Thank you, thank you, thank you for covering the issue of misogyny in bike culture! Beth Bourne is such a powerhouse and we love her here in California. But I do want to give proper credit to Judee See, one of the other women there, who had the courage to walk up to male rider Chelsea Wolfe,
take the video, and talk so calmly in the face of abuse. Her X handle is @XxtraEstroGenny
Thank you for your unwavering commitment to uncovering the misogyny and violence that happens so frequently. It is a sad state of affairs that so many women are so gung-ho about their own erasure. I think it's important to name the underlying cause of all of these horrors: patriarchy. Misogyny is a symptom, not a root cause, of the erasure of women. We can't cure a cancer by naming it something else and trying to treat the wrong thing.
Yes, let's raise awareness of the men invading women's categories in all the different ways that is happening. Yes, let's try to change policies to keep men out of women's spaces. Yes, let's try to talk to the women who are cheering on their own demise and help them see what the harm they are causing to themselves, their daughters, their sisters, to women everywhere.
AND, let's name the real underlying cause that permeates our world, and work on raising everyone's consciousness to raise ourselves out of the patriarchal mind control that has allowed trans ideology to flourish. If we don't do that, the trans cult will be able to come roaring back as soon as we drop even a tiny bit of vigilance.
Another excellent article Sarah! The cycling community is a train wreck for allowing this nonsense. But there are several NGBs that are getting legal help to create loopholes. They are betting that a new Administration will allow them to go back to abusing women. All sports need to carefully read any new policy that purports to "comply" with the EO, NCAA, USOPC, etc. I'm currently waiting to see what USRowing is going to do. They have not been transparent and lie firmly left from their previous behavior.
Absolutely agree that a lot of NGBs, sadly, are just waiting for a new administration so they can go back to destroying women's rights. It's almost as if they see this as their entire raison d'etre
Dads, high school boys, sport scientists--they are speaking up. But as I described, cycling is a small sports populated in large part by men are nonconforming, quirky, and that includes men who are willing to take women's opportunities. If a man speaks out against that, he'll be ostracized just like women who do. Social ostracization and shaming is a powerful tool, and one that's been weaponized uber effectively by trans activism--"inclusion" is kind and progressive; saying men should race in their own category is hateful and bigoted
I think that the desire to oppress women and the resentment of women among nerdy, artistic, quirky men who feel inferior to traditionally masculine men cannot be overstated. These men revel in the opportunity to flex their power over women in leftist circles and in small communities like cycling. They long to be dominant in the same way that traditionally masculine men are dominant.
I do think there is an interesting take on bicyclists specifically. I am not one but I’ve been subject to very anti-social behaviors by them and knocked down in Europe by them.
Cycling is also a sport with a small media ecosystem that, at least in the US, is basically entirely concentrated in Boulder and the Bay Area and similar places. The major American cycling outlets, cycling content creators, and cycling journalists have a disproportionate influence over the sport as experienced by amateurs and non-elite racers, because it’s an extremely small pond in the end. Those individuals are also largely men - men who consider themselves allies to women and women’s cycling, but men. Women who tried to push back when the trans thing started exploding were made pretty unwelcome, which was rich coming from journalists and creators who portrayed themselves as supporters of women’s cycling. A lot of men have parasocial relationships, or even actual friendships, with the dominant media figures in American cycling and thus were not going to back the women who were challenging the narrative on this.
Yes, the "trans" bullying, especially in the realm of sports, is very real and I have personally experienced it here in NYC.
Sending love to Beth Bourne, and I am glad you included her Quotes in your article. She puts her body, literally, on the line, as when she spoke to a panel of automaton bureaucrats and disrobed to call attention to anatomical differences in schools. And, of course, the bureaucrats got very "offended", left, and cut her time short.
