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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stop? Mom? Never told you?

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Speaker 1: From housetop works dot Com. Hello and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: This is Molly and I'm Kristen. Kristin the chill Us

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Speaker 1: off and talk about taking a trip to see all

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Speaker 1: our our listeners across the country. If we want to

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Speaker 1: go across Canada, we all want to go to Scandinavia obviously, um,

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Speaker 1: because it's the most friendly place to women. If you'll

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Speaker 1: listen to that podcast. Um, you know, we just have

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Speaker 1: all these ideas about places to go and spots of

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Speaker 1: women's history to see, and you know, things like that.

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Speaker 1: I want to add another element to it. Go for it.

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Speaker 1: I think we should do the trip by motorcycle. But

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Speaker 1: I think that what I want is to get in

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Speaker 1: a motorcycle with the side car and I want to

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Speaker 1: ride the sidecar. Oh that means I get to drive

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Speaker 1: the motorcycle. Yeah, absolutely, let's do it. How do you

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Speaker 1: feel about that idea? I think it's great. I think

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Speaker 1: it would be great also because I think that we

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Speaker 1: would uh upend some traditional stereotypes about whether women can

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Speaker 1: ride motorcycles, and that is the topic of today's podcast,

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Speaker 1: Women and Motorcycles. Yes, although I wanted to talk just

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Speaker 1: exclusively about our cross country trip, we are going to

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Speaker 1: get to some facts about women and motorcycles. Let me

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Speaker 1: break it down by numbers to start out with Molly

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Speaker 1: motorcycles today, and then maybe we can put it in reverse.

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Speaker 1: Christ there's more where that came from. Here in the

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Speaker 1: driver's seat on this one, go for it right. So well,

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Speaker 1: this is from two thousand and six bits probably fairly accurate.

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Speaker 1: It's from Christian Science Monitor. This is women bikers by

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Speaker 1: the numbers. We have six thousand women owning motorcycles in

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Speaker 1: the US, which is about of all American motorcycle operators.

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Speaker 1: More than half these women are married, which is something

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Speaker 1: we'll get to a little while later. And of women

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Speaker 1: motor cyclists also have college degree or postgrad degrees. We

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Speaker 1: have some smart ladies on these hogs. And forty two

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Speaker 1: is the medium age of woomen motorcyclists. So it seems

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Speaker 1: like it's usually something that women adopt a little bit

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Speaker 1: later in life. And as we will also discuss in

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Speaker 1: more detail, women are really becoming Harley Davidson's most coveted

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Speaker 1: demographic America. Women are the fastest growing part of the

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Speaker 1: motorcycle business. You will find story after story, as we

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Speaker 1: did when we're researching this about the ways in which

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Speaker 1: Harley Davidson is trying to woo these female bikers. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there was an article in Bloomberg not too long ago

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Speaker 1: that was talking about how Harley has really really tried

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Speaker 1: to market to women. And in July of this year,

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Speaker 1: it introduced a new bike called the super Low, which

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Speaker 1: was designed specifically to appeal to women in and first

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Speaker 1: time writers. And it has the lowest seat in Harley's

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Speaker 1: um of Harley's entire lineup, and it makes it a

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Speaker 1: lot easier to ride. And it's also hundred fifty pounds

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Speaker 1: lighter than the average bike. Very cool. And yeah, they

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Speaker 1: ad just handlebars and wood shields, so it's more more

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Speaker 1: comple just for smaller riders since a lot of women

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Speaker 1: are smaller than men. But it's not just redesigning bikes

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Speaker 1: or you know, putting a few rhyin stones on a

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Speaker 1: motorcycle helmet. They are you know, actively pursue women by

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Speaker 1: having these parties um in the garage where they teach women,

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Speaker 1: you know what safety safety tips, how to care for

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Speaker 1: a bike, how to pick up a bike when it's

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Speaker 1: you know, leaning over on the sidewalk, because I didn't

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Speaker 1: even really think about that. You know, if you had

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Speaker 1: a bicycle, you can just pop it right up. A

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Speaker 1: motorcycle a little bit different, like five pounds or something.

