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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to

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Speaker 1: the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so

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Speaker 1: much for tuning in. Let's hear it for the Man,

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Speaker 1: the Myth, the Legend, our own Penny Farthing super producer,

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Speaker 1: mister Max Williams.

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Speaker 2: Max Penniworth Farthington Williams, Third Esquire.

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Speaker 3: That actually isn't too far off from my actual name.

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Speaker 4: Huh, it's a joke. Hey, stop watches right? How many

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Speaker 4: times a day? Once? I guess yes.

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Speaker 1: Twice, technically twice. I am Ben Bullet. You are, mister

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Speaker 1: Noel Brown.

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Speaker 4: I'm only just now learning how its out time.

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Speaker 2: I recently got my first analog watch, and I'm still

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Speaker 2: struggling with it a little bit.

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Speaker 1: But it's a lot of fun, and we are going

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Speaker 1: to have a lot of fun with you today, hopefully,

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Speaker 1: Fellow Ridiculous Historians, we are looking at one of our

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Speaker 1: favorite contraptions ever, the bicycle, and the role it played

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Speaker 1: in women's rights.

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Speaker 4: I like to ride my bikes here. I like to

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Speaker 4: ride it where I like.

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Speaker 2: I just got back from a bike ride.

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Speaker 4: It was nice. I love a bike. I love a bicycle.

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Speaker 4: I also love women's rights.

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Speaker 1: And you were definitely not on a penny farthing. You

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Speaker 1: are on something descended from what we call the safety

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Speaker 1: bicycle or the safeties from L eighteen hundreds.

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Speaker 2: It sounds nerdy when you say like that, but I

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Speaker 2: was wearing a helmet, I di am a safe by cyclist,

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Speaker 2: and I was riding on a little thing we here

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Speaker 2: in Atlanta area called the belt line, and I made

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Speaker 2: a trader Joe's run, got some snacks, and rode on back.

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Speaker 4: It was a good time.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And the safety bicycle is part of the reason

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Speaker 1: this is a good time because it did replace the

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Speaker 1: penny farthing, which, in addition to looking absolutely ridiculous, is

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Speaker 1: also pretty pretty dangerous.

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Speaker 4: So the pity.

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Speaker 1: Farthing was like an early adopter thing. We'll get to it.

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Speaker 1: But what you need to know at the offset here, folks,

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Speaker 1: is that there was a sea change in cycling and

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Speaker 1: society with the emergence of that safety bicycle. It sparked

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Speaker 1: what our research associate Maria calls a cycling craze in

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Speaker 1: the United States and abroad.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean, anyone who's seen someone ride a penny farthing,

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Speaker 2: also known as the bone a bone shaker if deadwood

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Speaker 2: is to be believed. It was actually a plot point

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Speaker 2: in that show, not necessarily because of its danger as

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Speaker 2: a vehicle, but it caught a chain of events that

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Speaker 2: led to some tragic plot moving occurrences in the show.

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Speaker 4: But if anyone's ever seen.

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Speaker 2: Someone riding one of those, like one of those muscleman

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Speaker 2: with the handlebar mustaches, you know, it's kind of more

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Speaker 2: like a feat like a trick, like riding a unicycle

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Speaker 2: or using stilts or I'm sure you know there's big

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Speaker 2: wheel on the front, a little wheel on the back.

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Speaker 2: There's a reason people don't go to the grocery store

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Speaker 2: on pogo sticks. It's more of flex of activity. I've actually,

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Speaker 2: I've had the dubious pleasure of riding Penny Farthing bikes

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Speaker 2: several times.

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Speaker 1: They are difficult, they are not forgiving. But we do

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Speaker 1: owe a lot of modern society's rights to the advent

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Speaker 1: of the safety bicycle. As Maria tells us, there were

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Speaker 1: basically three groups of women in the eighteen nineties who

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Speaker 1: were who are part of our story here. One, there

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Speaker 1: are people who happen to be women who just want

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Speaker 1: to ride bikes because bikes are cool.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, they want to ride them where they like, it's

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Speaker 4: very freeing.

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Speaker 2: It's honestly the invention of the original, the penny farthing.

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Speaker 2: I mean, that was in and of itself a very

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Speaker 2: freeing innovation. You know, it allowed people to ambulate without

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Speaker 2: the use of their legs.

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Speaker 1: And this, I like the point about freedom there, noel,

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Speaker 1: because our second group will be actual activists, women's rights

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Speaker 1: activist who said, hey, this bicycle is a palpable tool

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Speaker 1: of independence. This gives us freedom, this gives us agency.

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Speaker 1: And then the third group, the bad guys of the story,

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Speaker 1: the baddies, the people who said women on bikes, that's

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Speaker 1: an abomination. Next thing you know, they'll be wearing.

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Speaker 4: Pantaloons wanting to vote right God forbid.

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Speaker 1: So this this is our story for today, folks. The

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Speaker 1: safety bike did play a huge role in the women's

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Speaker 1: rights movement, and it's one that a lot of people

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Speaker 1: didn't see coming. Kind of like how hat pins became

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Speaker 1: a tool against assault of mashers.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, just so all those wolf whistling, mashing men out

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Speaker 2: there on those streets, the ladies wouldn't put up with it.

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Speaker 4: They'd give them a jab with their hat pins.

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Speaker 1: And now we're entering onto the stage. A group of

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Speaker 1: people who are very harm for Rump, for Rump, something

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Speaker 1: must be done. When faced with a female population that

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Speaker 1: had independent transportation and was wearing pants, they were trying

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Speaker 1: to react in an ad hominem kind of way. It

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Speaker 1: reminds me a lot, you guys, of that strange propaganda

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Speaker 1: we saw during COVID vaccination or wearing masks, where people

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Speaker 1: would say, oh, if people are wearing masks, you don't

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Speaker 1: know if their children being trafficked. This is so ridiculous.

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Speaker 1: The opposition said the reason women shouldn't ride bicycles was

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Speaker 1: due to something that they called bicycle face.

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Speaker 2: Is this related to like, why don't you smile more

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Speaker 2: kind of mentality?

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Speaker 4: Okay? Cool? Or RB clocking yeah, RBF.

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Speaker 2: The safety bicycle, as you said, men, I, was at

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Speaker 2: the heart of this epidemic that people were referring to

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Speaker 2: as bicycle face, and of course replaced the penny farthing,

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Speaker 2: which had been super popular in the eighteen seventies and

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Speaker 2: eighteen eighties. Some models included the Aerial in eighteen seventy

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Speaker 2: one and the very creatively and banally named the Ordinary

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Speaker 2: in eighteen seventy eight. These types of bikes were typically

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Speaker 2: associated with young, rich, white dudes, but men of all

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Speaker 2: kinds were participating in this sort of like I said,

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Speaker 2: feet of strength. These bikes could go up to a

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Speaker 2: whopping thirty miles an hour, some say more, and the

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Speaker 2: design was favored for this ability to pick up speed.