This not bike culture, it is enabling and codependency of gender dysphoria, a psychosis similar to schizophrenia where the person is OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY. It is inhumane to treat mentally ill people as if they were normal. Violence of any kind perpetrated against anyone should always be dealt with swiftly and justly. Everyone has a right to a safe and healthy environment. Those who threaten or harm others should be excluded. Transvestites, transsexuals and gender dysphoric individuals do not get to parade around as if they are normal and take part in normal activities created for normal people. Maybe Special Olympics will take them?
I think it was a Canadian bike messenger I spoke with last year who said misogyny is the only abuse that's acceptable in our society. I didn't get that exactly right, but what she meant was that violence and abuse of women is so common in our society, it's normalized. We cease to see it. Seventeen women PER WEEK are shot and killed by an intimate partner in the US. The number killed is actually much higher but this is only gun deaths, and only by an intimate partner. By any objective measure, that's genocide. It's rarely mentioned.
I have a 17 year old daughter, senior in high school. She has four older brothers, which has probably prepared her more for the real world of men than anything her mother or I could ever tell her. She grew up beating boys at running. She started doing fun runs at age 3. It's sad, but so far, the only advice I have ever given her about boys/men, is to never believe a word they say. I cannot imagine her in an abusive relationship. Your statistic is chilling.
I wouldn't say unequivocally not to believe anything any man said. The few places where women need to be separate from men are based on sex differences. Upholding those sex-based rights, allowing women to have boundaries and say no to a man or boy, goes a long way to protecting their safety, dignity, fairness and opportunity. Having sex-based spaces, as they always say, good men will stay out so bad men will stand out
Cycling is woke, and the cycling press embraces transgenderism in the sport. It's hard, if possible at all, to find anything critical of men in women's sports in cycling journalism.
I used to write almost exclusively about running, but when Caster Semenya (male with DSD) won his first women's World Championship in 2009, I started trying to write about what I saw—that males in women's sports were invariably believed in their claims to be female, and painted as victims, while any wmen who dared to even suggest that athletes with male DSDs or trans-identified males were indeed male and did not belong in women's sports were crucified. Absolutely demolished, not only on social media but in tangible ways—by losing sponsorships, places on teams, opportunities. And no media would even touch it, outlets that I had written for before—the NYT, Runners World, Women's Running, Outside. There still is not a single mainstream media outlet that will write anything factual, scientific, about men in women's sports
That's the way it is with virtually all sports. Unfortunately since transgenderism has infected all aspects of our society including law, many blue states like CA and WA have enshrined protection on the basis of gender identity at the expense of sex, so trans activists in sports can rely on state law to justify men in women's sports. And you innocent fresh air enjoyers can do nothing about it. BUT you can vote out the politicians who put that law in place
It’s all the same isn’t it. Men taking advantage of women; changing rules so males can compete with women, bullying women so they can’t speak up about what’s going on, making women pretend it’s okay so they can participate.
If you’re in charge and you hold all the cards, you can make things happen the way you want.
And, if you’re a woman, you do the best you can, with all the men working against you.
As all the women I spoke with concurred, yes, there are men trashing women's rights but their decisions are supported and policed brutally by women who, for whatever reason, are working against other women, eagerly giving away women's rights. It's sad, frustrating, and really gutting, but true
Isn't ‘if you don't like it, go make your own events’ something you always tell trans women? If you don't want to treat trans women as women, you can go to events that agree with you.
In cycling and many other sports, there are nonbinary, co-ed, and open divisions but that has not stopped males who identify as women from competing in the female category. Since the very beginning, there has been almost no effort by the trans community to create their own teams. I did write about about Lavender League, https://www.thefemalecategory.com/p/lavender-league-creates-a-safe-space, a very successful soccer league in Portland, OR that was established bc the players, female with various identities, recognized sex differences. These women came from LGBTQIA leagues where play was dominated by males. I have heard of some trans hockey teams. These are few and far between. What would actually be brave and barrier-breaking would be a trans-identified male who opted to remain in the male category. I would do that story in a minute!
There is a footballer (soccer player) called Jaiyah Saelua. He is a Fa’afafine who played in a World Cup qualifier on the men’s team for American Samoa. He’s featured in the film ‘Next Goal Wins’.
