WEBVTT - "Resting Bicycle Face": Bikes and Women's Rights 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:27.520 Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:30.720 the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:33.360 much for tuning in. Let's hear it for the Man, 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:36.960 the Myth, the Legend, our own Penny Farthing super producer, 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:41.280 mister Max Williams. 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:43.480 Max Penniworth Farthington Williams, Third Esquire. 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:46.920 That actually isn't too far off from my actual name. 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:51.440 Huh, it's a joke. Hey, stop watches right? How many 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:53.159 times a day? Once? I guess yes. 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:57.720 Twice, technically twice. I am Ben Bullet. You are, mister 0:00:57.800 --> 0:00:58.440 Noel Brown. 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:00.240 I'm only just now learning how its out time. 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:02.680 I recently got my first analog watch, and I'm still 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:03.880 struggling with it a little bit. 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:06.679 But it's a lot of fun, and we are going 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:09.440 to have a lot of fun with you today, hopefully, 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:13.200 Fellow Ridiculous Historians, we are looking at one of our 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:18.600 favorite contraptions ever, the bicycle, and the role it played 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:20.640 in women's rights. 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:25.120 I like to ride my bikes here. I like to 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:26.920 ride it where I like. 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:36.880 I just got back from a bike ride. 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:39.520 It was nice. I love a bike. I love a bicycle. 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:41.360 I also love women's rights. 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:44.720 And you were definitely not on a penny farthing. You 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:49.040 are on something descended from what we call the safety 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:52.840 bicycle or the safeties from L eighteen hundreds. 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:54.880 It sounds nerdy when you say like that, but I 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:57.440 was wearing a helmet, I di am a safe by cyclist, 0:01:57.520 --> 0:01:59.800 and I was riding on a little thing we here 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:02.440 in Atlanta area called the belt line, and I made 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:05.560 a trader Joe's run, got some snacks, and rode on back. 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:06.360 It was a good time. 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:09.720 Yeah, And the safety bicycle is part of the reason 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:13.000 this is a good time because it did replace the 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:18.400 penny farthing, which, in addition to looking absolutely ridiculous, is 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:21.360 also pretty pretty dangerous. 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:22.399 So the pity. 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:25.200 Farthing was like an early adopter thing. We'll get to it. 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:28.160 But what you need to know at the offset here, folks, 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:31.680 is that there was a sea change in cycling and 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:37.000 society with the emergence of that safety bicycle. It sparked 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:41.120 what our research associate Maria calls a cycling craze in 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:43.600 the United States and abroad. 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:47.400 Well, I mean, anyone who's seen someone ride a penny farthing, 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:51.760 also known as the bone a bone shaker if deadwood 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:53.840 is to be believed. It was actually a plot point 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:57.840 in that show, not necessarily because of its danger as 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:01.080 a vehicle, but it caught a chain of events that 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:04.280 led to some tragic plot moving occurrences in the show. 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:05.480 But if anyone's ever seen. 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:07.240 Someone riding one of those, like one of those muscleman 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:10.480 with the handlebar mustaches, you know, it's kind of more 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:13.160 like a feat like a trick, like riding a unicycle 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:15.760 or using stilts or I'm sure you know there's big 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:17.480 wheel on the front, a little wheel on the back. 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:20.360 There's a reason people don't go to the grocery store 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:24.800 on pogo sticks. It's more of flex of activity. I've actually, 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:29.160 I've had the dubious pleasure of riding Penny Farthing bikes 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:30.000 several times. 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:35.760 They are difficult, they are not forgiving. But we do 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:42.040 owe a lot of modern society's rights to the advent 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:45.720 of the safety bicycle. As Maria tells us, there were 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:49.440 basically three groups of women in the eighteen nineties who 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:53.840 were who are part of our story here. One, there 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:56.960 are people who happen to be women who just want 0:03:56.960 --> 0:03:58.800 to ride bikes because bikes are cool. 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:01.600 Yeah, they want to ride them where they like, it's 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:02.360 very freeing. 