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Speaker 2: But that's really where it ends. As we talked about,

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Speaker 2: this is some really odd ball, awkward, unwieldy elements to

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Speaker 2: the design of this thing, including the fact that the

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Speaker 2: rider's seat, which you well know, Ben, was nearly five

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Speaker 2: feet off of the ground.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's one of those things where you've got

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Speaker 1: to get a running start. I've been teaching my girlfriend's

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Speaker 1: niece how to ride bikes, and I'm just so happy

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Speaker 1: that the kid is not on a penny farthing. Side

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Speaker 1: note for our fellow etymology nerds, it's got a weird name,

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Speaker 1: the penny farthing. It's also been called the high wheel,

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Speaker 1: but the name comes because of the size difference between

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Speaker 1: the British penny and the farthing.

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Speaker 4: Coins.

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Speaker 1: Wow, penny is way bigger. That's the front wheel, and

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Speaker 1: the farthing is a lot smaller. That's the rear wheel.

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Speaker 4: I think we all learned something new today, Ben. I

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Speaker 4: did not know that.

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Speaker 2: Prior to reading Maria's excellent research brief. So as you

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Speaker 2: can imagine, and as we've already hinted at, it was

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Speaker 2: super dangerous and considered much more of a thrill seeking

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Speaker 2: kind of activity, not necessarily known for its practicality. And

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Speaker 2: many folks, if we're talking about some more etymology, would

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Speaker 2: take a fall or a header as it was known

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Speaker 2: and coined from this problem, literally diving headfirst over what

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Speaker 2: are referred to as mustache handlebars. I guess people were

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Speaker 2: making their mustaches match the handlebars.

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Speaker 1: And also, if you please, if you get a chance,

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Speaker 1: pull up a picture of a penny farthing. We can't

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Speaker 1: tell you to try it at home because they are dangerous.

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Speaker 1: And I took a few headers myself. You're going to

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Speaker 1: see that.

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Speaker 4: It's such a weird contraption. Because the.

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Speaker 1: Seat of this vehicle is pretty much parallel to the handlebars,

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Speaker 1: it is very easy to go too fast or to

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Speaker 1: lose your balance and have a decent wampwamp. This really

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Speaker 1: inspired or irritated a guy named John Kemp Starly. We

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Speaker 1: don't know how many headers Starly took, but our buddy

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Speaker 1: Johnny around eighteen eighty five said, this is malarkey. I'm

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Speaker 1: going to invent a new bicycle. It's going to be

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Speaker 1: straight seahorse teeth, and I'm going to emphasize how safe

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Speaker 1: it is.

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Speaker 4: What if we had two wheels that were the same size.

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Speaker 1: What if we had gears, Oh my gosh, what if

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Speaker 1: we finally tried to fix the brakes?

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Speaker 2: For sure, big improvements in all those respects, the brakes

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Speaker 2: and the pretty farthing.

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Speaker 4: I think we're very, very rudimentary.

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Speaker 2: In eighteen ninety, what was deemed, you know, in the

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Speaker 2: zeitgeist as safeties were upgraded with pneumatic tires, which are

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Speaker 2: very similar to the ones we know today, tires made

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Speaker 2: of rubber that are filled with air.

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Speaker 4: Lesson not very less.

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Speaker 2: Boneek has another reason that that was called that for

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Speaker 2: sure a new invention that made for a much more

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Speaker 2: comfortable ride just in terms of traversing various types of terrain.

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Speaker 2: It soaked up a lot of the impact, Like you're saying,

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Speaker 2: ben So by the mid decade, bikes dropped in weight too.

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Speaker 4: You know, you don't want to clunky bike.

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Speaker 2: Anyone who's ridden one of those new New York City

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Speaker 2: city bikes knows that that can be a real scary

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Speaker 2: proposition and definitely makes it a lot less fun and zippy.

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Speaker 2: So they dropped from about fifty pounds to twenty three,

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Speaker 2: which was a serious glow up considering the previous bikes

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Speaker 2: and bike like vehicles, which I honestly, I mean they

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Speaker 2: call it the penny farthing and not the bicycle because

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Speaker 2: it really is more of a bike like vehicle. We would, really,

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Speaker 2: I I would argue that it is not particularly a bicycle.

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Speaker 2: It's not till we see the safeties that we really

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Speaker 2: start seeing what became the bicycle. Didn't Some penny farthings

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Speaker 2: also have like two wheels in the back, I want

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Speaker 2: to say, they were.

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Speaker 1: Like, Yeah, there were also tripod designs, so you'd have

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Speaker 1: two big wheels on either side of the seat and

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Speaker 1: then you have a little wheel in the back. And

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Speaker 1: there was there was so much research going into this

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Speaker 1: idea of the you know, from between eighteen ninety two

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Speaker 1: to eighteen ninety six, the industry was kind of acting

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Speaker 1: like your favorite corporations act about AI today. There were

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Speaker 1: so many patents going out for these bicycles. Yeah, feeding

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Speaker 1: frenzy is not a bad way to put it. The

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Speaker 1: two designs of what we call the safety bicycle were

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Speaker 1: the following the original had a crossbar. In eighteen eighty eight,

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Speaker 1: they marketed a what they called a quote unquote women's version,

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Speaker 1: and the one for women offered a drop frame to

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Speaker 1: accommodate skirts, because we can't have people wearing pants, right.

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Speaker 1: And you can still see this today in very popular

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Speaker 1: bike designs from very popular companies like Shwin.

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Speaker 2: And it should be noted too that even today, I mean,

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Speaker 2: there are differentiations between what would be considered a women's

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Speaker 2: bike and a men's bike. Sometimes it has to do

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Speaker 2: with size, but sometimes it does have to do with

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Speaker 2: certain features like the frame design and stuff like that.

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Speaker 4: That drop r.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and when the first Safeties came out, similar to

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Speaker 1: the Penny Farthing, they were pretty expensive. They cost an

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Speaker 1: average of one hundred and fifty US bucks per product.

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Speaker 1: And this is a time, Maria points out, when the

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Speaker 1: average US worker was earning maybe twelve dollars a week.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a pretty serious investment for what at the

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Speaker 2: time was probably still is kind of considered a curiosity.

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Speaker 4: It hadn't fully taken off yet.

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Speaker 1: Yeahs a novelty, right, and it's still the idea of

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Speaker 1: the bicycle still sort of has its training wheels.

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Speaker 2: Hey, So as we mentioned that the main customer at

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Speaker 2: this point.

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Speaker 4: Was rich white dudes.

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Speaker 2: But there were also, of course counterparts to these rich

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Speaker 2: and white dudes who were rich white women and they

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Speaker 2: wanted to get on the fun too.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and because there was higher demand, the economy of

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Speaker 1: gale kicks in and all these manufacturers who have their

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Speaker 1: proliferation of patents and their own special spin on the

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Speaker 1: velociped they.