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Speaker 1: They're big, but these but these parties are women only. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they can all the guys out of the shop and

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Speaker 1: it's just a time to you know, ask all these

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Speaker 1: questions you might have had when you were riding on

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Speaker 1: the back of a motorcycle that you want to know

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Speaker 1: before you get in the driver's seat. Because since about

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Speaker 1: that's how most Harley ads have put that's where they've

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Speaker 1: put the women is in the backseat, right, And this

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Speaker 1: marketing has paid off because women only comprised about two

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Speaker 1: of Harley's market and now it's up to twelve. I

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Speaker 1: mean it's still not a huge market share, but still

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Speaker 1: that's a jump. It's the biggest, biggest part of the thing.

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Speaker 1: I mean, like like this is sort of like the

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Speaker 1: car podcast, where they've sold all the motorcycles they think

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Speaker 1: they can to men, and so now they're kind of

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Speaker 1: going after the women. Although they were the ones who

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Speaker 1: started these ads that put women on the back seat

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Speaker 1: to begin with, right, So they kind of shot themselves

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Speaker 1: in the foot because you know, if you look back

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Speaker 1: in history, if we put it in reverse, so to speak,

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Speaker 1: it's it's not like women were never riding motorcycles. They

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Speaker 1: have kind of a long history. Right in the early

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Speaker 1: twentieth century, motorcycles were a vehicle of independence, if you will,

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Speaker 1: and a lot of women riders became these pioneers and

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Speaker 1: garnered a lot of publicity for taking these very impressive

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Speaker 1: motorcycle rides around the country at a time when America had,

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Speaker 1: you know, not as many highways, it was a more

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Speaker 1: treacherous trip. Let's let's talk about some of these these

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Speaker 1: women motorcyclist because they've got some pretty cool stories. Well,

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Speaker 1: in the nineteen fifteen, we've got a mother daughter team

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Speaker 1: and I love this. Their names are Avis and Effie

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Speaker 1: hotch Kiss and they went from Brooklyn all the way

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Speaker 1: to the West Coast on a three speed vach one

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Speaker 1: bike with a sidecar. So because it might have been

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Speaker 1: where I got the idea of a sidecar. Yeah, but

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Speaker 1: I like these hotch Kicks women because they are they

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Speaker 1: are nothing if not you know intuitive about fixing things

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Speaker 1: because in New Mexico they run out of spare inner tubes,

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Speaker 1: so they cut a blanket down to the right length

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Speaker 1: and just roll it in shape and donut and keep going.

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Speaker 1: Like these women don't need they don't need a mechanic

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Speaker 1: to keep them keep them going. And these two women,

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Speaker 1: the mother daughter duo, are the first women to cross

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Speaker 1: the United States on a motorcycle. The Hotchkisses. They did it. Now,

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Speaker 1: let's talk about Vivian Bales Kristen, because she is one cool,

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Speaker 1: one cool biker chick, if I may use that term.

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Speaker 1: She was born in nineteen o nine in Florida, but

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Speaker 1: moved to Albany, Georgia, which is our state of residence.

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Speaker 1: And uh, she was very proud of the fact that

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Speaker 1: she learned to ride a most motorcycle considering she was

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Speaker 1: only five to and weight ninety five pounds. Now, she

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Speaker 1: taught dance and then she took all the money that

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Speaker 1: she saved from teaching dance and bought Harley Davidson. And

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Speaker 1: at the age of twenty okay it's nine, she rides

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Speaker 1: a motorcycle from Albany, Georgia to Milwaukee and back or

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Speaker 1: about five thousand miles and she called herself the Enthusiast

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Speaker 1: Girl after the Harley Davidson magazine. And because she got

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Speaker 1: sort of permission to call herself this, Harley Davidson kind

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Speaker 1: of took care of her on our trip. They you know,

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Speaker 1: she'd stay with the david the Harley Davidson dealers in

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Speaker 1: their hometowns, and they would ride with her for long

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Speaker 1: sections at a time, and you know, they would arrange

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Speaker 1: for her to get pressed in all the places that

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Speaker 1: she was going. Um and it's one of the best

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Speaker 1: documentary road trips of all time. And we were actually

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Speaker 1: on a site called Women Writers. Now you can read

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Speaker 1: sort of her her remembrances of her journey, and I

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Speaker 1: think my favorite part is when she describes meeting Herbert Hoover.

