That Maxxis "babes calendar" article…

Lemony,

Surely that’s not just women though, think of Valentino Rossi for example, he’s the god of motorbike racing, but would easily argue he’s not the fastest racer.

In MTB Downhill, there’s splits between who’s the fastest compared to who’s the most exciting to watch.

etc etc.

The biggest exponent of this loved by the forum is Guy Martin… Argably not the fastest road racer, but commands 10X the appearance money of someone like Bruce Anstey (GM btw is the highest paid TT racer by a LOT), but Bruce beat him this year. Hutchinson for example is also a low pay bloke…

It’s marketing, it’s character, looks of course play a part, we are humans after all and we mate with people we find attractive to look at.

It’s a great shame that it’s seen as a valid form of promotion and from that point the article is fair enough. However given that you only need to have a quick glance in any number of shops selling calenders to see a fairly large number of similar products featuring both ladies and men so it does sell like it or not.

The article does suffer with singling out Maxxis though, let’s face it they aren’t alone in this (and the author is very sheltered if they think they are) so taking one particular company to task appears to be personal. Most other tyre manufacturers (certainly ones in motorsports) use grid girls or make calenders, and more revealing ones at that. Assos and Northwave haven’t been shy in using attractive women in little clothing before now either. Knog have managed to shoehorn it into advertising lights FFS.

Honestly I don’t know, it just feels a bit short sighted and lacking in depth, but hey I’m not being asked to write a blog about it.

I remember when this forum used to be fun with Kylie Fridays, that French newsreader and other amusing posts from some quality people many of whom i had the pleasure of meeting….now…. this place has changed!!

kcr – Member

1 its a bit OTT to suggest that it somehow makes her look bad to use maxxis tyres

She says she feels “stupid”, I assume because she’s riding around prominently displaying the logos of a company which she believes is displaying casual sexism and not taking her seriously as a person. Pretty straightforward. You may disagree with her analysis, but it doesn’t seem an OTT position. I wouldn’t walk around in a Daily Mail t-shirt, because I dislike what they stand for and it would make me feel stupid.

Thats because the primary thing the Daily Mail does is overtly sexist and low brow. The primary thing Maxxis do is sell tyres. Its OK to say the calendar is a bit cheap and crass but it is also OTT to say that it somehow translates across the whole brand and company as some sort of institutional misogyny. Shed be perfectly entitled to feel upset if the pictures were on the tyres, but they’re not.

2 if she is willing to take the position that by using a product she tacitly gives her approval to everything they do, then she’d better be very careful about a lot of other products

I can’t see any part of the article where she takes the position that she is giving tacit approval to everything a company does when she uses their product. In fact, I think the whole article is about explicit disapproval of something a company has done, isn’t it?
Why should she be careful about other companies? If she doesn’t like something another company does, she’s free to complain about it in the same way.

Thats the same thing written the other way around! And you make the same point I do – if she is going to be offended by this then she’d better not buy, for example continentals or michelins. I don’t know about the rest but I would imagine you could find something to be upset about if you look hard enough. And thats just tyres. Good luck coping with the rest of life.

Yes its a crass, cheap calendar. Don’t buy it then.

I remember when this forum used to be fun with Kylie Fridays

IIRC, ‘Friday Kylie’ got vitoed because given an inch people repeatedly took a mile.

you mean some of us are no longer teenage lads looking for one for the **** bank?

On the bright side, who’d ever heard of this Adele before now?

TBH, when I first heard about this I was thinking “she rides mountain bikes too? No bad for a big lass.”

Here she is gushing over Lisa Snowdon

An image even Maxxis would draw a line at.

binners – Member

I’m out….

POSTED 14 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

Who is Adele Mitchell?

Can we still be doing this when google is just a mouse click away?

Lemony – have you ever climbed abroad?
Where your in 30+ degrees?
Little or no shade?
No one cares about a sketchy top out or otherwise – its too fricking hot.

As for the BB’s – it has/did change.
They made a point of yes – being on show but also climbing the routes they would climb normally, not poncing about on crap.

Stone Nudes is another – don’t even think about trying to make out they are just pretty little girls on baby routes.
The likes of Lyn Hill and others have all posed for it over the years and always on very technical grades where they’ve needed spotters and sometimes medics whilst capturing the images.

