Halfords and every day sexism

[Baxer]

A poster started a thread about this on another section but I think it warrants a mention on here.

This might be a small issue when it comes to the huge battles women face at the moment, but for me these small instances of everyday sexism are a huge problem when you add them all together.

Halfords have decide to call two of their women’s bikes ‘Entice’ and ‘Virtue’. [name edited by MNHQ at OP's request] As the poster pointed out on her thread, it feeds into the misogynistic attitude that women are either enticing or pure.

On the other thread a large number of people couldn’t understand why it was a big deal, but for me these small acts of every day sexism are a big problem when you add them all up and whilst I can see through them, I worry about my daughters and other young women being exposed to these attitudes.

I have tweeted Halfords, but I suspect they will just ignore me like other companies do when I point these issues out.

Unlike racism, sexism doesn't have enough people affected giving a shit. Fuck em. Who cares.

@FunnyInjury

Halfords have form for this shit.

Good lord those helmets WTF?! That must be a parody surely?!

Presumably they’d already used up ‘Virgin’ and ‘Whore’ as names for their previous bike models..

@Longdistance

Are the Apollo bikes actually made by Halfords?

Apollo bikes are made in China. They have a reputation for giving silly names to all sorts of products. Thinking up English names that don't really work.

I would be tempted to buy a bike called 'whore'.

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.

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

@ChattyLion

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

I'm sure this bike would sell out. 🤭

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.

@PlanDeRaccordement

Message? What message? The OP has cherry picked the names of two bicycles in one shop. It her cherry picking Entice and Virtue from amongst all the other bikes that gives the impression of a message. These are both hybrid bikes, Halfords has many hybrid women’s bikes on sale named: Excelle Somerby Crossfire Parva Evo-2 Carrera Assist URB Metis Transport Theia Crossfire 2 Detour MTX Cafe Dalby Boardman Crossfuse Crossbar Vitesse Tuck Felix Subway Virtue Expression Voodoo Marasa Elyse Cosmo Ashwell B75 Riviera Modena Venture Sport City HYB Centros Tempest Strada Aurora Intercity Transit Entice

So honestly you have to be looking very hard to get a message that women are being forced to choose a bike that brands them as a whore or a Madonna from that list. The names are silly, but it’s not everyday sexism. You don’t like the name, you have dozens of other bikes to choose from and this is just the list of “women’s” bikes. I didn’t even list the unisex ones.

I think you underestimate just how determined some people are to make a fuss about how outraged they are.

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

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...).

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?

*what a woman is, not IDs!

I do think the helmet descriptions are appalling, yes.

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."

This board is redundant, as is 'feminism'.

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.

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

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

@lazylinguist

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 read the post by someone on here. There's nothing like that on Halford's website. It doesn't even use the words boys and girls.

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/

@AKissAndASmile

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

Which feminism board are you on?

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.

@Ihopeyourcakeisshit

Is it perhaps about enticing women into cycling? Making it more alluring? After all cycling is very much a male dominated sport/hobby?

No, it’s not

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.

@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.