Men in Skirts
There are many blogs about women biking in skirts and heels full of advice and tips. There are fewer about men biking in skirts and heels. Perhaps there is an underserved audience. Maybe men could also benefit from wearing skirts in traffic? So this week I conducted some undercover research to maybe offer some tips.
This research required I first dress like a man:
After which I dressed like a man dressed like a woman:
After which I got on a bicycle and explored Boston from a fresh perspective:
After which I determined that it was very unsafe.
Possibly because of the kiwis in my shorts.
But in an attempt to offset the issues I added a Red Sox shirt:
This did not help.
While Boston is pro-Red Sox, it seems they are not pro-woman-dressed as a man-dressed as a woman-dressed as a Red Sox fan.
So unfortunately my conclusion is that men probably cannot cash in on the Mary Poppins effect. The benefits for men biking in skirts are as follows:
- Your kiwis will feel breezy
And… that’s it.
Hi Miss Bikeyface,
Your blog is pretty awesome but I want to point out something about this entry.
I’m a trans woman who rides a bike everywhere in Boston.
While to you the kind of harassment you depict in panel 3 (which led you to the conclusion that riding that way is “very unsafe”) is a somewhat humorous sort of danger that you can easily avoid, this is the kind of harassment I experience on a daily/constant basis while riding a bike. You have expressed in a number of your entries that car drivers put you in harm’s way by driving dangerously or generally being assholes, but imagine how much more danger you would be in if you were also at constant risk for transphobic assault, like I am. You treat it as a joke, but it’s real violence that I have to deal with.
In short, you are really close to saying something that actually needs to be said, which is that people with oppressed/marginalized genders are attacked and harassed while riding bikes.
So, yes, being gender variant on a bike is very unsafe. And I am that much more badass than every dude-biker out there because of it.
<3
ride on, @Winter !
These are awesome! I’m glad to see your keeping busy in the art world and have found something your passionate about, it clearly shows in the work. I hope everything has been good with you.