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:06.960 It's honestly the invention of the original, the penny farthing. 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:09.440 I mean, that was in and of itself a very 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:14.720 freeing innovation. You know, it allowed people to ambulate without 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:15.840 the use of their legs. 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:19.840 And this, I like the point about freedom there, noel, 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:24.320 because our second group will be actual activists, women's rights 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:29.200 activist who said, hey, this bicycle is a palpable tool 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:34.400 of independence. This gives us freedom, this gives us agency. 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:38.320 And then the third group, the bad guys of the story, 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:42.039 the baddies, the people who said women on bikes, that's 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:45.240 an abomination. Next thing you know, they'll be wearing. 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:49.640 Pantaloons wanting to vote right God forbid. 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:53.680 So this this is our story for today, folks. The 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:57.080 safety bike did play a huge role in the women's 0:04:57.160 --> 0:05:00.560 rights movement, and it's one that a lot of people 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:04.440 didn't see coming. Kind of like how hat pins became 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:08.680 a tool against assault of mashers. 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:12.279 Yeah, just so all those wolf whistling, mashing men out 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.400 there on those streets, the ladies wouldn't put up with it. 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:17.440 They'd give them a jab with their hat pins. 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:23.919 And now we're entering onto the stage. A group of 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:26.800 people who are very harm for Rump, for Rump, something 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:31.400 must be done. When faced with a female population that 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:37.040 had independent transportation and was wearing pants, they were trying 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:42.120 to react in an ad hominem kind of way. It 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:47.040 reminds me a lot, you guys, of that strange propaganda 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:51.520 we saw during COVID vaccination or wearing masks, where people 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:55.080 would say, oh, if people are wearing masks, you don't 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:58.640 know if their children being trafficked. This is so ridiculous. 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:04.080 The opposition said the reason women shouldn't ride bicycles was 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:06.640 due to something that they called bicycle face. 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:09.400 Is this related to like, why don't you smile more 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:10.359 kind of mentality? 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:15.200 Okay? Cool? Or RB clocking yeah, RBF. 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:17.880 The safety bicycle, as you said, men, I, was at 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:20.440 the heart of this epidemic that people were referring to 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:23.080 as bicycle face, and of course replaced the penny farthing, 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:25.200 which had been super popular in the eighteen seventies and 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:29.240 eighteen eighties. Some models included the Aerial in eighteen seventy 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:34.120 one and the very creatively and banally named the Ordinary 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:38.760 in eighteen seventy eight. These types of bikes were typically 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:42.680 associated with young, rich, white dudes, but men of all 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:45.640 kinds were participating in this sort of like I said, 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:48.320 feet of strength. These bikes could go up to a 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:51.960 whopping thirty miles an hour, some say more, and the 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:55.480 design was favored for this ability to pick up speed. 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:57.799 But that's really where it ends. As we talked about, 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:01.800 this is some really odd ball, awkward, unwieldy elements to 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:03.960 the design of this thing, including the fact that the 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:06.560 rider's seat, which you well know, Ben, was nearly five 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:07.920 feet off of the ground. 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:10.360 Oh yeah, it's one of those things where you've got 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:13.440 to get a running start. I've been teaching my girlfriend's 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:17.239 niece how to ride bikes, and I'm just so happy 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:20.360 that the kid is not on a penny farthing. Side 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:24.840 note for our fellow etymology nerds, it's got a weird name, 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:27.320 the penny farthing. It's also been called the high wheel, 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:31.560 but the name comes because of the size difference between 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:33.800 the British penny and the farthing. 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:34.400 Coins. 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:38.520 Wow, penny is way bigger. That's the front wheel, and 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:42.000 the farthing is a lot smaller. That's the rear wheel. 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:44.560 I think we all learned something new today, Ben. I 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:45.520 did not know that. 