Anyway – HUUUUUGE digress!
The woman in the original article got massive butthurt because a few girls doing something for a good cause were semi-clothed.
Guess she’d better not go anywhere warm on holiday next year…..

hats the same thing written the other way around! And you make the same point I do – if she is going to be offended by this then she’d better not buy, for example continentals or michelins. I don’t know about the rest but I would imagine you could find something to be upset about if you look hard enough. And thats just tyres. Good luck coping with the rest of life.

It’s funny because you’re clearly pretty ‘upset’ and ‘offended’ about the article she wrote. Good luck coping with the rest of life.

Oi, boys.

The problem with sexism is that it happens in our heads too. So when you see stuff like that you think ‘I should be like that too’. Unconsciously.

Consciously, of course, I am very well educated woman able to discern between reality and fairy tale and images of women all draped over stuff in their knickers instead of being shithot riders, drivers etc really annoy me.

But I know that I’m affected by social stereotyping just in my own riding. I’m pretty fast on a bike, but I feel guilty and bad and that I shouldn’t be better than my OH (who’s a boy, just in case you were wondering) in a secret corner of my head. That’s how internalised sexism becomes. Obviously I fight it with my conscious brain…

So yes, Maxxis, get with the current century. Boring, tired and not good for the next generation of kickarse mountain biking grrlz.

http://adelemitchell.com/2015/03/24/review-urbanist-bettie-cycling-pants/%5B/url%5D

Possible not safe for work

So the lady promoting the wearing of a cycling specific g-string (in another post) who posts about “sexy” cycling pants on her own site (and promotes them) moans about a tyre company being stupid using sex to sell.

pot kettle black

The biggest exponent of this loved by the forum is Guy Martin… Argably not the fastest road racer, but commands 10X the appearance money of someone like Bruce Anstey (GM btw is the highest paid TT racer by a LOT), but Bruce beat him this year. Hutchinson for example is also a low pay bloke…

It’s marketing, it’s character, looks of course play a part, we are humans after all and we mate with people we find attractive to look at.

I see what you’re saying but still disagree: Guy Martin* seems to generate his additional worth by being a very competent presenter and an engaging speaker and writer. I’m not sure I’d consider that comparable with his earning potential increased based on being willing to ride the TT circuit in a banana hammock**. This type of attitude doesn’t exist in men’s sport to anything like the same extent. To go back to Climbing, Magnus Midtbø doesn’t outshine Adam Ondra in spite of arguably being a far more photogenic person.

*I should note that I can’t stand the guy so I’m basing this on the little I’ve seen.

** “Obvious (and unpleasant) oversimplification is obvious”

^^

But the seller does not speak for all woman. She is doing it on the basis that sex/porn sells. That is not the way the world is now.

But the seller does not speak for all woman. She is doing it on the basis that sex/porn sells. That is not the way the world is now

Really ? Tell that to 1direction, Little mix, or any other the out hundreds of boy/girl bands over the years recently.

There definitely seems to be quite a powerful resurgence in the ‘nudity as feminism’ movement amongst young intelligent women..

I’m not sure if a group of middle aged men raised on razzle and the littlewoods catalogues are best placed to decide what is best for women in this fast changing computer age

Edukator – Troll

So the lady promoting the wearing of a cycling specific g-string (in another post) who posts about “sexy” cycling pants on her own site (and promotes them) moans about a tyre company being stupid using sex to sell.

pot kettle black

You can’t see the difference between a female cyclist writing a review of some cycling specific underwear, and a company selling tyres by draping scantily clad models over their stuff?

Oh… sorry… my mistake…. its you. So just the usual trolling then?

Carry on 😀

Lemony – have you ever climbed abroad?

I’ve climbed all over the place. I’ve climbed with thousands of people. I’ve climbed in 40 degree heat.

I’ve never seen anyone, who wasn’t on the beach, climbing in a bikini (bikini top/bralet, yes but that’s not really the same thing).

This thread is depressing and the forum suddenly feels like a less friendly place.

Reading her site the lady is sex obsessed. Reading her articles gives us glues as to what’s going on in her head.

