Originally Posted by
CbadRider
One of my issues with the immature/sexist postings is that they discourage women from starting threads dealing with women-specific issues. I recall a thread started a while ago about women's cycling skirts. The very first response was "She said panties." It then degenerated after that and even though other people tried to keep the thread on track, it was pretty much a goner from the beginning.
While I can understand your sentiment, and must agree that responses were, at best, sophomoric in many cases, I also have to pose a question. Would you, as a woman, enter a man's locker room and try to conduct a conversation on the adequacy of female sanitary products? Obviously not. That is a topic that simple common sense tells you will only degenerate in ANY predominantly male environment (aside maybe from gay bars, I doubt they'd respond at all). If BF wants to lower the "hostility" level, then establish a "men's issues" section. Banish all pics of attractive female riders to this area. Banish all "my _____ hurst after a ride" topics to this area, banish all questions about men's clothing etc. to this area. On an equal footing, if there is a woman's area (and there is) then promote it (how many women post in this forum trying to FIND it? More than a few!) Any woman who expects knowledgeable commentary from a 90% male population on the topic of cycling skirts needs to post on alt.rec.cycling.transvestite.fashion.
Fair or not, everyone should know that the equivalent of yelling "fire" in a crowded theater will NOT yield positive or constructive results.
Some, (much) may indeed be the "men are pigs" "thing" but some is also unrealistic expectations, and SOME is also lack of "user friendliness" when it comes to finding areas set aside so women can avoid us "pigs."
By the way, at
http://www.bikeforums.net/index.php there is no search option at all and a "find on this page" turns up NOTHING for the word "women". If I were a woman looking for women specific cycling info, I'd give BF about 15 seconds, make this discovery, and return to Google and my search.