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Speaker 4: What they call it in Deadwood as well.

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Speaker 1: They say, look, we're going to compete with each other,

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Speaker 1: so they start reducing their prices. That's a very strange

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Speaker 1: thing to a lot of us in the United States today,

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Speaker 1: but companies did used to do that. They made bikes

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Speaker 1: more affordable for what they called all the riders, which

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Speaker 1: was again, as you pointed out, bro, it's a very

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Speaker 1: small percentage of the overall population.

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Speaker 2: It is a good little view into just a basic

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Speaker 2: economic microcosm of like supply and demand and how it's

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Speaker 2: supposed to work. They're supposed to be competition in these

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Speaker 2: types of spaces rather than you know, monopolies, which can

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Speaker 2: lead to prices lowering and or quality raising in order

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Speaker 2: for the different manufacturers to differentiate themselves, like in the

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Speaker 2: watch game. For example, you've got these really unattainably high

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Speaker 2: priced watch protects FP grange, what is it, Automorpga those

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Speaker 2: ones that are like you know, the price of a

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Speaker 2: car or more. But they're also like decades and decades

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Speaker 2: of development and you know, super super super refined processes

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Speaker 2: and features, et cetera. And the more mid tier ones,

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Speaker 2: you've got them a ton of competition because they really

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Speaker 2: have to differentiate themselves from each other.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So first off, yet to think about the complications, folks,

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Speaker 1: which is the word for the mechanisms, which is.

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Speaker 4: Becomes true with bikes too.

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Speaker 2: I mean, we're talking about like it is a relatively

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Speaker 2: clockwork esque system when we're talking about gear shifts and

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Speaker 2: how many speeds does it have? And you know, what

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Speaker 2: are the components, Like how well manufactured and machined and

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Speaker 2: engineered they are.

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Speaker 4: We're going to start seeing more of that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And so we're still in the late eighteen eighties,

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Speaker 1: so it's let's say it's eighteen eighty nine to eighteen

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Speaker 1: ninety nine. So in that decade, the number of bicycles

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Speaker 1: that are being purchased and used has shot up from

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Speaker 1: something like two hundred thousand to one million in the

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Speaker 1: US alone. By eighteen ninety five, the United States has

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Speaker 1: no less than three hundred separate bicycle companies, and if

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Speaker 1: you average out what they were doing right during this decade,

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Speaker 1: their safety bikes or safeties probably cost about seventy five

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Speaker 1: dollars instead of one hundred and fifty. So the market

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Speaker 1: was working at that time in yeah some way.

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Speaker 4: Well, yeah, for sure.

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Speaker 2: And as we mentioned earlier, you know women who likely

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Speaker 2: had a bit more free time on their hands, at

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Speaker 2: least to the wealthy you know, spouses of wealthy businessmen

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Speaker 2: and you know people that were working ninety fives in

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Speaker 2: the offices or whatever the hell they were doing in

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Speaker 2: those days. They often the women would not work, and

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Speaker 2: so they had a lot more free time, and so

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Speaker 2: of course it made sense that they would want some

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Speaker 2: options of how to fill that free time, and biking

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Speaker 2: offered a pretty great and active you know answer to that.

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Speaker 1: One hundred percent. Yeah, And this is mobility, right, this

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Speaker 1: is freedom. This doesn't mean you have to keep a

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Speaker 1: horse all the time.

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Speaker 2: And to this day, I think people really love biking

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Speaker 2: because of some of those very same things. It's functional,

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Speaker 2: it's functional exercise that gives you a sense of freedom

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Speaker 2: and a lot of reasons. It turns out that motorists

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Speaker 2: are kind of pills to bicyclists, is because they're sort

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Speaker 2: of like, man, who does that person think he is

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Speaker 2: being all free out there not stuck in traffic.

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Speaker 4: I'm gonna I'm gonna be a jerk.

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Speaker 1: I'm very pro bike and I have serious problems with

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Speaker 1: our fair metropolis of Atlanta. You know what I'm talking about, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: is approaching bicycles.

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Speaker 4: So we have we know.

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Speaker 1: That there are still improvements to be made, but we

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Speaker 1: also know that there was a culture war about bicycles

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Speaker 1: and women riding them, especially this period of history in

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Speaker 1: the eighteen hundreds. You would see names in the press

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Speaker 1: in real muck raking journalism or real tabloid style breathless headlines,

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Speaker 1: stuff like weeld woman, lady Cyclist, or our favorite bloomert Right,

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Speaker 1: because if you're picturing illustrations from the news rags of

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Speaker 1: the day, you're probably picturing ladies on bicycles wearing these.

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Speaker 2: Big, old, fluffy pantaloon esque things that weren't quite pants,

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Speaker 2: weren't quite dresses.

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Speaker 4: They were bloomers.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that reminds me of this is like our cravat

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Speaker 1: conversation we've been having. It reminds me of the phrase

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Speaker 1: harem pants. Things that look like a skirt while you're standing,

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Speaker 1: but they move like pants because they have that division.

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Speaker 1: We know that this is occurring in a greater context,

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Speaker 1: a greater milieu. In eighteen seventy eight, there was a

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Speaker 1: woman suffrage amendment proposed in US Congress. It's just what

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Speaker 1: it sounds like. It said, Hey, should this other fifty

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Speaker 1: percent of the population be allowed to vote? It failed,

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Speaker 1: It did not pass until nineteen twenty. It is the

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Speaker 1: nineteenth Amendment. And didn't think we would say this in

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Speaker 1: this episode, but guys, shout out to Wyoming. Wyoming in

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Speaker 1: eighteen sixty nine is the first state that allows women

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Speaker 1: the right to vote. And you know here in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty six, Wyoming has a relatively conservative reputation, you know.

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Speaker 4: Real quick.

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Speaker 2: Shout out to the inventor of the Bloomers, by the way,

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Speaker 2: which I think is an interesting tie in here. A

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Speaker 2: woman named Amelia Bloomer, who was a women's rights advocate

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Speaker 2: in the mid nineteenth century. He actually promoted the Bloomers

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Speaker 2: as a practical alternative to the restrictive corsets and skirts

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Speaker 2: that women were more or less required to wear, and

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Speaker 2: it became a symbol of early reform for women's dress

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Speaker 2: and kind of dovetailed with the women's suffrage and rights movements.

