Being on the industry side of cycling, I wanted to stay out of this thread. The bike pitch presented to Smurf sounded pretty par for the course of what I hear on the inside all of the time, unfortunately.

What I did appreciate were women "who have been there" speaking up about what felt offensive to them about that bike pitch. Perhaps it wasn't 100% respectful, but it seemed pretty decently handled by all to me, while also honest. A lot of people went out of their way to stand up for Smurf as a person while still speaking their mind about what was offensive to them, and why.

I think Smurf is young enough that she has perhaps come of age somewhat in the "post-feminist" era, so words that sting our generation don't have the same weight for hers. That is just a theory, of course.

I can tell you very clearly that sexism is alive and well on the inside of this industry, and it is often a taboo subject. Women don't complain, women are underrepresented, so nothing really changes except in really "token" ways (or if it leads to higher sales). Sorry if that sounds cynical, but I have been doing this long enough to really see this as true.

I recently posted on a framebuilder subforum of a very popular road-centric forum (that is approx 98% male membership). There is no point re-hashing it here except to say that one of the highly regarded members of on the forum felt it appropriate to call me hormonal. "PMS gotcha down?" is exactly the words he chose. OK, these things happen, but what was appalling to me is that no one spoke up, no one Finally his post was removed by another moderator, but that was the end of it.

This wasn't the first time something like that happened, and it won't be the last.

So, I pretty much fall on my knees in gratitude when women speak up as a group with regard to sexism in cycling. I have nothing personal against Smurf, but it is painful to hear her only hear the words of her forum "sisters" as an attack on her personally, instead of taking them to heart. Questioning her intelligence probably didn't help keep her engaged, but still. I was sorry to see it resulted in her departure.