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:50.280 Prior to reading Maria's excellent research brief. So as you 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:52.520 can imagine, and as we've already hinted at, it was 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.960 super dangerous and considered much more of a thrill seeking 0:07:56.160 --> 0:08:00.520 kind of activity, not necessarily known for its practicality. And 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:03.280 many folks, if we're talking about some more etymology, would 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:06.800 take a fall or a header as it was known 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:11.160 and coined from this problem, literally diving headfirst over what 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:14.640 are referred to as mustache handlebars. I guess people were 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:17.000 making their mustaches match the handlebars. 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:20.600 And also, if you please, if you get a chance, 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:23.119 pull up a picture of a penny farthing. We can't 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:25.520 tell you to try it at home because they are dangerous. 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:28.560 And I took a few headers myself. You're going to 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:29.320 see that. 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:32.160 It's such a weird contraption. Because the. 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:41.040 Seat of this vehicle is pretty much parallel to the handlebars, 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:44.200 it is very easy to go too fast or to 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:48.800 lose your balance and have a decent wampwamp. This really 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:54.680 inspired or irritated a guy named John Kemp Starly. We 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:58.280 don't know how many headers Starly took, but our buddy 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:04.000 Johnny around eighteen eighty five said, this is malarkey. I'm 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:06.320 going to invent a new bicycle. It's going to be 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:10.120 straight seahorse teeth, and I'm going to emphasize how safe 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:10.480 it is. 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:13.640 What if we had two wheels that were the same size. 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:16.319 What if we had gears, Oh my gosh, what if 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:18.959 we finally tried to fix the brakes? 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:22.960 For sure, big improvements in all those respects, the brakes 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:24.360 and the pretty farthing. 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:26.920 I think we're very, very rudimentary. 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:30.600 In eighteen ninety, what was deemed, you know, in the 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:34.360 zeitgeist as safeties were upgraded with pneumatic tires, which are 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:37.080 very similar to the ones we know today, tires made 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:39.080 of rubber that are filled with air. 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:41.400 Lesson not very less. 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:43.440 Boneek has another reason that that was called that for 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:46.720 sure a new invention that made for a much more 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:50.199 comfortable ride just in terms of traversing various types of terrain. 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:52.319 It soaked up a lot of the impact, Like you're saying, 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:56.520 ben So by the mid decade, bikes dropped in weight too. 0:09:57.200 --> 0:09:58.760 You know, you don't want to clunky bike. 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:00.640 Anyone who's ridden one of those new New York City 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:03.920 city bikes knows that that can be a real scary 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:07.800 proposition and definitely makes it a lot less fun and zippy. 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:10.240 So they dropped from about fifty pounds to twenty three, 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:14.920 which was a serious glow up considering the previous bikes 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:18.120 and bike like vehicles, which I honestly, I mean they 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:20.520 call it the penny farthing and not the bicycle because 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:23.680 it really is more of a bike like vehicle. We would, really, 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:27.800 I I would argue that it is not particularly a bicycle. 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:29.720 It's not till we see the safeties that we really 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:32.920 start seeing what became the bicycle. Didn't Some penny farthings 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:34.800 also have like two wheels in the back, I want 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:35.640 to say, they were. 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:40.120 Like, Yeah, there were also tripod designs, so you'd have 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:43.080 two big wheels on either side of the seat and 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:46.000 then you have a little wheel in the back. And 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:50.720 there was there was so much research going into this 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:55.000 idea of the you know, from between eighteen ninety two 0:10:55.040 --> 0:11:00.920 to eighteen ninety six, the industry was kind of acting 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:04.719 like your favorite corporations act about AI today. There were 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:08.240 so many patents going out for these bicycles. Yeah, feeding 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:11.200 frenzy is not a bad way to put it. The 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:15.240 two designs of what we call the safety bicycle were 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:20.120 the following the original had a crossbar. In eighteen eighty eight, 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:24.680 they marketed a what they called a quote unquote women's version, 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:29.880 and the one for women offered a drop frame to 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:33.880 accommodate skirts, because we can't have people wearing pants, right. 