last week I was at Costco buying a case of biscuits and I saw this lady is an air force flight suit. I couldn't help but ask, "when did the start letting women fly?"  now I'm noticing women doing all sorts of stuff. I even saw a woman driving a public transit bus.  this to me seems dangerous.  they won't breast feed and and now we have children without immunity all over with swine flu and I can't even go to walmart for fear of all this sickness. now they want to be in charge of all kinds of things and governement and the economy and recycling and even driving the garbage truck. where does it end? how am I to embrace my freedom?  this girl came to our ride once and all she could talk about was how men have affairs nothing more than high school education. this bothers me. then some wild yap about jail and court and lawyers and such:  Who do you think I am -- some kind of moneybag?  Here I am trying to sell my short story trilogy, and you people hound me at every turn -- howling and moaning about some sexist bike shops.  What kind of rotten business are you in -- that you have to hound people all over the country? 

Everybody knows that the bicycle is nothing more that a money laundering scheme, a shady, underground, organization that pollutes the very nature of what we are about:  "rebelling against the man"  Cycling is a lifestyle choice. 

What the hell are you tyring to do, anyway?  Don't you realize that I can't work with all the war coming on us?  This atomic fallout is God's WRATH! With the end of the world right on top of us, I can't afford to work, let alone ride a bicycle or race cyclocross.  Haven't you ever heard of serving God and Mammon?  With all this sex going on and people forgetting about God, how can you hound me like this?  We're taking whiskey into our bodies all the time and drink God's BLOOD!  I can't hold a job -- I get worried all the time and feel half crazy ... what are you doing with all this money?  I don't want your damn money . . . we all have a home in Heaven . . .what's all the trouble?

You don't understand the strain I'm under:  I'm not the same man I was a year ago.  Worrying about my work and money and fitness and jobs all at the same time is driving me crazy!  I have to get my work published!   Why don't you talk to some of these publishers I know and get me an advance  so I can write a novel?  Then I'll have money and I will be able to race every weekend.  Then I'll have money . . .then I'll have it . . . I won't get these threats!   I got a disease of some kind over in New Orleans and this doctor says I'll be fine, but I worry.   Everybody thinks it's funny, but I have to get a job.   I might be the assistant religion editor at the Gainsville Sun pretty soon. .  . ''I'm going over there next week to see about a job.  I had a car and somebody took it in St. Louis.  Oh, God, whats happening all the time?  Everybody wants to steal and drink and sex and take every body's money away from people who don't even sell anything and there's crazy atomic fallout everywhere and war coming on.   The whole world is going crazy and  I don't even have a job.  You've got to stop threatening me!  I'm not well -- I have a blister on my leg and that damn disease is all over my stomach.  I can't even think what I want to say anymore . . . this worry is driving me crazy.

I tired to work in New Orleans and they made me quit.  If I get this thing in Gainesville I'll be a religion editor and publish my own book in the paper.  After that I'll have a job. 

On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 11:25 AM, Boson Au <instructions@gmail.com> wrote:

Some of the time it doesn't even get to the part where you can offer cake; I heard about your cake party and erroneously assumed that only your kind are invited to have cake (because when I peeked in the window it's all your kind).  I then back off, secretly wondering about cake.

also, it is apparent that when I went to the party it was a cake party.

it's a weird cycle.  I've been told MANY times that people are sometimes intimidated by our shop.  A lot of women told me that they  are intimidated by the sheer amount of guys there (and while maybe the majority of them aren't 'sexist bastards' it takes only one and the indifference of others to reinforce this.)

I don't think advertising gender nights/ talking about trying to level the playing field at the shop is being pushy.  Think about it; the only types of people who would step foot in are ones who are interested in bikes and 'bike culture.'  Even if they're just there to get a bike to ride around town in they've already signed up for it.




On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 10:48 AM, <veganboyjosh@gmail.com> wrote:
Not to detract from the things offered already, as a general discussion about how to end sexism and all the other 'isms is important, but I may not have stated my question clearly originally.

Say your'e at a party, and there's cake. The cake gets cut and distributed. You're taking your sweet time eating your piece of cake. I get to the party late, after the cake has been cut and distributed. You still have some cake left on your plate.
 How much energy is appropriate for you to put into making sure I get some cake also? As it turns out, I'm just not interested in the cake you're offering. I have no problems with you having some and me not. You offer to split your cake with me. You offer to cut the cake and let me choose which half to have myself.
 Seriously, I'm not interested in the cake. It has nothing to do with you or your cake. It's about not wanting cake.

Does this analogy have a place in a discussion about privilege? There are going to be some people at all levels of privilege, class, gender, etc, who just aren't interested in bicycles or community bike shops, no matter how accessible, open, oppression free, safe space providing they are. How do we know we've done enough to accommodate the community, and when we're being pushy by expecting to have someone of every dynamic in the shop?

Again, I sincerely hope I'm not coming across as the dickhead white male...and I would say that I personally have not and do not do enough regularly to address the things I could. This is ABSOLUTELY NOT me saying "enough with this accommodating already!" Just trying to figure out where the line is between being fair and offering what I/we have to someone who doesn't and being pushy with our interests towards people who just don't want cake.

Hope that make sense.

Thanks for the input, everyone. Love for each and every one of you reading this.

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