To be angry about the names of these bikes in Halfords?

[CalmConfident]

In Halfords this week getting essential car stuff...and had a look at the bikes. I was a bit taken aback to see these ladies bike names from the Apollo brand. Entice & Virtue. There was also Jewel.

AIBU ? If so, any suggestions who to shout to about it

The male equivalents were slant, phase and evade.

Pretty sure these were the names of the gladiators.
It’s pretty lazy marketing and nauseatingly sexiest tropes.

@OwlInAnOakTree

Blimey...all these women happy to not only accept sexist stereotyping, but also berate another woman for calling it out...

It's very shortsighted.

@CalmConfident

In Halfords this week getting essential car stuff...and had a look at the bikes. I was a bit taken aback to see these ladies bike names from the Apollo brand. Entice & Virtue. There was also Jewel.

AIBU ? If so, any suggestions who to shout to about it

The male equivalents were slant, phase and evade.

If this makes you angry you need to give your head a wobble, they are not offensive, I think your need to have a think about your life choices if the name of a bike in a store makes you angry.

@Imissmoominmama

My bike is called Jake the Snake. That’s honestly it’s real name; it’s printed on the crossbar. Jake is a brilliant bike.

Those names in Halfords are shit.

Jake the snakes are brilliant bikes! I have always waned one just for the name (and because had fantasies about doing a cyclocross season...)

On the other hand, the names of the Halford's bikes are pathetic, and I agree entirely with @FoxyTheFox's post about everyday sexism.

My bikes are called Silque, Transmitter and Search, but only one of them was made specifically for women.

Does anyone else have the immediate reaction to make them really really offensive?
Minge mover.... labia luge...
only me?

Meanwhile in the real world.....

@Newkitchen123

Meanwhile in the real world.....

Oh. Was OP's Halfords in a fantasy world? I thought it was real. What a fool I am.

Vagina can.

Oh dear Lord, we are offended by bike names now.

The world has gone crazy. Get a cup of tea and a biscuit and calm yourself down OP.

Van* can seems ruder?

@FrostyChocolateMilkshake

Oh dear Lord, we are offended by bike names now.

The world has gone crazy. Get a cup of tea and a biscuit and calm yourself down OP.

Do you think it's ok for boys clothes to have motorbikes and superheroes all over them, and girls clothes to have flowers and princesses? This is the same thing. Perhaps you can't see it because it's subtly different?

If you were buying bikes from Halfords, the names would be the least of your problems

@Wimpeyspread

If you were buying bikes from Halfords, the names would be the least of your problems

That's a very good point.

I think they should have names like Geoff, Michelle, Mitch, Jenny, Nige...

Or be named purely by perceived need and speed: pootle, zoom, trek, solid...

No1 why get a bike from Halfords when they can't even wire the brakes up properly and give you an unsafe bike to ride ( stung twice!)

No2 bike names aren't something to get hung up about. Boats are named after women ( sometimes racy names) and you're not going to be calling the bike by that name.

Its the name of the bike not the rider

Why would you get annoyed about this but not about the names of perfumes, which are generally much worse?

Halfords is crap for bikes anyway. Take your custom elsewhere

It's hardly the same as a female named boat - named by a man after a woman.
Why is getting a halfords bike such a bad idea? My dc has a bike from there as we could not have afforded one from the independent bike shops in our city. Bike snobbery.

The only one I would possibly have a problem with is 'entice'. A jewel is a jewel, nothing to do with sex. Virtue is defined as 'behaviour showing high moral standards', again not necessarily associated with sex. Not associated with cycling either, though.

@AccidentallyOnPurpose

Every day sexism is a thing for a reason.

I get why you're angry. It's stupid bullshit born out of female stereotypes and prejudice against them.

Yep. Everyday sexism. It might not seem important, but there might be times in your life where you are discriminated against because of your sex, and us challenging the small stuff like sexist brands makes that less likely and less acceptable.

I’m officially gobsmacked at how many posters minimise everyday sexism. You don’t have to be ‘fuming’ ‘outraged’ or ‘offended’ to want to see progress in the world for stuff as simple as bike names?

I don’t see this same level of nonchalance with everyday racism, homophobia or other battles for recognition and equality?

Why is it so ok to shrug off one, but not the others? How long would those bikes be on display if they had the names of negative stereotypes for races or homophobic words?

Do you all really think patriarchal stereotyping isn’t ‘that’ serious, or ‘that’ damaging to girls? A quick doom-scroll through the Relationships thread says different.

I don’t see this same level of nonchalance with everyday racism, homophobia or other battles for recognition and equality?

Oh but I do. Many people outraged at everyday sexism will be the same people who call others woke/ professionally offended/virtue signallers, etc for being outraged at everyday racism, homophobia, etc. It's people caring more about what affects them.

@FoxyTheFox and @JazzyGeoff yes, exactly. Well said.
I'm actually surprised that there are women in the 21st century who don't care about the pervasiveness of nasty and damaging gender stereotypes like this. Of course there are more important things - you could argue that about almost anything except the greatest atrocities in the world. @EveryDayIsADuvetDay, I'm pretty sure that @CalmConfident isn't saying it's her biggest problem or that her life is otherwise stress free. Whilst it's not the biggest issue in the world, it is the thin end of the wedge of misogyny and gender stereotyping that has some of the real nastiness and violence perpetrated against women at the other.
Just read the OP out to my DH who said "Entice, what the f*ck?!? That's
outrageous! And it's particularly sad seeing as bicycles, from their earliest days, have represented liberation for women."
I agree with him.

I was imagining entice to be a sexy racer, and virtue to be an old granny shopper, so I was disappointed when I saw the photos.