By Selene.
Dear Interbike,
I’m not able to be there this year. At first I was a bit blue about that, because you know I’m really into the sport and love to ride bikes, check out all the industry goodies, and hang out with bike people.
But as the reports roll out of Las Vegas, I realize there’s much I really don’t miss about you. I gotta be honest here. I’m usually a pretty mild mannered*, good natured, good humored girl (*that one may or may not be true, depending who you ask), but the big family reunion you throw in the desert each September always gets me a little rankled.
Photo courtesy Interbike’s Facebook page. Love you WTB, but really? I guess maybe she’s sitting on some model ’13 saddle or something…
Every year I (and other women in the industry) get all these memos and invites about important “Women in Cycling†events during the show. Every manufacturer, major, minor, and otherwise (well maybe aside from a handful who don’t even pretend to care) puts its women-specific products on parade and vows its undying devotion to reaching the women’s market, which, by the way, represents about 42 percent of recreational cyclists.
And every year all this lip service is dished out among the showgirls, lap dances, and boobs and booty in Sin City. Sure some sexy kitsch is fun. And sure, sex sells. But maybe, just maybe, you can show your trade show sisters a little love by doing more to display the real sex appeal of women in cycling—gritty, muscular, muddy, sweaty, dirty, hard working, athletic women racing and riding bikes.
I’m guessing the likes of Evie Stevens and Marianne Vos won’t take a few bucks for a pole dance, but they still look pretty hot hammering around the globe. And unlike the hired help with the store bought double DDs who have been paid to pull in passersby to so many a trade show booth, featuring women who ride bikes and love our sport might actually lure in that other, elusive gender the industry claims to want to attract.
Just sayin’. And I know I’m not the only one sayin’. There’s a little intelligent primer here by Elly Blue that lays it out pretty eloquently. We’re really not prudish killjoys. We’re just women who find wading through all the T&A a little tiresome and would like to feel like we’re part of the party, too. Thanks for listening. Hope to see you next year on just a little bit of higher ground.
Love and kisses,
Selene
