inspiration in spades. props to THIS:
Gender on a Threshold: studio portraits of women & their bicycles 1890-1990 by domestic theatre (powpowbearpow@gmail.com) and canadian women artists initiative: cwahi.concordia.ca
please contact these ppl and pick one up they put this out and offered it to me for free. shipping might cost you, but its worth it. suffrage and bicycles: the holy union!
basically, it is epic. talking about the new urban space and social attitudes during the turn of the century. how mobility emerged as a gendered practice, but how the "new woman" emerged using bicycles as a tool for constructing a newfound gendered identity. the zine also explores the immediate backlash to women on bikes in the media (cough theboysclub cough), and how this woman turned from a threat and into an ideal consumer in advertisements.
the fear of a womans orgasm. bloomers. (dress code) gendered spheres. prosthetics. mobility. (liberation) modernity. the bicycle. advertising (capitalizing on the feminine discourse); these things are all connected.
the beauty of this zine is the portraits of these women. they are stunning women. confidence reigns. women who are "conforming to an expected gender identity AND contesting that expectation: a situation made particularly possible by the bicycle"
so. fucking. rad.