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Speaker 1: She stops in DC, and you know, if you read her,

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Speaker 1: you can just hear the Southern accent and the Southern

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Speaker 1: attitude coming through. In my opinion, and I can't do

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Speaker 1: accents the way kristin Camp. But when she's writing about

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Speaker 1: meeting President Hoover, she says, I didn't vamp on him

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Speaker 1: because Mrs Hoover was President was present, so Vivian she

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Speaker 1: was gonna gonna lay some flirting out on the president

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Speaker 1: if the wife hadn't been there. But you know, she

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Speaker 1: she just writes about how you know it was it

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Speaker 1: was great to meet all these people, all these small

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Speaker 1: town folks that kept her going. And she said, I'm

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Speaker 1: glad I got to be in so many papers because

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Speaker 1: we need more press on women riding motorcycles. So even

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Speaker 1: back then, in the nineteen twenties, it was a unique

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Speaker 1: thing to do. But I don't think it was as

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Speaker 1: unique as it might have gotten a little bit later on. Well, now,

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Speaker 1: if we're going to talk about unique Vivian bills, smart cookie,

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Speaker 1: great gals, bums up, two thumbs up. But I would

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Speaker 1: argue Bessie's string Field. She was also very cool, pertty,

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Speaker 1: pretty cool. Now, Bessie string Field was another woman who

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Speaker 1: set out on her own on a bike, but she

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Speaker 1: was really the first black woman to gain some notoriety

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Speaker 1: for her motorcycle riding. And this is also in the twenties.

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Speaker 1: All of the stuff is happening in the twenties, we

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Speaker 1: were just nuts about motorcycles apparently, So now Bessie string Field,

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Speaker 1: a k a. The motorcycle Queen of Miami. She uh,

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Speaker 1: travel cross country solo, the first African American woman to

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Speaker 1: do that at the age of nineteen. She went through

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Speaker 1: all the lower forty eight States the thirties and the forties,

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Speaker 1: and you know, it's not an easy time to be

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Speaker 1: traveling across country a single woman on her own. She's

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Speaker 1: encountering racism, bigotry, sexism, um. And then World War Two

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Speaker 1: comes out and she is one of the many women

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Speaker 1: who volunteers to join like motorcycle dispatch units of army,

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Speaker 1: and so there were a lot of women who worked

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Speaker 1: as motorcycle couriers during World War Two. So it's it's

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Speaker 1: it's sort of that's sort of I think a peaked

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Speaker 1: I'm in American history for women and motorcycles, Yeah, because

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Speaker 1: we don't think about that aspect of a World War two.

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Speaker 1: Of these women on motorcycles, like Bessie string Field, you know,

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Speaker 1: zipping around with saddlebags still of classified documents, you know,

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Speaker 1: keeping the wartime effort going on the home front as well.

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Speaker 1: And Harley Davidson obviously played a big part in the war.

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Speaker 1: They donated tons of motorcycles to the war effort, and

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Speaker 1: so they there's a there's sort of a discussion about

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Speaker 1: how when those when those people came home from World

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Speaker 1: War Two and they wanted to, you know, get some

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Speaker 1: get some stress out, they'd go back to their bikes.

