An Exhibition of Freakishness

Here is something for you to consider: From March 1898, James O'Neill of the Mecca Wheelmen while discussing the right or wrong of allowing women to participate in century runs had the following to say.

"The success of cycling," he urged, "for the past four or six years has been due to woman. It was her participation that lifted it up from what was considered an exhibition of freakishness. I can easily remember the time when I was jeered wherever I was seen on a bicycle. It was considered an undignified and almost imbecile exhibition to appear on a bicycle. But when women began to ride and added dignity to the exercise, opinion changed. Respect for women led to respect for cycling, and when people had become accustomed to the wheel they were only too glad to adopt it."

Now, admittedly, there are multiple things to consider in that paragraph. First, that after all this time, we are kind of still debating the same things. For instance, on a regular basis, every so often, new stories appear here and there, about the need to encourage more women to ride. As an indicator species can be used to judge the relative health of the biome in which it lives, so too might the health of bicycling be judged by the numbers of women participating in the activity. The correlation may be a bit tenuous, but numbering half the general population, low numbers of women riders unquestionably points to a deficiency. 

As for that whole "freak show" thing, Mr. O'Neill's remarks about "being jeered at," well I have written about that before, when the circus came to town.

Sometimes society seems to be moving in the direction of an equality of respect in regard to men and women. Sometimes. I am not sure the same movement toward equality applies when it comes to use of the public roadways. As many changes as the world has seen in the past two-hundred twenty years, it borders on the amazing just how much remains the same.

Kittie Knox