Let's Talk About the Sexual Objectification of Women!

But Liz, you might say. This blog is called "Liz Bikes." It isn't called "Liz has horrible feminist rage."

Well, internet, I believe it was the original Will.I.am who said "WHAT IS IN A NAME," so there.

This weekend was the ninth annual Everyone Rides event. Basically, it is a heapish pilgrimage of cyclists from all over the place to sunny South Florida for the chance to ride with some of the brightest names in the sport, present and past: Phil Gaimon, Tom Danielson, Brad Huff, Franky Andreu, and Greg Lemond all made appearances.

The other thing making appearances was the Stradalli Cycles brand. Oh, appear they did indeed! Tons of riders sported various makes and builds--including Greg himself. Yes, the man who bought Time USA rode Saturday's VIP ride on a Stradalli.

This is fine. Great! I don't want to talk about small businesses, or competition, or any of that. I want to talk about respect.

Let's talk about actions. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. SCIENCE FACT!
Let's talk about Greg Lemond, one of the greatest, most decorated riders in cycling history, climbing aboard a bicycle that chooses to promote itself with images like these:

I don't even see a bike in this picture. oh wait it's being swallowed BY THE BOOTY

"If I'm really good, I get to wear pants!"

No one lives in a vacuum. When Greg Lemond rode that bike, he endorsed the imagery of the Stradalli brand. Whether it was a knowing endorsement, or just a tame, non-politically-charged ride on a friend's bike--this is beside the point. Because these images are Stradalli's voice, and they say: Women are meat. Women are objects. WOMEN WOMEN MEATY MEAT OBJECTIFICATION TANGO.

Look at another picture:

The Stradalli bike stands in front of an obscenely expensive car. A prototypically "sexy" woman grasps the saddle and pouts.

Guess what? This says something. It means something. For Stradalli, a woman and a luxury car serve the same purpose: they are aesthetic. They provide the air they want their bike to breathe; they give it a "man's man" character.

Let's see images with a man and a Stradalli:

 

Oh, so manly. But SURPRISE. THEY ARE WEARING CLOTHES. Oh, how weird! My eye is not being drawn to their sexual organs, like so:

OOOOOPS MY JERSEY JUST JUMPED RIGHT OFF ME
or
OOOH HOLD ON WHILE I ADJUST MY SEXY, SEXY HEART RATE MONITOR
or
OOOOOH MY SPORTS BRA HAS SOOOOOOO MUCH SUPPORT MY BACK FEELS GREAAAT

So, what does this say to the average woman? I genuinely want to know. I imagine there can be two or three interpretations:

1) FEMINIST RAGE,
as you can see demonstrated now by the lizard. I will not elaborate.

2) APATHY:
 AKA, "Sex sells, that's just how things are."

3) POSITIVE?
I guess someone might say, "they are not being sexualized, they are being sexual." Maybe? But this is pretty clearly some male-gaze stuff. Is this femininity? Is it really?

Now, with Stradalli sponsoring the Colavita Pro Women's cycling team, I cannot see how this can be ignored. You are taking a team of elite, kick-ass women who fight on the daily for respect and forcing them to ride bikes that don't consider women capable of riding them. But if they want to strip and rub their cleavage on the bikes, OH BY ALL MEANS.

But really, this is hardly a new opinion in cycling. This is a sport that paid Chris Froome roughly $600,000 for his victory in the Tour De France, and then threw Giro Donne victor Mara Abbott $630 and told her to GTFO. As a woman, you really can be the best! You just also have to be homeless.

IT IS OFFENSIVE. In an era where women's sports make up somewhere between .5 and 1.5% of sports coverage, (depending on who you ask) this boggles my mind. It is the ultimate of horrible ironies. I lay awake at night for injustices such as these. Nobody asked to be whatever gender they are! Roughly half just happened to have the misfortune of being ladies. For that reason, we are doomed to find blog posts claiming that "Women should not have self-esteem," and shudder. For no reason other than some horrible biological luck, we are doomed to hear the same horrible joke about sandwich making again and again until we either get tired and make the sandwich, or die.

I ask you this, internet: How are we supposed to value ourselves when the world shouts from every direction, "YOU ARE A SANDWICH MAKING PAIR OF BOOBS."

Let's be real--the woman wearing the Stradalli cycling kit is not a cyclist. is She doesn't know the difference between a watt and a tire lever. She is a high heeled fake. I look at this woman and know that this product is not intended for me. Do I imagine myself driving that car, or fucking that woman? Of course not. But advertisements are not crafted by accident, and that is the reaction Stradalli seeks.

I also wonder: what is this bicycle overcompensating for?