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Speaker 1: And that was sort of when you know a lot

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Speaker 1: of men robikes just for long distances. And what we

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Speaker 1: have in N seven is a pretty famous acts, a

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Speaker 1: pretty famous incident that I think it starts to turn

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Speaker 1: the tides about what motorcycles mean in our society. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it starts to take on the dark or more rebellious

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Speaker 1: connotation that we have with motorcycles. So July four, nine

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Speaker 1: forty seven, Hollister, California, I remember it well. I remember,

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Speaker 1: I remember it like it was yesterday. Basically, people had

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Speaker 1: her little party. It's part the July. It was a

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Speaker 1: four the July ended. People are happy, but they get

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Speaker 1: a little too crazy with the bikes. They get a

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Speaker 1: little rally. So some people have some motorcycles, got some

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Speaker 1: motor bikes out there, and so they start they start

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Speaker 1: getting littlerowdy and motorcycles get involved. Well what exactly happens, Well,

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Speaker 1: they start racing down the main drag. They start doing

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Speaker 1: all these doughnuts and wheelies, and a few people start

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Speaker 1: to drive straight into the local bars and saloons without

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Speaker 1: getting off their bikes, which obviously is quite quite a

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Speaker 1: rowdy thing to do. Water balloons and beer bottles are

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Speaker 1: just raining down from windows like it is. It's kind

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Speaker 1: of mayhem. And the San Francisco Chronicle covers it pretty extensively,

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Speaker 1: lots of pictures of just damage and the police officers

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Speaker 1: just sitting there crying at all the things they can't control,

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Speaker 1: and uh, it got in Life magazine, and it just

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Speaker 1: really was the beginning of this brand of motorcyclists as

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Speaker 1: these dangerous outlaws. And of course all the people on

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Speaker 1: the picture, all the people in the pictures are men.

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Speaker 1: So I think that also as a big turning point

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Speaker 1: in terms of motorcycles becoming a very male associated thing,

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Speaker 1: and that a year later, Harley Davidson, as I said,

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Speaker 1: all their ads start featuring men in the driver's seat

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Speaker 1: and women only in the back, despite this history of

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Speaker 1: women in World War Two and women doing all these

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Speaker 1: cross country trips. I think seven with the Hollister incident

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Speaker 1: and then ninety eight with these ads changing kind of

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Speaker 1: spells the end of women and motorcycles, well, the end

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Speaker 1: of women and motorcycles for a little while, because, of course,

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Speaker 1: Hollywood picks up the cue from this Hollister incident and

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Speaker 1: they actually make a movie version of that fateful day

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Speaker 1: in the nineteen fifty four classic The Wild One, which

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Speaker 1: is basically followed up by all of these kind of

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Speaker 1: b biker flicks. And then of course we have Rebel

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Speaker 1: without a Cause, and it creates this cultural perception of

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Speaker 1: guys on bikes as these rugged, rugged outlaws live outside

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Speaker 1: the bounds of society's easy writer, easy writer. Of course,

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Speaker 1: we have easy writer, and the women, as reflected in

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Speaker 1: the Harley Davidson advertisements, are sort of just beautiful accessories.

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Speaker 1: And the guys are on these gorgeous spikes and they've

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Speaker 1: got gorgeous girls behind them. So we've got these two

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Speaker 1: images of the male motorcyclist in the United States who've got,

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Speaker 1: as Kristen said, these people who are outlaws, and they've

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Speaker 1: got you know, maybe a clean cut fellow with this

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Speaker 1: lady on the back of the bike, maybe trying to

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Speaker 1: be dangerous, but you know, the real the real danger,

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Speaker 1: the real appeals with the outlaws, like the Hell's Angels

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Speaker 1: and uh, you know, Kristen, when we were researching this

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Speaker 1: wanted to find, you know, maybe an outlaw gang of

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Speaker 1: women motorcyclists. There's there's not one. Didn't happen, But we

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Speaker 1: did come across a pretty interesting paper about uh, motorcycle

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Speaker 1: clubs and women's roles and them by M. Shelley Connor.

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Speaker 1: And guess guess what the source of this paper was, Kristen, Oh,

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Speaker 1: this is the best journal title ever. I think we're

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Speaker 1: going to try and use this journal in every podcast

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Speaker 1: from now on somehow. The International Journal from my Motorcycle Studies, Yes, people,

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Speaker 1: it exists, is the source for this um. And the

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Speaker 1: title of the article that we're going to go through,

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Speaker 1: just kind of briefly is first wave feminist Struggles in

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Speaker 1: Black Motorcycle Clubs. And she goes through a few of

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Speaker 1: the books have been written about female motorcyclists because as

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Speaker 1: Harley has appealed to them more, they have become a

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Speaker 1: more prominent thing. There are a few history books about

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Speaker 1: women in motorcycles that will go over the stories of

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Speaker 1: women like hotch Kiss and Stringfield. UM. But you know,

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Speaker 1: Connor makes the point that all of the motorcyclists that

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Speaker 1: you see about in these books are white. It's a

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Speaker 1: very white hobby that a very hobbyist associated with white people.