Ha, yes, Alison Sydor mentioned that film. I think it was the site HeCheated that just recently did a roundup of males with feminine identities who competed in the male category. Most were either forced to by law orwere simultaneously playing on a girls' team
One of the ironies of this situation is that many, if not most, of the women in cycling are leftists, and leftism is what caused this problem in the first place, and fights to keep it going. Feminists against the interests of women.
I'm a cyclist, and I agree--for some reason there are a lot of assholes in cycling. They spoil it for the non-assholes. Every arrogant asshole cyclist who has blocked car traffic has made car drivers mad at me, who has never blocked car traffic. If you want to see a dense concentration of assholes, just go to a cycling club ride. That's why I always ride alone.
As the article shows, much of the problem of men in women's sports is due to women, who claim to be feminists, militantly advocating for men to be allowed in women's sports. It's as if these women hate their own sex.
The paragraph I included about women being so devalued in our society they simply don't know any better was a gut punch to me. Because I think it's true. And I live in a blue state among middle class highly educated women who would deny this to their dying day. But it's still true. And ineffably sad
Thank you, thank you, thank you for covering the issue of misogyny in bike culture! Beth Bourne is such a powerhouse and we love her here in California. But I do want to give proper credit to Judee See, one of the other women there, who had the courage to walk up to male rider Chelsea Wolfe,
take the video, and talk so calmly in the face of abuse. Her X handle is @XxtraEstroGenny
Absolutely! Beth called outJudee too - these women are giving instruction in bravery
Thank you for your unwavering commitment to uncovering the misogyny and violence that happens so frequently. It is a sad state of affairs that so many women are so gung-ho about their own erasure. I think it's important to name the underlying cause of all of these horrors: patriarchy. Misogyny is a symptom, not a root cause, of the erasure of women. We can't cure a cancer by naming it something else and trying to treat the wrong thing.
Yes, let's raise awareness of the men invading women's categories in all the different ways that is happening. Yes, let's try to change policies to keep men out of women's spaces. Yes, let's try to talk to the women who are cheering on their own demise and help them see what the harm they are causing to themselves, their daughters, their sisters, to women everywhere.
AND, let's name the real underlying cause that permeates our world, and work on raising everyone's consciousness to raise ourselves out of the patriarchal mind control that has allowed trans ideology to flourish. If we don't do that, the trans cult will be able to come roaring back as soon as we drop even a tiny bit of vigilance.
Lowered testosterone levels don't change the enormous physiological advantage that males have! No males belong in female competitive categories.
Regardless of testosterone levels.
Another excellent article Sarah! The cycling community is a train wreck for allowing this nonsense. But there are several NGBs that are getting legal help to create loopholes. They are betting that a new Administration will allow them to go back to abusing women. All sports need to carefully read any new policy that purports to "comply" with the EO, NCAA, USOPC, etc. I'm currently waiting to see what USRowing is going to do. They have not been transparent and lie firmly left from their previous behavior.
Absolutely agree that a lot of NGBs, sadly, are just waiting for a new administration so they can go back to destroying women's rights. It's almost as if they see this as their entire raison d'etre
As a man, I wonder where are the men? Do no men speak up?
My feeling is that society has allocated key resources, experiences and honors to women.
When this is taken from women it is theft, no different from lifting a wallet or stealing food under threat of violence.
Criminal fraud.
That’s all.
Dads, high school boys, sport scientists--they are speaking up. But as I described, cycling is a small sports populated in large part by men are nonconforming, quirky, and that includes men who are willing to take women's opportunities. If a man speaks out against that, he'll be ostracized just like women who do. Social ostracization and shaming is a powerful tool, and one that's been weaponized uber effectively by trans activism--"inclusion" is kind and progressive; saying men should race in their own category is hateful and bigoted
I think that the desire to oppress women and the resentment of women among nerdy, artistic, quirky men who feel inferior to traditionally masculine men cannot be overstated. These men revel in the opportunity to flex their power over women in leftist circles and in small communities like cycling. They long to be dominant in the same way that traditionally masculine men are dominant.