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Speaker 2: They were used often by activists for there again for comfort,

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Speaker 2: but also they had a symbolic aspect to them, and

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Speaker 2: of course cyclists as well as some early nineteenth and

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Speaker 2: twentieth century athletes.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so we're seeing freedom of movement on multiple levels,

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Speaker 1: exactly on the are the literal level and on the

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Speaker 1: figurative larger level. In eighteen seventy five, Scotis again fumbles

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Speaker 1: the bag. This will be very familiar to a lot

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Speaker 1: of our listeners in the US right now. The Supreme

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Speaker 1: Court of the United States said, Look, the matter of

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Speaker 1: women voting, that's really a matter for the states. If

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Speaker 1: the if a given state wants to say women can't vote,

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Speaker 1: then that's fine. Because women are people. We'll give you

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Speaker 1: that as they are citizens. But they are there is

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Speaker 1: a quote a special category of non voting.

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Speaker 4: Aka sub human right some degree, he's animal farm.

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Speaker 1: Everybody's equal, but some are more equal than others.

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Speaker 4: Speaking of which, bend, are you aware of this?

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Speaker 2: Apparently quite awful animated Animal Farm that has just been

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Speaker 2: getting shredded. It's like a CGI animated version of Animal Farm,

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Speaker 2: weirdly helmed by Andy Serkis, who I think we're all

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Speaker 2: fans of, but apparently it is just absolutely misses the

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Speaker 2: mark on every aspect of what Animal Farm is about

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Speaker 2: and is just like gross out humor and completely a travist.

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Speaker 1: Just antithetical. Or Well, just read the book, folks, take

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Speaker 1: a you know it's it's such a short read because

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Speaker 1: especially because Orwell comes from a journalism background, so he

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Speaker 1: writes with density and a clarity.

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Speaker 2: And truer now than ever, more valid and interesting. Now,

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Speaker 2: you know, Parrot with nineteen eighty four if you really

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Speaker 2: want to.

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Speaker 1: Get on that. I don't want to hang out with George.

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Speaker 1: I love him as a writer, uh and I never

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Speaker 1: really spent a lot of time with him, but man,

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Speaker 1: he's going to be too smug. If he came back

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Speaker 1: to life here, he would be insufferable. He'd be Kanye

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Speaker 1: West level smug and Max, we got to go to you.

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Speaker 4: You got something here? Yeah, And I just want to know.

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Speaker 3: Andy Serkis of Claribscure Expedition thirty three fame, along with

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Speaker 3: other things like being dollom and whatnot. But yeah, clareupscare

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Speaker 3: shoutout Tonel Farms great, great.

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Speaker 1: And shout out to uh Klang or whatever his name

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Speaker 1: was Kran And you know in the Black Panther uh series,

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Speaker 1: Uh Andy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah right yeah. Andy Circus also my favorite role that

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Speaker 2: he ever played. Well, he's not a handful of things

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Speaker 2: that I really enjoyed. In the film twenty four Hour

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Speaker 2: Party People, he plays the genius and irasble, the irascible

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Speaker 2: genius producer of a lot of the Factory Records bands

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Speaker 2: there in Manchester, bands like Joy Division, and he plays

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Speaker 2: them great. He's a total grumpy curmudgeon. It's really really

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Speaker 2: great film. If you're into the history of indie music.

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Speaker 1: And while we're taking a slight diversion, folks, please give

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Speaker 1: Andy Serkis the actor his recognition because he always reminded

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Speaker 1: me so his come up always reminded me of te Pain.

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Speaker 1: So a lot of people looked at Tee Paid and

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Speaker 1: didn't know the guy could really sing because he made

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Speaker 1: the artistic choice to use auto tune. A lot of

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Speaker 1: people say that Andy Circus uh wasn't was somehow less

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Speaker 1: than of an actor because he became so famous doing

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Speaker 1: motion capture stuff.

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Speaker 2: But goes into that man, I mean, yeah, for sure,

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Speaker 2: really good, much like that Doug Jones, you know, got

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Speaker 2: famous for playing you know, monsters and wearing heavy makeup.

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Speaker 2: It's all about his movements and his you know, the

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Speaker 2: nuance that he brings to that. And you know, I

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Speaker 2: think Andy serkis as King Kong quite moving and it

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Speaker 2: all has to do with the performance.

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Speaker 4: So yes, credit where credit is.

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Speaker 1: Due, Credit where credit is due. Shout out to you

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Speaker 1: if you shout out to you, especially Tea Pain. If

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Speaker 1: anybody hasn't seen Tea Pain's Tiny Desk concert, please do

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Speaker 1: check it out. No auto tune. The man has the

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Speaker 1: voice of a spirit, it does.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, check out that Tiny Desk. It's fantastic. But back

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Speaker 4: to Velocipedes.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, not all women are in the country of the

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Speaker 1: United States are lining up to buy a bike, and

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Speaker 1: not all women who wanted to bike considered themselves activist.

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Speaker 1: You know this this is strange because history always always

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Speaker 1: tends to forget nuance. We have to remember that people

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Speaker 1: are just people, and some people just wanted to have

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Speaker 1: a great ride around that was faster than walking. That

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Speaker 1: to them, it didn't necessarily indicate some greater social shift,

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Speaker 1: but they were all these people were existing under patriarchal society,

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Speaker 1: descended from the Victorian era, which had a lot of misogyny,

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Speaker 1: anti feminism stuff. They hated when women could do anything.

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Speaker 1: They're riding a bike, what's next voting? They probably said,

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Speaker 1: we should never have given this part of the population shoes.

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Speaker 1: That's how they started walking around outside. That's where the

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Speaker 1: problem began.

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Speaker 2: No, it's that same attitude that went into like, you know,

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Speaker 2: keeping slaves from learning how to read. I mean not

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Speaker 2: to be too aggressive about it, but it comes from

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Speaker 2: the same place of you don't want to give them

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Speaker 2: a taste of freedom. And as we mentioned, cycling represents

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Speaker 2: and represented a certain kind of freedom.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and a simple bicycle therefore becomes this huge ingredient

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Speaker 1: in a bubbling cauldron of what this population wants and

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Speaker 1: what they're told they cannot do. So no voting, no

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Speaker 1: higher education. Let's keep in mind that it wasn't until

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Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies or so that women in the United

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Speaker 1: States were allowed to have credit cards, which is weird.

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Speaker 1: Check out our episode on that from a few months

437
00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:30,800
Speaker 1: or years back. We've been at this for a while.

438
00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:31,760
Speaker 4: Which is kind of funny.

439
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:34,399
Speaker 2: It's sort of a funny concession too, because it's not

440
00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:36,800
Speaker 2: like credit cards are like the best thing for anybody

441
00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:40,280
Speaker 2: to have, especially you know, folks who are using them

442
00:25:40,320 --> 00:25:43,000
Speaker 2: to achieve spending power above their means.

443
00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:47,119
Speaker 1: Shout out to Edward Burnees, also involved in women's suffrage

444
00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:48,840
Speaker 1: as a way to sell cigarettes.

445
00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:51,680
Speaker 4: That's what I'm saying. It's sort of like a little

446
00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:54,320
Speaker 4: bit of a self serving concession.

