Women and bicycle face

[ArabellaScott]

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/history-did-you-know/moral-and-medical-panic-over-bicycles

'Bicycling was claimed to disgrace a woman’s walk, turning it into “a plunging kind of motion.” Riding a bicycle was thought to alter one’s body right down to the skeleton, with conditions such as “bicycle foot” and “bicycle hand” being deplored.
'Even your face was not immune to the transformative power of riding the steed of steel: the combination of fierce winds and facial strain was thought to permanently result in “bicycle face!” And all of this exertion was bound to turn a delicate woman’s body into something much too masculine for the times'

May I be the first to claim the phrase: 'resting bicycle face'.

'Riding a bicycle was thought to alter one’s body right down to the skeleton'
Ha, sure that's nawthin. Didn't Flann O'Brien inform us (in The Third Policeman if I remember rightly) about the actual exchange of molecules between rider and bicycle, such that the local postman was in fact half man, half bicycle?

I love The Third Policeman and that bit is brilliant!

There’s always been moral / medical panic about women doing anything new or beyond their prescribed remit. And also about new inventions more generally. Some people in the 1800s thought going in a train and moving at 30mph might destroy the body or make you ill. There’s also the whole side saddle thing with horse riding because you would want women to sit astride, so maybe the bicycle panic related to that.

What you looking at, bicycle face!