I do think there is an interesting take on bicyclists specifically. I am not one but I’ve been subject to very anti-social behaviors by them and knocked down in Europe by them.
Cycling is also a sport with a small media ecosystem that, at least in the US, is basically entirely concentrated in Boulder and the Bay Area and similar places. The major American cycling outlets, cycling content creators, and cycling journalists have a disproportionate influence over the sport as experienced by amateurs and non-elite racers, because it’s an extremely small pond in the end. Those individuals are also largely men - men who consider themselves allies to women and women’s cycling, but men. Women who tried to push back when the trans thing started exploding were made pretty unwelcome, which was rich coming from journalists and creators who portrayed themselves as supporters of women’s cycling. A lot of men have parasocial relationships, or even actual friendships, with the dominant media figures in American cycling and thus were not going to back the women who were challenging the narrative on this.
Time to organize female only for women…
Thank you.
Yes, the "trans" bullying, especially in the realm of sports, is very real and I have personally experienced it here in NYC.
Sending love to Beth Bourne, and I am glad you included her Quotes in your article. She puts her body, literally, on the line, as when she spoke to a panel of automaton bureaucrats and disrobed to call attention to anatomical differences in schools. And, of course, the bureaucrats got very "offended", left, and cut her time short.
Thank you, Beth!
This not bike culture, it is enabling and codependency of gender dysphoria, a psychosis similar to schizophrenia where the person is OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY. It is inhumane to treat mentally ill people as if they were normal. Violence of any kind perpetrated against anyone should always be dealt with swiftly and justly. Everyone has a right to a safe and healthy environment. Those who threaten or harm others should be excluded. Transvestites, transsexuals and gender dysphoric individuals do not get to parade around as if they are normal and take part in normal activities created for normal people. Maybe Special Olympics will take them?
I think it was a Canadian bike messenger I spoke with last year who said misogyny is the only abuse that's acceptable in our society. I didn't get that exactly right, but what she meant was that violence and abuse of women is so common in our society, it's normalized. We cease to see it. Seventeen women PER WEEK are shot and killed by an intimate partner in the US. The number killed is actually much higher but this is only gun deaths, and only by an intimate partner. By any objective measure, that's genocide. It's rarely mentioned.
I have a 17 year old daughter, senior in high school. She has four older brothers, which has probably prepared her more for the real world of men than anything her mother or I could ever tell her. She grew up beating boys at running. She started doing fun runs at age 3. It's sad, but so far, the only advice I have ever given her about boys/men, is to never believe a word they say. I cannot imagine her in an abusive relationship. Your statistic is chilling.
I wouldn't say unequivocally not to believe anything any man said. The few places where women need to be separate from men are based on sex differences. Upholding those sex-based rights, allowing women to have boundaries and say no to a man or boy, goes a long way to protecting their safety, dignity, fairness and opportunity. Having sex-based spaces, as they always say, good men will stay out so bad men will stand out
Thank you.
https://youtu.be/j5RuCEhHcG4
Men kill far more men than women, so misogyny isn't the only form of abuse, or have you ceased to see men who are killed?
Male violence is the elephant in the room
beth should be carrying heqvy duty pepper spray and lighting up anyone who assaults or steals from her.
Cycling is woke, and the cycling press embraces transgenderism in the sport. It's hard, if possible at all, to find anything critical of men in women's sports in cycling journalism.
