Singletrack Decide Not To Cover the Danny MacAskill Playboy Video

My gast is truly flabbered by that statement. I would say more but simply cannot come up with the words.

pick 5 girls in your office and show them the video… ask them if they fancy doing it

unklehomered – Member
Would this thread be as long if the statement had said.

“We’re not covering the new Danny M vid cos it’s a bit shit and quite tacky”?

Well they could of course have just said nothing and ignored it, but then that wouldn’t have whipped their little group of Tree Hugging PC hand wringing twitterati into a frenzy of support and attracted a bit of attention to them for five minutes, meanwhile the real world read about it in other mags nodded smiled and moved on.

Can you even imagine the response to the question ‘Danny that lot at STW aren’t happy with your Playboy mansion vid.”

Pick one.

a) Who?

b) Those knob ends?

c) Oh dear I’m really sorry I upset them.

99 percent of this thread is inconsequential so I thought I’d add to it.
With the hope that this bloody thread might come to an end

posting to it keeping it at the top of the forum, yep that’ll do it

pick 5 girls in your office and show them the video… ask them if they fancy doing it

Then after that, ask them about Danny’s vid.

If you want to see the same thing in reverse then just think of netball. A sport that many men would probably enjoy but they never take part in because it is seen as a girl’s sport.

I bloody loved netball at school, was on the basketball team so we all took it when it was a choice between that and football as it was more relevant and we didn’t have to get cold and muddy.

The basketball team always beat the netball team in our end of year matches too.

Most women I know think that mountain biking is too much effort, too dirty, too dangerous etc. to want to have a go. They just aren’t into it and don’t want to do it. Same way I don’t want to go and play netball. Not because it’s a predominantly female sport; I just have no interest in it (plus, I’m a short arse).
Not sure that a video with some girls in bikini’s will sway them one way or another…..
You get this with engineering all the time. Debates in the IMechE magazine ‘Professional Engineer’ about ‘encouraging more women into engineering’. How can we get the percentage of women taking the profession up to increase? It’s the perception of it being a mans job etc……when in reality, perahps most women just aren’t interested in it and don’t want to follow it as a career? The few women engineers I have encountered while in the profession have been extremely good at it, but most women I know glaze over at the mention of anything remotely ‘engineering’.

The video was a bit ‘hmmmm’ for me. Wasn’t bothered either way about the location or the girls, but it didn’t have the wow factor of his previous videos.

My dislike for this kind of ‘women as objects’ stuff is most noticeably in the Formula 1 races where the winners get greeted by rows of clapping dolly birds. Seems massively outdated, unnecessary and vulgar to me. I wonder if Susie Wolff ever gets a proper drive and wins, would the women be replaced by clapping blokes?
Same goes for the women kissing the Tour de France stage winners. Seems a bit lame.
Also, there have been loads of comments along the lines of ‘if you had kids, would you want your daughter to aspire to this’. I think music videos have a lot to answer for in that regard. Some of them are pretty much bordering on soft porn. my Niece posted a song on FB the other day called ‘bum bum’ with (I think) Pit Bull and Sean Paul in it. They were basically swanning around on speed boats while girls wearing cut down jeans shook their butts right into the camera. The song was absolute rubbish and the video was even worse. Just awful…..
I think celebrity culture & modern music culture have a lot more to answer to than Danny McAskill…..(although I suppose he’s more relevant to a cycling website)…

Redbull use female riders too to level the balance

pick 5 girls in your office and show them the video… ask them if they fancy doing it

Only adults in my office – I could ask some women perhaps?

I think there’s a big difference between seeing something and not wanting to do it and seeing something and being terrified by it.

I reckon if I showed the video to five people in my office, of any gender, there’s a good chance that none of them would want to do it. There’s also a good chance that none of them would be terrified by it.

There’s as good a chance if I showed five people (of any gender) in my office a video of me riding my mountain bike as I usually do (mincing, slowly), they would also likely not want to do it, and would also likely not be terrified by it.

Perhaps you could expand on what any of that would prove, other than that the majority of people don’t want to ride mountain bikes?

Most women people I know think that mountain biking is too much effort, too dirty, too dangerous etc. to want to have a go

ftfy….

irelanst – Member

My point is that the apparent majority of people criticising the video are doing so because they perceive sexism within the MTB community is … etc

if anything, i would suggest that the world of mtb is (relatively) refreshingly free from sexism; elite female riders, dh and xc, getting roughly equal respect, coverage, airtime, etc. as their male counterparts.

it’s ace, and long may it continue.

i might even suggest that the reason why this video has kicked off so much hoo-ha is because it’s so obviously out of place.

this video is one small piece of grit in an otherwise comfy pair of shoes.

Double doh! to you!

I meant… oh, never mind. Pages have passed! Fascinating pages.

edlong – Member

ftfy….

Erm, no you didn’t. But thanks for trying…..

Well they could of course have just said nothing and ignored it, but then that wouldn’t have whipped their little group of Tree Hugging PC hand wringing twitterati into a frenzy of support and attracted a bit of attention to them for five minutes, meanwhile the real world read about it in other mags nodded smiled and moved on.

Seems to me like the only people getting in a ‘frenzy’ are those who are upset about STW posting a tweet.

most women I know glaze over at the mention of anything remotely ‘engineering’.

But why is that? Are you not willing to concede it’s fairly possible that society’s expectations might have something to do with that?

