Sexism is "quaint" now?
This article - "Stealing From A Biker Gang" - rubs me wrong in a few places.
It's not the appropriation of biker gear by haute fashion. Designers do it to all subcultures - ask cupcake_goth about "Goth" fads. It's the titillated tone when the story gets to actual bikers, and the casual dismissal of the continued objectification of women (which happens across the entire culture):
Like members of the International Best Dressed list, bikers seem to have found what works for them, and are thus immune to the whims of style. Skeleton motifs are as popular as ever and so are spider web elbow tattoos. Even the sexism that traditionally blighted biker culture now seems so stylized as to be quaint. After all, if the Mudflap Girl can turn up in a Super Bowl commercial, there are probably not many people left to be offended by the motif of a buxom woman whose arms form the fork of a bike.
I'll call myself one of the few left to be offended. And since when are Super Bowl commercials bastions of equal treatment? I will be unsurprised to see ads along the line of the Heineken "Draftkeg" commercial. Drawing comparisons between the two doesn't help the NYT's assertion that sexism is "quaint" in the biker culture.
Mind, I don't belong to a club and I don't ride with anyone else. But the men I've met who ride are highly supportive of women riding, and I've yet to see one of those infamous bikes in the chrome.
It's not the appropriation of biker gear by haute fashion. Designers do it to all subcultures - ask cupcake_goth about "Goth" fads. It's the titillated tone when the story gets to actual bikers, and the casual dismissal of the continued objectification of women (which happens across the entire culture):
Like members of the International Best Dressed list, bikers seem to have found what works for them, and are thus immune to the whims of style. Skeleton motifs are as popular as ever and so are spider web elbow tattoos. Even the sexism that traditionally blighted biker culture now seems so stylized as to be quaint. After all, if the Mudflap Girl can turn up in a Super Bowl commercial, there are probably not many people left to be offended by the motif of a buxom woman whose arms form the fork of a bike.
I'll call myself one of the few left to be offended. And since when are Super Bowl commercials bastions of equal treatment? I will be unsurprised to see ads along the line of the Heineken "Draftkeg" commercial. Drawing comparisons between the two doesn't help the NYT's assertion that sexism is "quaint" in the biker culture.
Mind, I don't belong to a club and I don't ride with anyone else. But the men I've met who ride are highly supportive of women riding, and I've yet to see one of those infamous bikes in the chrome.