Cyclepassion: Hung Up on a Calendar?
Women cyclists show off their hard work, or is it just demeaning, belittling and retrograde?
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Don’t hate ‘em ‘cause they’re beautiful (and because they can hammer you into the trail). Instead we say celebrate their awesomeness on and off their bikes.
What the hell are we yammering about? Well, if you saw a certain video on Singletrack.com back in June, you’d know that Subaru-Trek teammates Willow Koerber and Heather Irmiger did a little modeling for the 2011 Cyclepassion calendar. (Don’t know what that is? Watch this vid…)
Then, our sister publication, VeloNews, ran a feature article in October about Koerber, along with a photo of her that some vociferous readers thought was inappropriate for a cycling publication. The story focused on Koerber’s unique approach to racing mountain bikes on the elite level as well as her thoughts on things like, well, modeling in her underwear.
Other women cyclists have also appeared in past Cyclepassion calendars, as we at Singletrack.com duly, um, noted a while back.
Demeaning, belittling, retrograde — is there something wrong with this on some patriarchal level? Or, as the Queen of Soul sums it up in Who’s Zooming Who, “Here stands an experienced girl
“Nobody’s fool…”
Bottom line, we — males and females — know that lots of riding is not only good for the brain but also for the butt. Don’t use one too much while appreciating the other.
And the hell with what we think, here’s what the athlete/models themselves have to say…