A few weeks ago I watched To Live and Ride in LA at Filmbar, a brand new film about aggressive urban cycling in LA. I walked away from the movie entertained but feeling under-represented.
It was all about young men, mostly in their early 20s, who ride fixed gear bikes in traffic in LA and in urban races often without breaks. It was thrilling to watch and the accompanying music was great, but what does that reckless kind of biking have to do with me?
Plus all the riders profiled in the movie were men, not a single woman was shown as a rider. The few women that were in the movie were in the audience or girlfriends of the riders. Perhaps women don’t feel the need to prove themselves this way, but I’m sure there are some women who participate in the fixed-gear bike counter-culture in LA and why weren’t they included?
I told Joseph Perez, the City of Phoenix Bicycle Coordinator about my frustrations with To Live an Ride in LA so he sent me a list of 9 bike movies that I’d like better. And I thought I’d share them with you too.
Tags: 2011 bike to work, aggressive urban cycling, bicycle fim festival, biking in Los Angeles, clean air champion, filmbar, filmed by bike, Los Angeles, MAG video, maricopa county pump track, street films, To Live and Ride in LA, urban bicycle racing, with my own two wheels
Taz, at least women are blogging about biking. Check out:
Bike Skirt and Let’s Go Ride A Bike
Very cool Kerry, thanks for those links!
I’ve been reading a number of articles and studies about how men make up a significant part of the bicycle-commuting community. What can we do to encourage women bicycle commuters?
Good question David. I think perhaps making bicycle commuting safer so it doesn’t feel like an extreme sport would be a good first step…but your question definitely deserves some further investigation!