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Speaker 1: And she is a member of a black motorcycle club

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Speaker 1: in Chicago. So she's just drawing from her own experience

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Speaker 1: um modern day as a black woman in its motorcycle club.

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Speaker 1: And so even within the motorcycle community and these outlaw clubs,

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Speaker 1: there's a race divide. There's these white motorcyclists, there's these

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Speaker 1: black motorcyclists. You know, there were no black men trying

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Speaker 1: to get into the Hell's Angels. Yeah, and we should

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Speaker 1: say too that when we're talking about outlaw clubs like

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Speaker 1: the Hell's Angels and this club that the study author

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Speaker 1: as a part of, and outlaw means that they have

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Speaker 1: no affiliation with the American Motorcyclists Association. So these are

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Speaker 1: more of the renegade groups, not the people who are

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Speaker 1: going to the Harley Davidson garage parties and learning how

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Speaker 1: to pick up their bikes. Let me, oh, yeah, this

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Speaker 1: is you know, she writes, the outlaw clubs claim the

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Speaker 1: outlaw are one percent er image, which is based on

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Speaker 1: a claim mistakenly attributed to the a m A that

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Speaker 1: of all motorcyclists are good, decent, law buying citizens. It

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Speaker 1: is remaining one percent the outlaws that are responsible for

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Speaker 1: the motorcycles sinister image. I quote from our paper, so

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Speaker 1: and she and even in this paper she was saying

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Speaker 1: that she can't reveal any any identities because it's sort

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Speaker 1: of like these these secret groups motorcycle game. And she

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Speaker 1: writes about, you know, women were really active in these

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Speaker 1: earliers and motorcycling World War two. Motormates was this motorcycling

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Speaker 1: organization that wanted to get women involved in the nineteen forties.

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Speaker 1: And so she traces how that divide happened. But within

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Speaker 1: like let's take out just the race divide, and within

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Speaker 1: these black clubs she has experience with because they formed

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Speaker 1: their own not being able to get into Hell's Angels,

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Speaker 1: she says, the women, you know, we're sort of subjected

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Speaker 1: to a reversal of all the feminism first wife feminism

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Speaker 1: work to achieve. And they kind of have to go

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Speaker 1: in knowing this, knowing that they're either going to be

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Speaker 1: property of the club, is how she describes it. Like

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Speaker 1: you're basically saying in the back, the outlaws are in

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Speaker 1: charge of you. You you're I guess a groupie would

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Speaker 1: be the way to Yeah, I mean if you kind

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Speaker 1: of you kind of know your place. Like. She recounts

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Speaker 1: one woman's experience in the club where they were about

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Speaker 1: to go to a club dance, I believe, and this

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Speaker 1: guy comes up to her and says, hey, babe, ride

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Speaker 1: with me, and she doesn't want to ride with him

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Speaker 1: because he's acting kind of sketchy, and so she indicates

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Speaker 1: to him that she is property essentially of the club's president,

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Speaker 1: and so he leaves her alone. Now there are women

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Speaker 1: who become what she calls associate members, and this is

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Speaker 1: instead of being like a full fledged rider of the group,

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Speaker 1: here's kind of they're like, maybe you ride your bike,

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Speaker 1: but they're not really gonna respect you because they're a woman.

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Speaker 1: And she was talking about going to a club meeting

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Speaker 1: where you know, someone who was her friend was saying,

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Speaker 1: don't talk. You know, they're not gonna listen if you talk.

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Speaker 1: Just if you want to say something, just tell me.

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Speaker 1: I'll say it. How these women are, if they're gonna

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Speaker 1: be riders, must be seen and not heard well. And

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Speaker 1: we should say to um when she's talking about these clubs.