447
00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:57,240
Speaker 1: One hundred percent. And so at this time in the

448
00:25:57,240 --> 00:26:01,800
Speaker 1: eighteen nineties, of course, women were not allowed the same

449
00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:05,560
Speaker 1: privileges as dudes. So you couldn't vote, you could have

450
00:26:05,840 --> 00:26:11,760
Speaker 1: very difficult time gain the higher education, your job opportunities

451
00:26:11,840 --> 00:26:13,000
Speaker 1: are quite limited.

452
00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:14,880
Speaker 4: At the end of the day.

453
00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:20,640
Speaker 1: American law enshrine, like the legal decision of this country

454
00:26:21,119 --> 00:26:24,199
Speaker 1: was that if you were a woman and you were married,

455
00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:26,880
Speaker 1: which of course they wanted you to be married, then

456
00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:32,200
Speaker 1: you would have no legal identity distinct from your husband.

457
00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:36,360
Speaker 1: You had to do the child and household stuff. The

458
00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:41,480
Speaker 1: UK tried some soft propaganda with this by calling women

459
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:45,280
Speaker 1: the angel of the house, So why would she ever

460
00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:48,800
Speaker 1: go outside? This is where we enter what we call.

461
00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:51,400
Speaker 4: The new woman. Yeah, we don't want her to think

462
00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:52,280
Speaker 4: that she can have it all.

463
00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:56,080
Speaker 2: A feminist ideal in the eighteen nineties was really represented

464
00:26:56,280 --> 00:27:03,440
Speaker 2: as an educated, social, active, very independent woman that was

465
00:27:03,560 --> 00:27:08,199
Speaker 2: dubbed coined by feminists Sarah Grand The New Woman in

466
00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:13,199
Speaker 2: eighteen ninety four and the safety bike really hit the

467
00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:17,800
Speaker 2: scene at an important moment for the new woman where

468
00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:21,800
Speaker 2: this concept challenged current cultural and gender norms along with

469
00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:23,560
Speaker 2: a lot of other things that were happening kind of

470
00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:27,960
Speaker 2: in lockstep like the Bloomers. The new woman had economic independence,

471
00:27:28,800 --> 00:27:32,640
Speaker 2: held a job, professional roles, could be highly educated, had

472
00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:37,240
Speaker 2: personal freedom, was physically fit and active, enjoyed playing sports

473
00:27:37,359 --> 00:27:40,480
Speaker 2: right alongside the men. All of these things that were

474
00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:46,000
Speaker 2: supported and cultivated by the bicycle and having access.

475
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:55,439
Speaker 1: To yeah yeah, And this idea of the new woman

476
00:27:55,680 --> 00:28:02,200
Speaker 1: goes across socioeconomic Boundarieseople who are working on the factory floor,

477
00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:06,240
Speaker 1: people who are doing what they called pink collar work

478
00:28:06,359 --> 00:28:10,080
Speaker 1: office jobs, the feminine equivalent of a white collar job.

479
00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:15,240
Speaker 1: These folks could all be the new woman and safeties.

480
00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:20,320
Speaker 1: The bikes were designed with a lady's full dress at

481
00:28:20,359 --> 00:28:25,280
Speaker 1: the time in mind, so we said, look, the skirts

482
00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:27,720
Speaker 1: are going to get tangled. People are going to catch

483
00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:32,160
Speaker 1: a header. This is non ideal. Cycling didn't just encourage

484
00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:38,720
Speaker 1: social freedom, it encouraged physical freedom through changes in women's fashion.

485
00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:42,080
Speaker 1: This is where we talked about Bloomers. We mentioned that

486
00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:47,320
Speaker 1: corsets were cartoonishly restricting, and a lot of skirts had

487
00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:50,480
Speaker 1: these long trains like what you might see in a

488
00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:55,000
Speaker 1: wedding today, and dresses with petticoats were heavy as heck.

489
00:28:56,160 --> 00:29:01,160
Speaker 1: A person's daily dress, not even the fancy one at

490
00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:04,720
Speaker 1: this time, could weigh twenty five pounds, so you know,

491
00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:07,680
Speaker 1: you know, these people had to wear that stuff. Their

492
00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:11,360
Speaker 1: hamstrings were jacked. Man, my hammies, Yeah they were barking.

493
00:29:12,120 --> 00:29:14,920
Speaker 1: Can your hammies bark your dogs? Whichever, but yeah, twenty

494
00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:18,400
Speaker 1: five pounds. A lot of the wire or the frames.

495
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:20,640
Speaker 2: Of these these dresses, the hoop type skirts, they were

496
00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:24,400
Speaker 2: made of iron and were incredibly heavy. Just the actual

497
00:29:24,560 --> 00:29:27,560
Speaker 2: kind of undercarriage, I think is what they would call it.

498
00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:31,760
Speaker 2: In eighteen fifty one, Amelia Bloomer, who I mentioned previously,

499
00:29:31,800 --> 00:29:35,520
Speaker 2: from New York, along with Elizabeth Katie Stanton, incredibly important

500
00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:40,200
Speaker 2: feminist activists, popularize this new fashion, the short dress over

501
00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:43,400
Speaker 2: loose trousers similar to pants, but they were meant to

502
00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:46,280
Speaker 2: be worn underneath dresses. Of course, the bloomer not to

503
00:29:46,320 --> 00:29:49,040
Speaker 2: be too redundant, but they were. I don't think we

504
00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:51,840
Speaker 2: quite got to this incredibly controversial because they were just

505
00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:52,880
Speaker 2: too much like pants.

506
00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:54,680
Speaker 4: Ben They're too much like pants.

507
00:29:55,920 --> 00:30:00,600
Speaker 1: And while all this conversation is happening, more and more

508
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:05,320
Speaker 1: people are picking up Bloomers. Maybe it is for a

509
00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:10,800
Speaker 1: larger goal, maybe it's activism, but as Maria points out,

510
00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:13,400
Speaker 1: and I agree with her here, they probably just wanted

511
00:30:13,400 --> 00:30:17,800
Speaker 1: to get out of those heavy, those cartoonishly heavy skirts.

512
00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:21,040
Speaker 2: And years later, and also just to add, they were

513
00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:25,320
Speaker 2: initially kind of more designed as undergarments, and so there

514
00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:29,960
Speaker 2: was a modesty concern here, you know, from the patriarchy,

515
00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:32,440
Speaker 2: I guess, saying that they're, oh, you're wearing underwear out

516
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:33,000
Speaker 2: in public.

517
00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:37,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, in eighteen This all happened in eighteen fifty one.

