Reader Clifford McC. and his (female) partner both receive Bicycling magazine (which, he explains, is more of a free advertisement that they get whether they want to or not). In any case, this month’s issue was the 2010 Buyer’s Guide and, though the issues each received were identical, the one addressed to his partner was stickered:
The sticker read, “BONUS! SPECIAL WOMEN’S SECTION.”
Perhaps they were trying to be inclusive, but a sticker advertising a special women’s section just goes to show that the magazine is, first-and-foremost, for men.
For the same phenomenon elsewhere, see our posts featuring websites selling dinosaur toys and Legos(see “exhibit three”), each with a special section for girls.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 20
naath — March 11, 2010
Does it actually contain, well, anything about women's bikes?
It does irritate me that "men's" is seen as "for everyone" and "women's" is seen as specialist, but at least in the field of cycling "women's" bikes really are very much a specialist corner of the market since most women who cycle ride "men's" (or rather "unisex") bikes. Personally I'm irritated that "women's" bikes are still referred to as "women's" rather than by a more useful descriptions such as "dropped cross bar" but I actually would be more interested in a magazine article on such bikes as I am in the small minority of women who do prefer to ride them (some men do too, although not many).
Anonymous — March 11, 2010
Also, why must the special sticker go on only the magazines with female recipients? Would no male reader possibly be interested in learning about new women's bicycles, when, implicitly, the women readers care about the men's bicycles?
melinda — March 11, 2010
I've read catalogs with a "bicycling" (read: men's cycling) and "women's bicycling" section, as if they were completely different sports entirely. And they weren't even selling bikes, just stuff like clothes, shoes, water bottles, and helmets.
The women's sections were, of course, mostly about looking cute, and the supposedly-not-gendered-but-really-mens-sections were, of course, mostly about going fast and monitoring your heart rate and that kind of thing. So the way the catalog was set up, they WERE entirely different activities.
Fangirl — March 11, 2010
I'm fascinated by their choice of typeface. It seems like the kind of thing you'd see on a wedding magazine, which is very much gendered "female." Knowing nothing about bikes, if that was dropped off on my doorstep without the sticker, I'd assume the issue was for women who were looking to buy a bike.
bradmillershero — March 11, 2010
Yesterday I was watching Fight Science in which the punches of a female boxer (Lucila Rijker?) were tested against a male Olympic boxer. She hit with 200 lbs more force. And didn't Lindsay Van have the all-time ski jumping record before the Olympics? Wonder how long it will be before female athletes are treated seriously.
Victoria — March 11, 2010
Who can bicycle with all this vajazzling going on?
Helen — March 13, 2010
I don’t know of any men who ride women’s bikes.
I see it on the street, all the time.