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Speaker 1: Hell's Angels obviously the big, best known outlaw motorcycle group.

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Speaker 1: But then in nine nine we have the East Bay

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Speaker 1: Dragons m C, which is one of the oldest black

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Speaker 1: motorcycle clubs that was modeled after the Hell's Angels, and

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Speaker 1: they just flat out for him to women from becoming members.

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Speaker 1: So really their only option was to get in through

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Speaker 1: this kind of I guess sex objects sort of way

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Speaker 1: of being serving more as property and accessories to these

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Speaker 1: men and their bikes. And I think that's sort of

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Speaker 1: the larger argument that's being made in this paper is

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Speaker 1: that I think when you see how Harley markets motorcycles

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Speaker 1: to white women, but it's all about freedom and you know,

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Speaker 1: you and the open road and the wind in your hair,

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Speaker 1: and you don't need, you know, to ride behind the man.

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Speaker 1: You're you're writing for yourself, whereas in this outlaw community,

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Speaker 1: in the black outlaw community, women are not treated like

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Speaker 1: that at all. It's nothing about freedom, and the open

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Speaker 1: road is more about you're gonna be property, You're gonna

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Speaker 1: be seen and not heard, and how it just really

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Speaker 1: is um an interesting you know, race divide that's happening

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Speaker 1: within the motorcycle community. But at the same time, I

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Speaker 1: would say that you'll find the same kind of gender

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Speaker 1: dynamic in white outlaw communities like Hell's Angels as well.

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Speaker 1: There was an article or a study I should say,

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Speaker 1: in the Journal of can Temporary Ethnography that I couldn't

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Speaker 1: find the entire uh study, but still the abstract pointed

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Speaker 1: out that biker women are a lot like street gang

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Speaker 1: girls in terms of their relationship to the men in

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Speaker 1: the groups, because a lot of times in these earlier gangs,

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Speaker 1: like in the early days of Hell's Angels, women were

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Speaker 1: quote simply partners and parties and hedonistic sexuality, whereas today

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Speaker 1: it seems like their role has evolved somewhat in these

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Speaker 1: outlaw gangs, at least according to this ethnography study, to

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Speaker 1: where while they still have more of a submissive role

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Speaker 1: in the group, they are expected to participate more in

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Speaker 1: the economic pursuits of going out and making money for

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Speaker 1: the group or carrying out what whatever kind of crazy

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Speaker 1: motorcycle gang shenanigans are going to pull off. And you know,

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Speaker 1: since outlog mes are you know, I think a small

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Speaker 1: part of this, I guess let's pull back out and

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Speaker 1: look more at um the bigger picture. Yes, because we

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Speaker 1: promised we talked about married women and why that's important.

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Speaker 1: And you know, one but one last thing on outlock

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Speaker 1: News I do think that one way that um motorcycle

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Speaker 1: companies are effective at selling motorcyclest women is to emphasize

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Speaker 1: for the social aspect. Yes, like you all go riding

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Speaker 1: together with your friends. Um, they were we were reading

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Speaker 1: something about how, um, there's this one motorcycle group that

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Speaker 1: their symbol is a quilting square and instead of like

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Speaker 1: riding to bars or wherever men go and they ride motorcycles,

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Speaker 1: they ride to like craft stores and UH have t

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Speaker 1: like it sounds I'd really like to be in that

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Speaker 1: motorcycle group. But UM, I do think that social aspect

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Speaker 1: has been really successfully employed in terms of getting women

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Speaker 1: to um, to get into this. And that's one of

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Speaker 1: the reasons that researcher named Carol J. Aust investigated when

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Speaker 1: she wrote a paper called Transcending Potential, Anti State and

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Speaker 1: Leisure Constraints, which is very I have to say, Carol J. Auster,

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Speaker 1: a very dull title for what your study was actually about,

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Speaker 1: which is why women overcome all these you know, gender

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Speaker 1: stereotypes about mass about motorcycles being so masculine to actually

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Speaker 1: write them there's themselves And so she uh pulled a

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Speaker 1: lot of four hundred fifty three women members of the

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Speaker 1: American Motorcycle Association as to why they started writing, and

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Speaker 1: freedom and independence was the number one reason. Outdoors, fresh

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Speaker 1: air and nature was number two. Fun and pleasure was

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Speaker 1: number three. So those are some reasons why women are

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Speaker 1: starting to ride motorcycles. But she wanted to know if

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Speaker 1: the reason these women started specifically was because they were

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Speaker 1: exposed to them in other realms of their life, because,

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Speaker 1: as you point out, Kristen, people adopt motorcycle riding pretty late.