518
00:30:37,600 --> 00:30:40,400
Speaker 1: As we said, So if we returned back to the

519
00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:44,600
Speaker 1: eighteen nineties, what we see is that a lot of

520
00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:48,800
Speaker 1: women who were fans of bicycling, again, most of them

521
00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:51,280
Speaker 1: at that point are going to be pretty wealthy and

522
00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:55,080
Speaker 1: pretty white. They adopted the Bloomers because it was just

523
00:30:55,440 --> 00:31:00,880
Speaker 1: more practical, but it was still highly controversial. This is

524
00:31:00,960 --> 00:31:04,120
Speaker 1: the thing, partially, this is a big part of why

525
00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:09,960
Speaker 1: bicycles advanced women's rights in the United States. It meant

526
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:14,880
Speaker 1: that you could move without a chaperone. It meant that

527
00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:19,440
Speaker 1: you could travel by yourself, You could decide where you

528
00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:22,800
Speaker 1: wanted to go. If you look at a suffragist like

529
00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:28,080
Speaker 1: Francis Willard, you'll see quotes that read the following quote.

530
00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:32,000
Speaker 1: I begin to feel that myself plus the bicycle equaled

531
00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:35,480
Speaker 1: myself plus the world. And there's a poetry to that.

532
00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:37,760
Speaker 4: No question, And it's something that I think we've been

533
00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:40,440
Speaker 4: describing all along the way, even in our own.

534
00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:44,240
Speaker 2: Relationships with bicycles, and how they can still be a

535
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:47,200
Speaker 2: little bit of a sticking point to people today who

536
00:31:47,200 --> 00:31:49,120
Speaker 2: are like, who do you think you are out there

537
00:31:49,120 --> 00:31:52,240
Speaker 2: and enjoying the world, you know, moving around without having

538
00:31:52,280 --> 00:31:56,920
Speaker 2: to be stuck in gridlock traffic. So the safety bike

539
00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:00,280
Speaker 2: afford a woman a socially acceptable way to Also to

540
00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:03,840
Speaker 2: our earlier point, b outside the home in what had

541
00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:07,200
Speaker 2: been a male dominated space. Now they're out there, we're

542
00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:11,120
Speaker 2: out here, and they were doing it on two wheels.

543
00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:16,520
Speaker 1: Enter the bad guys. Okay, the culture war begins. Why

544
00:32:17,800 --> 00:32:22,120
Speaker 1: they said happy holidays. These people basically yelled, what about Christmas?

545
00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:28,240
Speaker 1: There was no shortage of tin plate propped up experts

546
00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:35,240
Speaker 1: quote unquote who would who would vociferously oppose the idea

547
00:32:35,640 --> 00:32:38,320
Speaker 1: of women on bikes? And they said, there are two

548
00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:42,560
Speaker 1: reasons these are so dumb. There are two reasons are one,

549
00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:46,960
Speaker 1: what if she takes aheader, she's going to be permanently disfigured.

550
00:32:47,280 --> 00:32:50,120
Speaker 1: No one's going to marry her. And then two, which

551
00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:52,720
Speaker 1: I think is the most ridiculous one. They were like, guys,

552
00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:58,440
Speaker 1: look at the seats. These women may be having Orgasmsay right, bikes.

553
00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:00,960
Speaker 4: Oh dear heavens, how dare.

554
00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:05,320
Speaker 1: How a lady have a good time in the United States?

555
00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:10,200
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, given the puritanical kind of bent

556
00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:15,040
Speaker 2: of the time, I could see how ladies straddling a

557
00:33:15,120 --> 00:33:19,160
Speaker 2: thing in public could be a victim of something like

558
00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:22,280
Speaker 2: the male gaze, This idea of like, oh my gosh,

559
00:33:22,280 --> 00:33:24,400
Speaker 2: this is scandalous, but it's not.

560
00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:24,840
Speaker 4: Really.

561
00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:29,000
Speaker 2: Most of these issues are not women's problems. It's problems

562
00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:31,880
Speaker 2: men have with women, and it's oftentimes because of how

563
00:33:32,040 --> 00:33:37,240
Speaker 2: much it threatens them, either you know, financially in terms

564
00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:40,560
Speaker 2: of their level of power and control, or oftentimes sexually.

565
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, sorry, bro, it turns out your wife's bike is

566
00:33:44,120 --> 00:33:47,640
Speaker 1: better than you are at police here. That was like

567
00:33:47,720 --> 00:33:51,080
Speaker 1: the hidden concern there, and it was such a trumped

568
00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:55,360
Speaker 1: up malarchy thing for people to pretend to be worried about.

569
00:33:55,760 --> 00:34:00,320
Speaker 1: And doctors at the time were in hot debate in

570
00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:05,600
Speaker 1: public media about whether there are health benefits or harm

571
00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:10,080
Speaker 1: from bicycling. Some said it cured all manner of things,

572
00:34:10,200 --> 00:34:15,440
Speaker 1: and they were probably they were right ish. They were

573
00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:18,240
Speaker 1: wrong about some of it. They were right ish about

574
00:34:18,239 --> 00:34:22,319
Speaker 1: a lot. It's great for it's great for staying in

575
00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:25,879
Speaker 1: shape in a low impact way. But they said, look

576
00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:30,440
Speaker 1: like that means it helps with obesity, heart disease, vericose veins.

577
00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:35,480
Speaker 1: But they also said bikey will cure your anemia and

578
00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:38,400
Speaker 1: your asthma and your melancholia.

579
00:34:38,560 --> 00:34:41,480
Speaker 2: Well, I would agree with melancholia frankly. I mean, this

580
00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:44,120
Speaker 2: is this idea of it just being a cure for

581
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:47,040
Speaker 2: the blues. Sometimes getting out there and feeling the wind

582
00:34:47,080 --> 00:34:48,560
Speaker 2: in your hair and all that and having that sense

583
00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:52,239
Speaker 2: of freedom can remedy those kinds of feelings. Melancholia was

584
00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:54,600
Speaker 2: of course, kind of a catch all term for just

585
00:34:54,840 --> 00:34:57,600
Speaker 2: the sads back in a time where they really truly

586
00:34:57,600 --> 00:35:01,120
Speaker 2: didn't have much understanding of men health. But I would

587
00:35:01,200 --> 00:35:03,400
Speaker 2: argue that that's true. Maybe some of the more specific

588
00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:09,520
Speaker 2: quote nut doesn't make sense there. And when we say

589
00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:11,799
Speaker 2: the medical community was divided, I think we can say

590
00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:15,200
Speaker 2: it was divided between those members who had their hearts

591
00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:17,680
Speaker 2: in the right place and then the quack sector who

592
00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:20,200
Speaker 2: seems to be on board with big Man.

593
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:24,920
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, the the other bad guys.

594
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:27,480
Speaker 4: Right, these are our.