Only adults in my office – I could ask some women perhaps?

Someone’s got their serious hat on, today.

My point is that the apparent majority of people criticising the video are doing so because they perceive sexism within the MTB community is putting women off mountain biking. In my experience this is not the case and women chose other sports for a variety of other reasons.

Well, in my experience it is the case, so perhaps that tells us that the plural of anecdote is not data.

Regardless, if you’re saying that portraying women as fawning chattels has at best a neutral effect, then why do it?

grum – Member

But why is that? Are you not willing to concede it’s fairly possible that society’s expectations might have something to do with that?

It is possible, yes. I never said it wasn’t possible.
Just that in my experience, the majority of women just aren’t interested in it. My Wife is a qualified electronics engineer with many years experience, but when she was doing that as her career she had no interest in engineering stuff outside of her job. She wouldn’t read articles on engineering or take any interest in it at all. Her knowledge and interest was firmly based around ‘work’, rather than a general interest.

My sister used to moan when she started driving that she didn’t ‘understand gears’. I tried to explain it to her several times and within about 30seconds she’d just tell me to forget it, she’s not actually interested and doesn’t really care how they work, so long as they do. Nothing to do with societies expectations; much more to do with her not caring about how it works.

Although, to be honest, my brother is the same. Not technically minded in the slightest, couldn’t care less about ‘technology’ or ‘engineering’ and can barely wire a plug.
He had a TV cabinet with some fancy levers in it that opened the DVD shelves up when you opened the front (bit like a pantograph arrangement). It went out of alignment as one of the kids leant on it while he was trying to open it. Took me about 2 mins to twiddle the adjusters back into position. He hadn’t thought to have a look and fix it himself, to see how it worked and see if there was anything he could do. Never crossed his mind that it might be something he could try to fix.
He had Sky Broadband as part of his Sky TV package. He’d had it 18 months before one of our mutual friends went round to set it up for him. No interest in ‘technology’ at all….

But, I guess that is as a direct result of society’s expectations upon him?? Erm, oh. Wait a minute…..maybe it’s because he’s a ginger…?

I think there may be a point somewhere in there but I’m bejiggered if I can figure out what it is.

It’s definitely because he’s ginger ,

The one on closest too us will be up all night, it’s clearly not tired.

But, I guess that is as a direct result of society’s expectations upon him?? Erm, oh.

Sorry but as a counter-example that’s like saying you know a white guy who has a black guy as his boss so racism doesn’t really exist.

Just because you know some men that aren’t particularly interested in engineering doesn’t mean that the perception of it being a “man’s job” has no effect on how many women go into it.

I’m a father of two young girls so that’s the angle I’m coming from to all of this. My eldest is four now and I’ve done everything in my power to help her feel confident, capable and empowered.

But she still comes out with things like “Girls can’t be super-heroes”, “Girl’s can’t play football”, “Only boys can be firemen” etc etc – it is pervasive and it’s heartbreaking. 🙁

No such thing as superheroes .
Yes you can.
Yes you can.

How is that heartbreaking.
She can be what ever she wants to be .

She can be what ever she wants to be .

Not if she believes otherwise, which is kinda the point.

@GrahamS. I’m also the father of two young girls. My three-year old said to me the other day “that hill’s a bit tricky for little girls, but boys can climb it”. I don’t know where she’s getting that crap from, but it’s certainly not me.

No such thing as superheroes .

Not much consolation to a child going to a “Princesses and Super-heroes” fancy dress party.

(I sent her as She-Ra, best of both worlds!)

She can be what ever she wants to be.

And that’s what I tell her of course.

But I can’t really hope to compete with the overwhelming portrayal of girls and women in society and media that she and her peers are constantly exposed to.

(I sent her as She-Ra, best of both worlds!)

You could have sent her as Thor.

If his daughters think like that it’s because he’s a shit dad. Because he has not bought her up to believe She can be what ever she wants is his fault and no one else’s and definatly mine or Danny’s.

I think there may be a point somewhere in there but I’m bejiggered if I can figure out what it is.

Indeed. stumpy01 seems to be tying himself up in knots trying not to agree with the PC hand wringers. 🙂

If his daughters think like that it’s because he’s a shit dad.

Oh wow.

Chip earlier:

Laydeez version:

Men’s version:

If his daughters think like that it’s because he’s a shit dad.

No need for that.

It’s true you bring up your children how you see fit the best you can.
And at that age you are there biggest influence by far.

No need for that.

No such thing as superheroes

Dare to dream.

You are really close to falling foul of the rules there chip. Time you backed down.

Time you backed down.

…or @singletrackmag will tweet their disapproval, and we really don’t need another shitstorm like this one.

I’m amazed the thread hasn’t been taken out back and shot in the head yet.*

*The shooting can be done by either a man or a woman.

The shooting can be done by either a man or a woman.

How about a girl?

How about a girl?

Firearms should really be handled by an adult.

…and yes I see what you did etc etc

How about a girl?

Wish I had a handy photo of my girl firing a sniper rifle at the Sunderland Air Show the other week 😀

Seems a dangerous venue for such learning!

I love Playboy

Wish I had a handy photo of my girl firing a sniper rifle at the Sunderland Air Show the other week

Gosh, I know that some of the attendees make it a tempting option but it seems a bit much to go armed.

That was before she found the controls for the minigun on the helicopter:

😀