I used to write almost exclusively about running, but when Caster Semenya (male with DSD) won his first women's World Championship in 2009, I started trying to write about what I saw—that males in women's sports were invariably believed in their claims to be female, and painted as victims, while any wmen who dared to even suggest that athletes with male DSDs or trans-identified males were indeed male and did not belong in women's sports were crucified. Absolutely demolished, not only on social media but in tangible ways—by losing sponsorships, places on teams, opportunities. And no media would even touch it, outlets that I had written for before—the NYT, Runners World, Women's Running, Outside. There still is not a single mainstream media outlet that will write anything factual, scientific, about men in women's sports
Very ugly to read about. My only caveat is to say that cycling is much bigger than competitive cycling, and for every nutcase you describe, there are hundreds of male cyclists of varying levels of commitment who just like cycling for the fresh air and exercise and don't have any desire to compete against women. Yes, we wear tights but, to paraphrase Homer Simpson, that's strictly a comfort and aerodynamic thing. https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSimpsons/comments/20rh85/marge_you_being_a_cop_makes_you_the_man_which/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
That's the way it is with virtually all sports. Unfortunately since transgenderism has infected all aspects of our society including law, many blue states like CA and WA have enshrined protection on the basis of gender identity at the expense of sex, so trans activists in sports can rely on state law to justify men in women's sports. And you innocent fresh air enjoyers can do nothing about it. BUT you can vote out the politicians who put that law in place
Ever get the feeling this is the revenge of the nerds?
It’s all the same isn’t it. Men taking advantage of women; changing rules so males can compete with women, bullying women so they can’t speak up about what’s going on, making women pretend it’s okay so they can participate.
If you’re in charge and you hold all the cards, you can make things happen the way you want.
And, if you’re a woman, you do the best you can, with all the men working against you.
As all the women I spoke with concurred, yes, there are men trashing women's rights but their decisions are supported and policed brutally by women who, for whatever reason, are working against other women, eagerly giving away women's rights. It's sad, frustrating, and really gutting, but true
Isn't ‘if you don't like it, go make your own events’ something you always tell trans women? If you don't want to treat trans women as women, you can go to events that agree with you.
In cycling and many other sports, there are nonbinary, co-ed, and open divisions but that has not stopped males who identify as women from competing in the female category. Since the very beginning, there has been almost no effort by the trans community to create their own teams. I did write about about Lavender League, https://www.thefemalecategory.com/p/lavender-league-creates-a-safe-space, a very successful soccer league in Portland, OR that was established bc the players, female with various identities, recognized sex differences. These women came from LGBTQIA leagues where play was dominated by males. I have heard of some trans hockey teams. These are few and far between. What would actually be brave and barrier-breaking would be a trans-identified male who opted to remain in the male category. I would do that story in a minute!
There is a footballer (soccer player) called Jaiyah Saelua. He is a Fa’afafine who played in a World Cup qualifier on the men’s team for American Samoa. He’s featured in the film ‘Next Goal Wins’.
Ha, yes, Alison Sydor mentioned that film. I think it was the site HeCheated that just recently did a roundup of males with feminine identities who competed in the male category. Most were either forced to by law orwere simultaneously playing on a girls' team
Yes, I think he’s a trans activist now and definitely was considering playing on the American Samoa women’s team.
One of the ironies of this situation is that many, if not most, of the women in cycling are leftists, and leftism is what caused this problem in the first place, and fights to keep it going. Feminists against the interests of women.
Feminists who center men are not feminists. This comes as a surprise to many left leaning Democratic women
Cyclists are assholes. Pearls Before Swine has many cartoons devoted to this, I was so delighted when this became one of his themes :)
I'm a cyclist, and I agree--for some reason there are a lot of assholes in cycling. They spoil it for the non-assholes. Every arrogant asshole cyclist who has blocked car traffic has made car drivers mad at me, who has never blocked car traffic. If you want to see a dense concentration of assholes, just go to a cycling club ride. That's why I always ride alone.
Why are so many males so hateful towards women?
As the article shows, much of the problem of men in women's sports is due to women, who claim to be feminists, militantly advocating for men to be allowed in women's sports. It's as if these women hate their own sex.
The paragraph I included about women being so devalued in our society they simply don't know any better was a gut punch to me. Because I think it's true. And I live in a blue state among middle class highly educated women who would deny this to their dying day. But it's still true. And ineffably sad