595
00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:34,560
Speaker 1: Technically qualified doctors or their pundits, the Tucker Carlson's of

596
00:35:34,640 --> 00:35:37,920
Speaker 1: the day. They would say this is not a healthy

597
00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:42,239
Speaker 1: exercise for women, for the angels of the house. Bicycle

598
00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:46,440
Speaker 1: face is a medical condition that happens to women who

599
00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:50,359
Speaker 1: bit too much because when they are when they are

600
00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:55,120
Speaker 1: biking they're exercising, their faces wrinkle up and it makes

601
00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:58,920
Speaker 1: them nervous and exhausted, and it makes them look ugly

602
00:35:59,160 --> 00:36:06,840
Speaker 1: a kages aka smile more. It's a totally made up condition,

603
00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:13,200
Speaker 1: but the symptoms were described in detail. Those symptoms being

604
00:36:13,239 --> 00:36:16,760
Speaker 1: stuff like permanent facial disfigurement, similar to when your parents

605
00:36:16,800 --> 00:36:19,799
Speaker 1: may have said, don't make that face. Your face might

606
00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:25,200
Speaker 1: stay that way forever. That comes from this bicycle face thing. Yeah,

607
00:36:25,480 --> 00:36:28,600
Speaker 1: Maria titled the document today. I like to call it

608
00:36:28,680 --> 00:36:33,480
Speaker 1: resting bicycle face, a precursor to the other RBF resting

609
00:36:33,719 --> 00:36:39,440
Speaker 1: bitch face, which is a very pejorative thing. That is

610
00:36:38,920 --> 00:36:41,560
Speaker 1: the root of that whole smile more thing. It's this

611
00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:47,319
Speaker 1: idea that women owe you some sign of affection or

612
00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:48,240
Speaker 1: positive whatever.

613
00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:50,520
Speaker 4: It's just it's dumb and it persists.

614
00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:55,800
Speaker 1: M and then other symptoms would include flushed faces, you know,

615
00:36:56,400 --> 00:37:00,560
Speaker 1: like the faces you make when you're exercising, bulgie eyes,

616
00:37:00,719 --> 00:37:05,480
Speaker 1: clinched jaws, a general expression of weariness.

617
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:07,600
Speaker 4: Yeah, to get from exertion, right.

618
00:37:07,680 --> 00:37:11,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, And they never applied this bicycle face idea to

619
00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:12,800
Speaker 1: the dudes.

620
00:37:12,960 --> 00:37:15,239
Speaker 2: Oh, there's so many examples of this stuff, and check

621
00:37:15,280 --> 00:37:18,279
Speaker 2: out episodes of stuff man've never told you about some

622
00:37:18,320 --> 00:37:20,520
Speaker 2: of these topics as well. They've they've covered this over

623
00:37:20,560 --> 00:37:23,480
Speaker 2: the years, the idea of like the wandering womb and

624
00:37:23,520 --> 00:37:26,440
Speaker 2: like all of these you know, hysterical women and all

625
00:37:26,440 --> 00:37:30,520
Speaker 2: of this. There's a lot of smear campaigns specifically directed

626
00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:34,040
Speaker 2: by the health community at women over the years to

627
00:37:34,200 --> 00:37:35,920
Speaker 2: justify some pretty gnarly treatment of it.

628
00:37:37,120 --> 00:37:42,080
Speaker 1: This ultimately ends up being a moral panic, an outbreak

629
00:37:42,239 --> 00:37:46,640
Speaker 1: of again, a culture war time tale as old as time.

630
00:37:47,160 --> 00:37:50,720
Speaker 1: It's an example of fake health scares that were used

631
00:37:50,760 --> 00:37:54,760
Speaker 1: to fight against social change by people who were happy

632
00:37:54,800 --> 00:37:57,160
Speaker 1: with the status quo because they were at the top.

633
00:37:57,760 --> 00:38:04,239
Speaker 1: There were other imaginary diseases when bicycle face obviously seemed malarchy,

634
00:38:04,800 --> 00:38:11,399
Speaker 1: there were things like what they called cayphosis bicyclarum by

635
00:38:11,760 --> 00:38:18,040
Speaker 1: by one more type cayphosis bicyclis sterum cyclist spine.

636
00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:19,160
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right.

637
00:38:19,200 --> 00:38:22,239
Speaker 2: They did warn that cycling often left women vulnerable to

638
00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:28,760
Speaker 2: other general health problems such as graves disease and appendicitis. Yeah,

639
00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:31,839
Speaker 2: there was a publication on the BMJ that published an

640
00:38:31,880 --> 00:38:35,480
Speaker 2: article describing how bicycling could worsen chess problems because of

641
00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:38,840
Speaker 2: the position that you had to ride in, cause urethritis

642
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:43,200
Speaker 2: and should be avoided by any woman suffering from pelvic mischief.

643
00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:46,160
Speaker 1: That's my favorite term of the day, pelvic mischief.

644
00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:49,000
Speaker 2: And again we already mentioned this notion that it could

645
00:38:49,160 --> 00:38:52,479
Speaker 2: be a way that a woman could pleasure herself, which

646
00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:56,399
Speaker 2: you know, a God forbid and be ridiculous, that's very

647
00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:59,319
Speaker 2: inconvenient for the purposes of riding a bike. I don't

648
00:38:59,320 --> 00:39:03,680
Speaker 2: think anyone's out there you know, trying to get frisky

649
00:39:03,840 --> 00:39:05,000
Speaker 2: on a bicycle scene.

650
00:39:05,520 --> 00:39:10,000
Speaker 1: Right. I want to be very diplomatic, folks, because we

651
00:39:10,040 --> 00:39:14,840
Speaker 1: are a family show. But I'm we're going to share

652
00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:22,720
Speaker 1: this quotation with you about the orgasm concern and Noel Max,

653
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:27,279
Speaker 1: I just cannot think that whoever was writing this was

654
00:39:27,320 --> 00:39:30,120
Speaker 1: having a little pervy time in their own mind. Here's

655
00:39:30,120 --> 00:39:33,279
Speaker 1: the quote. So off, Mike, I did a reading of

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00:39:33,320 --> 00:39:35,040
Speaker 1: this that was too controversial.

657
00:39:35,080 --> 00:39:36,400
Speaker 4: So we're just going to give.

658
00:39:36,239 --> 00:39:39,880
Speaker 1: You the words is written. But I hold to what

659
00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:45,839
Speaker 1: I'm saying without any acting or interpretation or intonation. This

660
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:47,880
Speaker 1: is a really creepy thing for these guys to write,

661
00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:50,720
Speaker 1: they said, quote. The saddle can be tilted in every

662
00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:53,719
Speaker 1: bicycle as desired. In this way, a girl could by

663
00:39:53,800 --> 00:39:57,000
Speaker 1: carrying the front peak or pommel high, or by relaxing

664
00:39:57,040 --> 00:39:59,239
Speaker 1: the stretched leather in order to let it form a

665
00:39:59,239 --> 00:40:03,480
Speaker 1: deep like concavity which would fit itself snugly over the

666
00:40:03,640 --> 00:40:07,000
Speaker 1: entire volva and reach up in front, bring about constant

667
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:09,319
Speaker 1: friction over the glytorus and labia.

