Comments on: Stick Figures And Stick Figures Who Parent

By: Susan

Susan — Sun, 06 May 2012 08:51:00 +0000

This is so ridiculous, In one post you argue how abhorrent it is that there is such a thing as a bike “for women” then in this one you moan that womens bikes don’t feature in road signs… You’ve dedicated yourself to a frankly asinine discourse, perhaps if you spent more time adressing real inequality rather than such trivial notions of social construction you would make a good little woman out of yourself

Susan

By: Lee

Lee — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 23:52:00 +0000

I have lived in Malmö my whole life and can attest to the fact there are plenty of those signs (in referense to the “Emanuelle took a photo of this sign in Malmö, Sweden”) I can think of 5 within 15 min walking distance. I honestly thought that this was the norm, there are two parent regardless of the familial status (together or not) and/or if it is opposite/same-sex parents.
My parent were never married and had ended their romantic involvement by the time I was, about, one.I remember walking with my dad in the park and seeing a sign like it and pointing it out as “us”. I liked feeling seen, as I think dads do.

By: Women vs. People : Ms Magazine Blog

Women vs. People : Ms Magazine Blog — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:30:03 +0000

[...] women’s t-shirts, scientists and female scientists, Best Buy assumes all customers are male, stick figures and stick figures who parent, and default [...]

By: Sadie

Sadie — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:15:00 +0000

I currently live in the Netherlands, and I see people of all genders riding all kinds of bikes everyday. The section of this article about Dutch bike signs seemed, to me, to be jumping to conclusions. This morning, I went out and watched the bicyclists in my neighborhood. My observation (admittedly based on a small sample) is that both men and women here often ride the “opposite gender’s” bike- so often, in fact, that it’s irrational to say that one style belongs to either gender. I don’t believe that the signs are gendered in any way. It’s just a picture of a bike.

By: Conversation

Conversation — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 18:51:00 +0000

also been to plenty of men’s washrooms that have change-tables

By: Conversation

Conversation — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 18:49:00 +0000

This has been repeated several times in the comments, but deserves noting. It is not the so-called male-gendered bike symbol, but in fact the actual ‘women’s-style bike’, with its lowered bar — designed to allow for gendered clothing — that is gendered. If anything, the sign shows a fixed-gear bike, and therefore more likely discriminatory against competitive racing cyclists, mountainbikers, and bmx-trick riders. For shame.

By: Shelbs

Shelbs — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 02:26:00 +0000

I’m sorry, but I always found this argument silly. There are much more important things to worry about, both socially and practically, than the proposed gender of stick figures.

By: June

June — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 20:29:00 +0000

The “men’s” bicycle just looks like a normal bike to me. I’m a woman and I have a bike like that. It’s in no way a gender-specific bike.

By: Charles

Charles — Tue, 31 May 2011 04:02:41 +0000

Women complain about pressure to wear a skirt! It’s small pressure compared to what men face to NOT wear one! It beggars language to describe how a sex neutral garment came to be attributed so overwhelmingly to females only. Social forces alone—horseback riding—placed men into pants. Whereas for the female the trouser represented freedom, for the male it’s the skirt. Blocking him are his own misconceptions and still worse, the appalling “mental health” (social conformity) movement flinging terminology against him (“transvestite” and “cross-dresser”) to STOP him from having choices.

By: Korean Sociological Image #59: Childcare is (Still) Women’s Job! « The Grand Narrative

Mon, 16 May 2011 11:45:47 +0000

[...] that such images are almost universal, and indeed the above ones look almost exactly the same as those in Dublin airport. Moreover, once you move away from signs to language instead, then, possibly following overseas [...]

By: Leigha

Leigha — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 05:30:45 +0000

No, actually. I have been informed (and seen signs indicating) that there are men’s restrooms with changing tables (such as in Wal-Mart). Also, I have recently been made to realize that none of the restaurants in my area have changing tables at all, in either restroom.

By: Simone

Simone — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 04:31:04 +0000

Quite frankly, I’m annoyed that someone could use the phrase “what evolution intended” and keep a straight face…

By: Eve

Eve — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 04:09:41 +0000

Additionally, I’d like to toss in two cents about the gendering of signs: If there are four signs lined up, and two of them are wearing dresses and two are wearing pants, and assuming that the signs are heteronormative etc., the only thing to conclude from that would be that the people wearing dresses are female and the people wearing pants are male. If everyone wore pants, it would be more ambiguous, but this indicates a specific choice to apply dresses to specific characters in the signs. There are then two sub-categories of behaviours that they align with gender: people who take care of children and have to make sure they do non-stupid child-related things, and people who don’t take care of children and have to make sure they do non-stupid, non-child-related things. It’s not like there’s an extra sign that show women being perfect and men being stupid. It shows things that everyone has to watch out for (represented by males), and things that women have to watch out for (making sure your kids don’t disappear under the escalator).

By: Eve

Eve — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 03:59:48 +0000

karinova, I agree!

If you were to translate this argument into a Canadian context, you might see a French sign with English underneath. If someone were to announce that the sign was photographed in Canada, it would be ridiculous to be offended that there was no question about why the sign was in French instead of English. Or in Chinese, or in Tamil, or in Russian. Countries are multicultural, and assuming that all signs must conform to the official language of the country in which it’s photographed is just as presumptuous.

By: fox

fox — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 23:19:42 +0000

http://alk.tiehallinto.fi/www2/liikennemerkit/images/421.gif

Tried to have this linked above, but failed… Here’s the url anyway.