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:37.880 And you can still see this today in very popular 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:40.800 bike designs from very popular companies like Shwin. 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:43.600 And it should be noted too that even today, I mean, 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:47.720 there are differentiations between what would be considered a women's 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:49.760 bike and a men's bike. Sometimes it has to do 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:51.880 with size, but sometimes it does have to do with 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:55.599 certain features like the frame design and stuff like that. 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:56.400 That drop r. 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:00.600 Yeah, and when the first Safeties came out, similar to 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:03.720 the Penny Farthing, they were pretty expensive. They cost an 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:07.880 average of one hundred and fifty US bucks per product. 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:11.839 And this is a time, Maria points out, when the 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:17.360 average US worker was earning maybe twelve dollars a week. 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:21.200 Yeah, that's a pretty serious investment for what at the 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:23.800 time was probably still is kind of considered a curiosity. 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:25.360 It hadn't fully taken off yet. 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:29.320 Yeahs a novelty, right, and it's still the idea of 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:32.520 the bicycle still sort of has its training wheels. 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:43.839 Hey, So as we mentioned that the main customer at 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:44.520 this point. 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:46.800 Was rich white dudes. 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:50.600 But there were also, of course counterparts to these rich 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:52.959 and white dudes who were rich white women and they 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:54.120 wanted to get on the fun too. 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:59.760 Yeah, and because there was higher demand, the economy of 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:04.160 gale kicks in and all these manufacturers who have their 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:07.439 proliferation of patents and their own special spin on the 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:10.679 velociped they. 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:13.120 What they call it in Deadwood as well. 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:17.360 They say, look, we're going to compete with each other, 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:21.600 so they start reducing their prices. That's a very strange 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:24.240 thing to a lot of us in the United States today, 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:28.520 but companies did used to do that. They made bikes 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:33.320 more affordable for what they called all the riders, which 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.800 was again, as you pointed out, bro, it's a very 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:39.199 small percentage of the overall population. 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:41.800 It is a good little view into just a basic 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:45.679 economic microcosm of like supply and demand and how it's 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:48.520 supposed to work. They're supposed to be competition in these 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:52.160 types of spaces rather than you know, monopolies, which can 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:55.800 lead to prices lowering and or quality raising in order 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:59.120 for the different manufacturers to differentiate themselves, like in the 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:02.760 watch game. For example, you've got these really unattainably high 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:10.000 priced watch protects FP grange, what is it, Automorpga those 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:12.440 ones that are like you know, the price of a 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:16.360 car or more. But they're also like decades and decades 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:20.840 of development and you know, super super super refined processes 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:23.840 and features, et cetera. And the more mid tier ones, 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:26.320 you've got them a ton of competition because they really 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:28.200 have to differentiate themselves from each other. 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:33.680 Yeah, So first off, yet to think about the complications, folks, 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:36.800 which is the word for the mechanisms, which is. 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:38.200 Becomes true with bikes too. 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:41.240 I mean, we're talking about like it is a relatively 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:44.880 clockwork esque system when we're talking about gear shifts and 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:47.480 how many speeds does it have? And you know, what 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:51.040 are the components, Like how well manufactured and machined and 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:51.840 engineered they are. 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:53.240 We're going to start seeing more of that. 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:58.200 Yeah, And so we're still in the late eighteen eighties, 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:02.000 so it's let's say it's eighteen eighty nine to eighteen 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:06.920 ninety nine. So in that decade, the number of bicycles 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:10.160 that are being purchased and used has shot up from 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:14.280 something like two hundred thousand to one million in the 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:18.640 US alone. By eighteen ninety five, the United States has 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:24.080 no less than three hundred separate bicycle companies, and if 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:28.960 you average out what they were doing right during this decade, 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:35.680 their safety bikes or safeties probably cost about seventy five 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:38.600 dollars instead of one hundred and fifty. So the market 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:41.440 was working at that time in yeah some way. 