When your group ride grinds to a halt because one of the members breaks a chain, and the club mechanic somewhat reluctantly fixes it (because everyone is looking at him and he knows that he’ll do it the quickest and get everyone under way again before they freeze) and gets his hands filthy this is what is going through Adele’s mind:

Then there’s the swagger that comes on if they get to fix your bike mid-ride. Never mind that we could do it ourselves: who can deny a chap the opportunity to get his tools out? It’s a green light for him to demonstrate, with one twist of a chain link device, that with skills like this he could probably also wrestle a bison to the ground while procreating with every willing maiden between here and the next cycling-themed café.

Anyone see a problem with referring to women as ‘babes’?

No?

So it would be ok for us to run this cover line on the mag when we next run a women’s bike test..

‘3 Babe’s Bikes Tested!’

Cool as we are shooting the messenger now[ and not addressing what she said]…do we get to call her a feminazi?

A look at the Adele Mitchell’s site shows an article on Glamour magazine’s sportswoman of the year, with the tag line “Vote for your favourite sportswoman of the year with Glamour, and help support the fight against sexism in sport.”

A quick google image search of Glamour magazine’s front typical front cover shows that it panders to the very worst (often media created) stereotypical female hang ups and issues: looks, weight, sexual problems, relationship problems etc. It doesn’t really scream “strong independent female”

Only if you do the bike testing in a bikini Mark!!

Dinosaurs… Dinosaurs everywhere

This thread is depressing and the forum suddenly feels like a less friendly place.

🙁

I’m sure someone will come along in a moment to explain why it’s your fault you feel that way and how you need to ‘lighten up’.

*sigh*

TITS OOT LUV!!!!

etc, etc, etc….

Its really been fun this little holiday in the early 70’s, hasn’t it?

Are we doing a casual racism one next week? anyway… my mate Chalky….

There are far more depressing things in the world .. Farkhunda: The making of a martyr

Some messengers lack credibility and do a disservice to the cause they adopt. Bono has supported some worthy causes but in my opinion devalues everything he touches because of his hypocrisy – encouraging others poorer than himself to give money while avoiding tax himself.

When I read Adele’s article I agreed with her message, I also find many adverts sexist and ridiculous – that one where they try to sell watches with macho men flying stunts planes and object women looking decorative for example. I shouldn’t have Googled and found her site because it devalued the message and I won’t feel embarrassed by Maxxis logos on my tyres (though most are Michelin)

Does he have a wee corner shop in Inverness?
https://goo.gl/maps/wmA6ctC2uXR2

And now we have one of the worst/best examples of desperate whataboutery I’ve ever seen.

There are far more depressing things in the world .. Farkhunda: The making of a martyr

Yes, because rape and murder exists, anything more trivial than that is of no concern. Great point, well made. Honestly.

And I thought you were going to refer to binners’ post about racism 😥

Reading her site the lady is sex obsessed.

So she is asking for it then is she?

And I thought you were going to refer to binners’ post about racism

It is quite amusing to see binners being the champion of PC here – bit of a turnaround from the Tyson Fury thread eh? 🙂

The problem with people who still live in the 70’s in their heads is that they like it there. So these debates are fruitless because no amount of explanation can ever convince them their thinking is from a past era that the rest of us have developed away from. You have to wait for the lightbulb to go off in their heads and they realise why where we are now and where we are headed is better than that.

All we can do is keep pointing at stuff like the Maxxis Babes phenomena and say, ‘nope, that’s a bit disappointing’ until enough light bulbs have fired that the marketing departments realise their market is shrinking.

Adele’s column isn’t going to radically change anything but it is a vital component of the nudging process that needs to be maintained to help move us all on to a better place where women are treated better than they once were. I like to hope that after all this, Maxxis marketing department may question what they do from a marketing perspective next year. Even if all that happens is some seeds of doubt are sown in there it’s a start that may help with the total of nudges that will eventually lead to a change.

No idea, El-bent.

Here’s one of her articles on sex and cycling:

Group riding dynamics and the elephant in the room, sex

I ride in a mixed MTB group. I thought we just bumbled around like big kids getting tired and muddy.

So you have no idea? There’s a thing.

Anyway why mention it then?