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In Defense of the Philly Naked Bike Ride
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
In Defense of the Philly Naked Bike Ride
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| Isaiah |
I couldn't help but notice a comment, posted by a reader online and published in this week's print edition of the City Paper, disparaging last weekend's Philly Naked Bike Ride – which I attended.
"Nate" writes:
I'm all for liberation, body acceptance and the like. but stunts like this and Critical Mass do more harm than good for bicycle advocacy. While attempting to make the point that bicycles and bicycle commuting are normal (nt fringe) activities and should be integrated into the mainstream (which I fully agree with – there's no better way to get around a city), acting just the opposite is an inane way to get the idea across. All you're doing is self-perpetuating your own marginalization while also pissing off motorists who have somewhere to go.
Nate, I hear you – as a bike-commuter (and bicycle grocery-shopper, bar-goer, and laundry-hauler) who wants to see better acceptance and accomodation (and ridership) for bikes in the city, I hear you. I care about bikers' image, I practice a perpetual two-wheel diplomacy campaign out there on the streets, I sometimes want to pull bad bikers aside and revoke their handlebars.
But Nate, this was different, man.
Despite various half-hearted attempts by organizers, riders, and the press to try and make the naked bike ride about an issue - whether bike accomodation, body image, whatever – the truth was that the ride was really just about having a lot of fun, a fact that was obvious to anyone who took part.
The motorists you mention? They were honking for us. The people of Philadelphia whose ideas of bikers you worry about so much? They cheered us on.
Talk to anyone who took part, on the other hand, and the fact that it was a fantastic, wonderful success is self-evident.
It was a few things: it was the uncertain and unexpected popularity of the thing, hundreds of people – older and younger, men and women and not just white (if mostly so) – just showing up out of the blue to do this crazy thing together.
It was the simple joy of riding in a large group. It was the strange and pleasant mixture of anonymity (we were mostly strangers) and companionship – because we had done something together that most of us would never, ever, ever do alone.
It was the sheer thrill of riding past city hall wearing, oh, for example, my left sock.
Nate, I hear you, but sometimes life is for living.
On that note, one bit that the papers didn't really pick up on (because their reporters, with the apparent exception of a Philly.com video person, did not actually ride along), was the fact that many of us (myself included), finished the ride with less clothes than we started with.
The spirit moved us – as we rode, you'd see people just pulling off to the side and depantsing themselves. Some (guys, mostly – the women were more courageous from the start) just kind of pulled their shorts to their knees and kept riding.
It speaks to something that wasn't, perhaps, obvious from just reading about the ride or having seen it from afar: the experience of the thing itself, the spirit of it.
It was fun, Nate – that's why we did it. The real message wasn't "Bikes should be recognized" or "All bodies are beautiful" or anything nearly so droll.
It was more along the lines of, "Well hello, neighbor!"
If only all 'events' could have the simple justification of 'it's just fun.' Like Nate, I was turned off by all the half-assed attempts to turn the Naked Bike ride into an activism thing; "promoting awareness" of anything is just blatant code for "trying to find a way to make what we're doing sound respectable." Far better to admit the lack of respectability and just have fun.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Pat Engleman and philly news now. Pat Engleman said: by @citypaper: In defense of the Philly Naked Bike Ride: http://tinyurl.com/l7zvqg (via @PhiladelphiaNow) [...]
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