Dear Bike Companies:

[lizbids]

Sorry, just wrote a huge post to find that it's gone! Stupid computers.

Anyway, this subject is a sore spot for me. I don't feel I fit into what is considered masculine or feminine, and I believe many will agree with me. I wrote to Jamis bikes asking why their women's bikes had such a limited color pattern, especially in baby blue or pinks. I told that some of us may like the lighter colors and of course, others like darker colors (like me). It's like the bike companies are trying to remind us that we should still be cute and "lady-like" while trudging through mud or sweating a lot on an open highway...we live in a binary world that makes it hard for people to really just be themselves. It's a shame that there even has to be definitions of masculine and feminine. Why can't colors just be colors, that anyone can pick? Oh, and I do want to add that if lighter and typically more feminine colors and patterns are your thing, I am by no way wanting to step on that, or judge it. I'm just talkin' from the ol' noggin today.

Jamis told me that they do have more colors available outside of what their web site calls for, but when I bought a Jamis through my LBS, the colors were still limited. Jamis then went on to tell me that the owner of the company is a woman, but to me, that's like saying, "The boss is black; we couldn't possibly be racist!" To me, women often fall into stereotype myths and perpetuate them--and they don't do it maliciously. But Jamis' argument annoyed me, b/c I think we as women are all so unique, and I don't think one voice should speak for us all.
That's my rant of the day.

[HillSlugger]

Why can't colors just be colors, that anyone can pick?

Of course, that's the way it should be, but I'm afraid we have a ways to go with our society. Back when my daughter was around 3 or 4 she came home from daycare and told me "Blue is a boy's color and red is a girl's color". I tried to explain that they are just colors and that both boys and girls were allowed to like and use either one. I'm sure this talk was completely lost on her given her age. What I'm trying to illustrate is that this sort of thinking is drilled into us early as a product of our binary gender view. Those of us who don't want to be defined by others are stuck in the middle fighting a tough fight.