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:42.640 Well, yeah, for sure. 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:45.560 And as we mentioned earlier, you know women who likely 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:47.960 had a bit more free time on their hands, at 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:51.200 least to the wealthy you know, spouses of wealthy businessmen 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:55.320 and you know people that were working ninety fives in 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:57.440 the offices or whatever the hell they were doing in 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:01.080 those days. They often the women would not work, and 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:02.880 so they had a lot more free time, and so 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:05.000 of course it made sense that they would want some 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:08.080 options of how to fill that free time, and biking 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:12.480 offered a pretty great and active you know answer to that. 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:17.440 One hundred percent. Yeah, And this is mobility, right, this 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:20.760 is freedom. This doesn't mean you have to keep a 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:22.440 horse all the time. 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:25.360 And to this day, I think people really love biking 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:28.600 because of some of those very same things. It's functional, 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:32.240 it's functional exercise that gives you a sense of freedom 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:35.000 and a lot of reasons. It turns out that motorists 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:38.000 are kind of pills to bicyclists, is because they're sort 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:40.400 of like, man, who does that person think he is 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:42.640 being all free out there not stuck in traffic. 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:44.360 I'm gonna I'm gonna be a jerk. 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:49.480 I'm very pro bike and I have serious problems with 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:52.800 our fair metropolis of Atlanta. You know what I'm talking about, Yeah, 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:54.600 is approaching bicycles. 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:58.360 So we have we know. 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:02.040 That there are still improvements to be made, but we 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:06.880 also know that there was a culture war about bicycles 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:11.159 and women riding them, especially this period of history in 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:15.680 the eighteen hundreds. You would see names in the press 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:20.919 in real muck raking journalism or real tabloid style breathless headlines, 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:27.080 stuff like weeld woman, lady Cyclist, or our favorite bloomert Right, 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:32.280 because if you're picturing illustrations from the news rags of 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:35.720 the day, you're probably picturing ladies on bicycles wearing these. 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:40.200 Big, old, fluffy pantaloon esque things that weren't quite pants, 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:41.360 weren't quite dresses. 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:42.879 They were bloomers. 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:46.200 Yeah, that reminds me of this is like our cravat 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:49.400 conversation we've been having. It reminds me of the phrase 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:54.639 harem pants. Things that look like a skirt while you're standing, 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:57.560 but they move like pants because they have that division. 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:02.639 We know that this is occurring in a greater context, 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:07.200 a greater milieu. In eighteen seventy eight, there was a 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:12.000 woman suffrage amendment proposed in US Congress. It's just what 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:16.400 it sounds like. It said, Hey, should this other fifty 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:19.880 percent of the population be allowed to vote? It failed, 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:23.760 It did not pass until nineteen twenty. It is the 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:28.560 nineteenth Amendment. And didn't think we would say this in 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:32.959 this episode, but guys, shout out to Wyoming. Wyoming in 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:38.480 eighteen sixty nine is the first state that allows women 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:41.520 the right to vote. And you know here in twenty 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:46.880 twenty six, Wyoming has a relatively conservative reputation, you know. 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:47.880 Real quick. 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:50.600 Shout out to the inventor of the Bloomers, by the way, 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:53.080 which I think is an interesting tie in here. A 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:57.679 woman named Amelia Bloomer, who was a women's rights advocate 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:01.480 in the mid nineteenth century. He actually promoted the Bloomers 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:05.880 as a practical alternative to the restrictive corsets and skirts 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:09.679 that women were more or less required to wear, and 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:13.480 it became a symbol of early reform for women's dress 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:18.560 and kind of dovetailed with the women's suffrage and rights movements. 