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Speaker 1: Forty two was the median age. Yeah, a lot of

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Speaker 1: the women start writing later in life, and as the

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Speaker 1: dull titled survey found, a lot of the women were

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Speaker 1: first exposed to motorcycles through their husband's right. Nine of

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Speaker 1: the people in this survey had been a passenger on

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Speaker 1: a motorcycle before becoming an operator of a motorcycle, which

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Speaker 1: I don't I bet that's not true for me and

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Speaker 1: I met men sort of just go straight into driving it. Um.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, these women by and large have been exposed

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Speaker 1: by either a husband, a brother, or a father to

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Speaker 1: ride motorcycles and has been being the most significant category.

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Speaker 1: So it's you know, you get married and do something together.

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Speaker 1: But if Harley could have its druthers these days, it

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Speaker 1: wouldn't want that to be the case. They want women

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Speaker 1: to start writing of their own accord because they, you know,

402
00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:32,800
Speaker 1: they've created this super low bike. They're obviously trying trying,

403
00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:35,160
Speaker 1: trying to get our attention, to get us on bikes

404
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Speaker 1: and forget the men. They can have these garage parties

405
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Speaker 1: where it's women's only, you know, it's like the you know,

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Speaker 1: today's like Tupperware party or something. Well, another thing that

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Speaker 1: I really like about motorcycle riders in general, it's just

408
00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:49,119
Speaker 1: how much charity work they do. You're always seeing motorcycle

409
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Speaker 1: rides for something or other, and I think that's another

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Speaker 1: way that women can kind of get together and get

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Speaker 1: comfortable writing with each other. Well, you know what I've

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Speaker 1: been hearing throughout this podcast is I think there's I

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Speaker 1: think there's a little, uh, a little inner biker in you,

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Speaker 1: a little inner biker in me, And I would like,

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Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm the one who wants to ride

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Speaker 1: in the sidecar. Sorry, I start as passengers before they

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Speaker 1: get as operators. Christen, Well, if you trust me enough

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Speaker 1: to ride the bike, Milline, that's that means a lot

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Speaker 1: that I do trust you. Christen, Well, you know what, Mollly,

420
00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:22,320
Speaker 1: I think that we need to go get back to

421
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Speaker 1: planning our cross country motorcycle road trip. He can't wait.

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Speaker 1: So let's wrap things up and hey, ride us in

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Speaker 1: women on bikes. We want to hear from you. And

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Speaker 1: you know it's probably been clear throughout this podcast, Christen,

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Speaker 1: I are not motorcycle experts in terms of riding them. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I've got I haven't felt the one through my hair.

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00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:43,119
Speaker 1: I've got an awesome eight speed Schwin. It's great. But

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00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:45,520
Speaker 1: so let us know what we missed. What you think

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00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:48,639
Speaker 1: about when you're riding your bike? Do you face gender stereotypes?

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00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:51,200
Speaker 1: Are people surprised to see you on your bike? What's

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00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:53,800
Speaker 1: the deal? What's the deal? May I close with one

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00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:58,320
Speaker 1: less anecdote? Of course, best first date move guy ever pulled?

