Halfords and every day sexism

The "other examples" appear to have been stored by a poster from goodness only knows when to trot out as another outraged example. Halfords' current website so far as children’s cycles and helmets scrupulously avoids designating items for boys or girls. The "other examples" are fictitious.

Yes, it did cross my mind that those examples were possibly doctored images.
However, dh and I were recently directed by my sil to buy a 'more girlie' version of a traditionally unisex plaything for our little niece, so I'm feeling slightly jaded by all this at the moment!

I'm wondering what 'Entice' and 'Virtue' have to do with cycling unless it's things like 'I will entice you up that f%cking huge hill, or 'I wish I had virtual legs to get up that f%ing huge hill'

The other examples from Halfords are just awful. Honestly, we sneer at 1950s stereotypes but I think the 2010s have been far worse in many ways

The "other examples" appear to have been stored by a poster from goodness only knows when to trot out as another outraged example. Halfords' current website so far as children’s cycles and helmets scrupulously avoids designating items for boys or girls. The "other examples" are fictitious.

So far as adult bikes there are several names which are applied to men's and women's bikes (Phaze, Hellcat, Carerra are just some of the ones I remember)

The OP has cherry picked 2 names out of a long list and decided to attribute the worst possible meaning.

As for Halfords staff, they did my MOT this year for the first time after my usual big name dealer couldn't fit me in. I was pleased that unlike the big name dealer they didn't offer a pile of expensive and unnecessary additions but stuck to exactly what they quoted.

(just to be clear, I am far from girlhood now!)

@lazylinguist I suppose I have tended to bristle at the implication that

1. as a woman, I should call myself a feminist, otherwise it must mean I don't think I'm equal to men and am therefore stupid, oh but also
2. as a feminist, in addition to believing myself equal to men, I should also agree with the following stances on x, y, z, a, b and c, otherwise I'm not a feminist and must not want equal rights.

And really, for a girl and young woman growing up, you're influenced by what you're exposed to. If the visible arguments and campaigns calling themselves feminist are about things like the names of bikes and vague notions of "the patriarchy", that's going to colour your impression of feminism. I suppose it depends whether these things lack context or not in one's own life. Anyway, I don't want to derail and go on about my girlhood and wavering feminist journey - clearly the bike name thing does resonate with some of you, and I did say I realise it is not the top of anyone's priorities.

I thought this thread would be about the sexist staff in halfords, who often ignore me or talk to my male partner when I'm enquiring after something I need to buy. Across multiple branches. Bike names pale in comparison really.

Feminism Chat is more active than most of the boards on Mumsnet.

As for the names of the bikes, I have mixed feelings. I can see why if you had only two bikes aimed at women that were named Entice and Virtue it might be a problem. In this particular case it looks as though these are two names among many. I don't automatically associate virtue with female virginity - in this context I would think of being virtuous by exercising. I would probably associate 'entice' with being enticed out to exercise on a bike. However, I'm interested in other people's opinions on this.

The other examples from Halfords are just awful. Honestly, we sneer at 1950s stereotypes but I think the 2010s have been far worse in many ways.

MissBarbary

To be fair that is about the only possible way I'd be induced into buying a bicycle.

How about this one?

www.selfridges.com/GB/en/cat/smartech/

Indeed the website I was looking at doesn't distinguish girls' bicycles and boys' bicycles- it's "kids' cycles.

The descriptions of the children’s helmets scrupulously describe all of them as for "kids"

I don't know how old those kids helmet pics are, but there's nothing like that on the website now. There are flowery pink helmets; and Police and Fire chief helmets - they are all described as 'kids'.

The names are a bit crap, but probably nobody at Halfords has even noticed. If you write to them there's a good chance they'd change them.

This board is redundant, as is 'feminism'.

I can say this is the kind of thing that has historically turned me off feminism

Feminism means wanting equality for women. That's all. Being 'turned off' wanting equality for women because some feminists care about aspects you don't find important sounds like cutting off your nose to spite your face tbh. It's quite possible to care about the big issues and the small ones. I very much doubt that any feminists say "Oh I'm only cross about bike names and leg shaving. The sex pay gap and domestic violence are fine by me."

*what a woman is, not IDs!

I do think the helmet descriptions are appalling, yes.

Halfords wouldn't have an aisle of pink accessories for women if there weren't a significant number of women buying them.

And I suppose they'd turn their nose up at the same bike if it wasn't called 'allure' or whatever? There's nothing wrong with the colour pink (as long as there's achoice of suitable stuff for girls and women in other colours too).

Those who think it's a fuss about nothing - did you read the descriptions on the helmets page? I mean... surely you can see how shit that is?

I know it's not either/or, and nor am I the arbiter of what feminism should be, but given the long list of other Halfords bike names above, I can say this is the kind of thing that has historically turned me off feminism and made it look like a bougeoise preoccupation with trivial and tenuous issues. Of course bike names are not at the top of anyone's priority list, but kneejerk outrages like this can obscure the important bread-and-butter stuff that materially affects women and is still not well known by many women (recent MN examples: cohabitation rights or lack of, the very definition of what a woman IDs in law...).

Who gives a fuck about this?
This is why the 'feminism' board is so quiet.

This sort of stuff is annoying, but it's always worth remembering that companies - certainly successful companies - respond to demand. Halfords wouldn't have an aisle of pink accessories for women if there weren't a significant number of women buying them.

I doubt if there's a patriarchy committee at Halfords trying to maintain male supremacy by giving names such as 'virtue' to bikes aimed at girls, but they will know which models sell well and will order more of them. Nobody at Halfords would care in the slightest if the top selling bike for girls was called 'Apollo Pretty' or 'Apollo Suffragette', all they care about is if it sells.

‘The Town Bike’ is possibly still in stock online..

Taken alongside entice, virtue has one connotation, but are they supposed to be a matched pair? Virtue to me implies more being virtuous for exercising. And entice could also be seen as trying to persuade you to go out. Sounds more like a car name to me.

But not denying this kind of nonsense goes on all the time.