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:22.240 They were used often by activists for there again for comfort, 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:25.119 but also they had a symbolic aspect to them, and 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.359 of course cyclists as well as some early nineteenth and 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:29.800 twentieth century athletes. 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:34.720 Yeah, so we're seeing freedom of movement on multiple levels, 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:38.760 exactly on the are the literal level and on the 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:45.000 figurative larger level. In eighteen seventy five, Scotis again fumbles 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:48.000 the bag. This will be very familiar to a lot 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:51.800 of our listeners in the US right now. The Supreme 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:55.959 Court of the United States said, Look, the matter of 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:59.840 women voting, that's really a matter for the states. If 0:19:59.840 --> 0:20:03.240 the if a given state wants to say women can't vote, 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:08.239 then that's fine. Because women are people. We'll give you 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:11.359 that as they are citizens. But they are there is 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:15.520 a quote a special category of non voting. 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:20.679 Aka sub human right some degree, he's animal farm. 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:24.840 Everybody's equal, but some are more equal than others. 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:27.000 Speaking of which, bend, are you aware of this? 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:31.239 Apparently quite awful animated Animal Farm that has just been 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:37.200 getting shredded. It's like a CGI animated version of Animal Farm, 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:40.960 weirdly helmed by Andy Serkis, who I think we're all 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:45.439 fans of, but apparently it is just absolutely misses the 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:48.720 mark on every aspect of what Animal Farm is about 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:53.880 and is just like gross out humor and completely a travist. 0:20:53.720 --> 0:20:57.160 Just antithetical. Or Well, just read the book, folks, take 0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:00.720 a you know it's it's such a short read because 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:04.840 especially because Orwell comes from a journalism background, so he 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:07.560 writes with density and a clarity. 0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:10.080 And truer now than ever, more valid and interesting. Now, 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:12.520 you know, Parrot with nineteen eighty four if you really 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:12.840 want to. 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:15.320 Get on that. I don't want to hang out with George. 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:18.120 I love him as a writer, uh and I never 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:20.840 really spent a lot of time with him, but man, 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:23.679 he's going to be too smug. If he came back 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:29.040 to life here, he would be insufferable. He'd be Kanye 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:31.600 West level smug and Max, we got to go to you. 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:33.480 You got something here? Yeah, And I just want to know. 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:36.720 Andy Serkis of Claribscure Expedition thirty three fame, along with 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:39.720 other things like being dollom and whatnot. But yeah, clareupscare 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:43.320 shoutout Tonel Farms great, great. 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:46.640 And shout out to uh Klang or whatever his name 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:51.200 was Kran And you know in the Black Panther uh series, 0:21:51.600 --> 0:21:52.560 Uh Andy. 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:56.439 Yeah right yeah. Andy Circus also my favorite role that 0:21:56.440 --> 0:21:59.240 he ever played. Well, he's not a handful of things 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:02.160 that I really enjoyed. In the film twenty four Hour 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:07.119 Party People, he plays the genius and irasble, the irascible 0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:10.680 genius producer of a lot of the Factory Records bands 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:13.680 there in Manchester, bands like Joy Division, and he plays 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:16.920 them great. He's a total grumpy curmudgeon. It's really really 0:22:16.960 --> 0:22:19.760 great film. If you're into the history of indie music. 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:24.080 And while we're taking a slight diversion, folks, please give 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:29.400 Andy Serkis the actor his recognition because he always reminded 0:22:29.440 --> 0:22:34.280 me so his come up always reminded me of te Pain. 0:22:34.520 --> 0:22:37.480 So a lot of people looked at Tee Paid and 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:39.800 didn't know the guy could really sing because he made 0:22:39.840 --> 0:22:42.560 the artistic choice to use auto tune. A lot of 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:46.960 people say that Andy Circus uh wasn't was somehow less 0:22:47.040 --> 0:22:50.880 than of an actor because he became so famous doing 0:22:50.960 --> 0:22:52.600 motion capture stuff. 0:22:52.440 --> 0:22:55.680 But goes into that man, I mean, yeah, for sure, 0:22:55.680 --> 0:22:58.400 really good, much like that Doug Jones, you know, got 0:22:58.440 --> 0:23:02.000 famous for playing you know, monsters and wearing heavy makeup. 0:23:02.400 --> 0:23:04.520 It's all about his movements and his you know, the 0:23:04.600 --> 0:23:06.439 nuance that he brings to that. And you know, I 0:23:06.480 --> 0:23:11.280 think Andy serkis as King Kong quite moving and it 0:23:11.320 --> 0:23:12.639 all has to do with the performance. 0:23:12.640 --> 0:23:14.280