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00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:00,960
Speaker 1: Took me on spike. Oh I don't. I don't know

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00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:02,560
Speaker 1: if I could trust it on the first date to

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00:23:02,560 --> 00:23:04,239
Speaker 1: take me on his bike. You know I was. I

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00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:06,440
Speaker 1: was pretty scared. But guys out there, I'm just saying,

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00:23:06,440 --> 00:23:09,000
Speaker 1: if you had a bike it, uh, you can pull

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00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:11,160
Speaker 1: some charm points with that. Oh my no, not with

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00:23:11,200 --> 00:23:13,879
Speaker 1: this girl. I need to make sure you're very trustworthy

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00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:16,280
Speaker 1: responsible for I'm getting on a bike with you, and

441
00:23:16,320 --> 00:23:18,760
Speaker 1: always wear your helmet. Absolutely, always wear your helmet, because

442
00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:22,720
Speaker 1: that was one last, one, last tidbit of all of

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00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:28,040
Speaker 1: the traffic accident statistics involving motorcycles. Like of them, it's

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00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:30,040
Speaker 1: all men be careful out their men on your bikes.

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00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:33,600
Speaker 1: Women far more cautious on their motorcycles. Right, So where

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00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:40,560
Speaker 1: your helmet? And now for listener mail. I have one

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00:23:40,600 --> 00:23:45,040
Speaker 1: here from Caitlin and she writes in about a story

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00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:47,760
Speaker 1: in current events that she thought we might be interested in.

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00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:50,240
Speaker 1: She writes, the National Women's History Museum was founded over

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00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:52,560
Speaker 1: a decade ago and has since been fighting Congress to

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00:23:52,600 --> 00:23:55,520
Speaker 1: purchase land on the National Mall. Apparently, this past year,

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00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:57,399
Speaker 1: the proposed built to purchase land from the government was

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00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:00,280
Speaker 1: passed in both the Senate and House of Representatives. However,

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00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:03,200
Speaker 1: two Senators, Jim DeMint and Tom Cobram from South Carolina

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00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:05,679
Speaker 1: and Oklahoma respectively, put a hold on the bill. I

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00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:08,640
Speaker 1: from South Carolina, so I find this especially tragic. Apparently

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00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:10,920
Speaker 1: the concerned with him for America were concerned about how

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00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:13,159
Speaker 1: pro abortion rights would play into museum and ask the

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00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:15,560
Speaker 1: senators to put the hold on the bill. Also, the

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00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:17,639
Speaker 1: Senators have put out a statement claiming that a National

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00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:20,320
Speaker 1: Women's History Museum would replicate a number of women's history

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00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:23,320
Speaker 1: museums all over the country, like a Lilac garden, a

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00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:27,160
Speaker 1: cowgirl museum, and a quilt museum. She writes, seriously, it's

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00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:29,760
Speaker 1: clear how much a priority American women's history is to

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00:24:29,800 --> 00:24:33,359
Speaker 1: this country, don't you think so? It seems. She writes

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00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:35,639
Speaker 1: that the bill will have to be reproposed with the

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00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:38,359
Speaker 1: new Congress after the midterm elections, which is just sad.

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00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:41,280
Speaker 1: So if you guys want to track the story, I

469
00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:43,560
Speaker 1: think it's pretty interesting. Write your congress person if you

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00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:45,359
Speaker 1: feel pretty strongly about it. I'd go to a women's

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00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:48,320
Speaker 1: history museum on the mall absolutely, So thank you Caitlin

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00:24:48,359 --> 00:24:50,200
Speaker 1: for leting us know about that. And if you want

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00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:53,399
Speaker 1: to write in about motorcycles, current events, or anything else,

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00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:55,919
Speaker 1: you have a lot of options. You can write us

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00:24:55,920 --> 00:24:58,160
Speaker 1: at mom stuff at house stuffworks dot com. You can

476
00:24:58,160 --> 00:25:01,560
Speaker 1: write on our Facebook wall and start discussions there. You

477
00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:05,080
Speaker 1: can drop this a line on Twitter our handle his

478
00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:08,240
Speaker 1: mom stuff podcasts, and you can visit our blog which

479
00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:13,199
Speaker 1: is at how stuff works dot com for more on

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00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:15,760
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff

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00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:20,080
Speaker 1: works dot Com. Want more how stuff works, check out

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00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:22,320
Speaker 1: our blogs on the house. Stuff works dot Com home

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00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:30,000
Speaker 1: page brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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