look as fetching as it is genteel.”
“‘Fixing your makeup or sending a text message could have catastrophic results,’ he said. To say nothing of going without a helmet.”
Ummm… why don’t we say something of going without a helmet!? There’s going to be an article in a different section of that paper before too long describing an accident involving a chic young model twit who was too stylish for a helmet (those are for ugly athletes and messengers!), zipping right in front of a cab on her way to a go-see, and isn’t it tragic that her vintage Raleigh accessory got all mangled, and by the way also her head.
We don’t say something about the helmet thing because that conversation has already been had a jillion times over. Check out the bikeportland.org archives to get your fix!
I’m aware. I was just saying the NYT fashion section doesn’t seem to be. They seemed to be encouraging riding without helmets.
“Who needs safety when you’re looking so cute!” – Brooklyn
There is a company with stylish helmet hats, similar to those used by equestrians.
It’s tough being on the front edge of cultural change when what you are doing is adopted by the masses. I’ve found it better to declare success and move on in that case, which happens all the time!
The articles written in the Mercury are going to be different than those written by the NY Times because they have different advertisers (audiences). So bicycle chic? I say well done.
I love the obligatory and now inevitable contrast with the “spandex-clad” and/or “fast.” As if normal people hadn’t been riding bikes forever. Can’t create a phony trend or movement without something to contrast it against. Just ask…
wait for it…
…HITLER!!
New York girls ain’t up to speed. This is how we roll! WEST COAST!
http://www.oregonlive.com/aloha/index.ssf/2010/10/girl_runs_bicycle_into_washington_county_sheriffs_patrol_car_in_aloha.html
@Night Moves — Pimp my bike was done by the Simpsons in the Microfinance episode starring Muhammad Yunus.
I saw that article and as a woman, it offended me. I ride a bike to work, real bike shorts is the only way to ride a bike safely, as well as using a helmet and correct shoes. The lady in the picture has none of these things and is wearing dark clothes as well. I also don’t see ‘getting whistled at’ by guys as a perk or a plus side to a commute, nor breaking the law by not using a helmet and riding on the sidewalks. These things shouldn’t be glamorized. How about reading a bicycle riding manual for New York so that they stop endangering other peoples well being and their own lives trying to look ‘cool’.