668
00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:13,560
Speaker 4: Yo. Yeah, I don't know I wrote that.

669
00:40:13,719 --> 00:40:17,920
Speaker 2: I don't know wrote well, and thankfully you know the

670
00:40:17,920 --> 00:40:22,239
Speaker 2: the snowflake men of the day were ultimately sort of

671
00:40:23,280 --> 00:40:25,560
Speaker 2: calmed down a bit with the release of something called

672
00:40:25,560 --> 00:40:28,239
Speaker 2: the anatomical saddle, which I can only imagine is something

673
00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:30,760
Speaker 2: like a banana seat or just like a broader seat.

674
00:40:31,120 --> 00:40:34,160
Speaker 2: That seemed to allay some of these fears that the

675
00:40:34,200 --> 00:40:36,719
Speaker 2: patriarchy had and make them settle down a little bit.

676
00:40:37,520 --> 00:40:42,879
Speaker 1: And we are more than happy to report that, thankfully

677
00:40:42,920 --> 00:40:49,080
Speaker 1: this moral panic of the bicycle face was debunked as

678
00:40:49,080 --> 00:40:52,279
Speaker 1: it should have been. It shouldn't have started, but it

679
00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:55,279
Speaker 1: was revealed to be or understood to be ultimately a

680
00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:59,960
Speaker 1: self limiting fake condition. And again, thankfully, by the Earth

681
00:41:00,280 --> 00:41:05,720
Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds, it wasn't something that people were worried about.

682
00:41:06,239 --> 00:41:06,600
Speaker 4: Nah.

683
00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:11,160
Speaker 2: Doctor Sarah Hackett Stevenson, a prominent Chicago doctor, was among

684
00:41:11,840 --> 00:41:16,239
Speaker 2: the group who finally, you know, put the nail in

685
00:41:16,280 --> 00:41:20,399
Speaker 2: this particular coffin dismissing the condition. She wrote in the uh, well,

686
00:41:20,520 --> 00:41:24,640
Speaker 2: to be fair, the phrenological journal, right, which is its

687
00:41:24,640 --> 00:41:28,920
Speaker 2: own thing, of course, Yeah, phrenology, not quoit and also quackery.

688
00:41:29,719 --> 00:41:31,520
Speaker 4: But you know, her heart was in the right place.

689
00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:34,560
Speaker 2: And maybe this was just a popular journal at the time,

690
00:41:34,600 --> 00:41:38,200
Speaker 2: because this was something that was very widely studied, you know,

691
00:41:38,680 --> 00:41:41,160
Speaker 2: in eighteen ninety seven that any trace of such a

692
00:41:41,320 --> 00:41:45,640
Speaker 2: quote face would be temporary, okay and completely gone once

693
00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:48,560
Speaker 2: a woman was proficient in riding her bike. Okay, well,

694
00:41:49,280 --> 00:41:53,040
Speaker 2: yeah she got there, but a little circuitous route right

695
00:41:53,360 --> 00:41:56,319
Speaker 2: ish mm hmm yep. She also wrote that cycling was,

696
00:41:56,360 --> 00:41:59,080
Speaker 2: in fact an excellent exercise for women, and the lost

697
00:41:59,120 --> 00:42:03,640
Speaker 2: beauty of many delicate women may be recovered if they ride.

698
00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:05,000
Speaker 1: They get out and exercise.

699
00:42:05,200 --> 00:42:08,280
Speaker 2: I guess that's true, the lost beauty of many delicate women.

700
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:12,240
Speaker 4: Yeah, I may be recovered. I don't agree with the framing.

701
00:42:12,600 --> 00:42:16,759
Speaker 1: Great everybody loves a glow up and we also, uh,

702
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:20,760
Speaker 1: we love this story because we are all three big

703
00:42:20,800 --> 00:42:25,880
Speaker 1: fans of bikes and cycling. Thank you again for joining

704
00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:29,040
Speaker 1: us today, folks. We can't wait for you to hit

705
00:42:29,120 --> 00:42:31,520
Speaker 1: the road or the belt line or the trail with

706
00:42:31,719 --> 00:42:35,279
Speaker 1: us on some future episodes. Also, big, big thanks to

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00:42:35,960 --> 00:42:38,880
Speaker 1: mister Max Williams. Max, do you have a bicycle? I

708
00:42:38,920 --> 00:42:40,920
Speaker 1: don't want to put you on blast, but I'm curious.

709
00:42:41,320 --> 00:42:42,600
Speaker 4: I actually do not right now?

710
00:42:42,719 --> 00:42:46,120
Speaker 3: I am. I'm not the big bike guy, which is funny,

711
00:42:46,200 --> 00:42:49,879
Speaker 3: Zs is a very big bike guy himself. Okay, all right,

712
00:42:49,960 --> 00:42:53,280
Speaker 3: id of want to petting farthing after this episode, I can.

713
00:42:53,160 --> 00:42:57,560
Speaker 2: See you rocking a bone shaker here, elies Max he

714
00:42:57,640 --> 00:42:58,720
Speaker 2: tried to petting farthing.

715
00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:01,040
Speaker 4: Big fakes, of.

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00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:07,640
Speaker 1: Course, to Jonathan Strickland, aka the Quizter, who is probably

717
00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:10,760
Speaker 1: the guy who will sell you a gently used penny Farley.

718
00:43:10,960 --> 00:43:14,720
Speaker 2: M m yeah, he's got a garage full of them.

719
00:43:14,840 --> 00:43:17,840
Speaker 2: Huge thanks to research associate Maria for knocking out this

720
00:43:17,920 --> 00:43:22,320
Speaker 2: banger research brief for us A J Mohammad Jacobs, the Puzzler,

721
00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:25,719
Speaker 2: Chris Frosciotis Anddie's Jeff Co's here in spirit, the aforementioned

722
00:43:25,800 --> 00:43:28,880
Speaker 2: cycling enthusiast Alex Williams who composed.

723
00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:32,560
Speaker 1: Arthy Beautiful Yes, big big thanks also to doctor Rachel

724
00:43:32,640 --> 00:43:36,400
Speaker 1: Big Spinach Lance, as well as the rude dudes of

725
00:43:36,520 --> 00:43:40,840
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime. If you dig us, especially our recent Dalli episode,

726
00:43:40,880 --> 00:43:43,919
Speaker 1: then you will love them. So hie thee to Thy

727
00:43:44,040 --> 00:43:48,960
Speaker 1: podcast platform of choice and check out some amazing stories

728
00:43:49,160 --> 00:43:52,400
Speaker 1: they have to share as well. Most importantly, thank you

729
00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:53,360
Speaker 1: to Noel.

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00:43:53,600 --> 00:43:56,160
Speaker 4: Hey to you as well, Ben. We'll see you next time, folks.

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00:44:02,920 --> 00:44:06,719
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

732
00:44:06,800 --> 00:44:08,960
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,