Sarah Phillips of the Guardian opened this debate on the newspaper's online Bike Blog. She went on "Campaigns to get women cycling seem to focus on how to look good over other concerns. Is this really all girls care about?Teenage girls don't ride bikes. Or so says the Darlington Media Group, who have set about trying to rectify the problem with a campaign to get young women cycling."
Photograph: Image Source/Rex FeaturesWe read the article with some interest, adding our two-penneth to the forum:
With regards to teenage girls, and their apparent passive indifference to the cycling renaissance occurring in this country, there is one primary factor accounting for this - role models.
If you take their male counterparts, whose very existence is entwined with sporting 'stars', you will see such hero-worship transposed onto genuine physical activity. Boys play football. And although this article/argument is a cycling-centric issue, the bigger picture carries the answer. That said, I was delighted whilst out walking (I usually cycle) this summer, when some boys sped by on their bikes, one racing to the front declaring "And here comes Wiggins!" So it doesn't take long for boys to latch on to achievement, success and positive role models.
Sadly this is not the case with the oeuvre of the teenage girl. As has been suggested here already, the 'X-factor factor' has much to answer for. Which in itself places some blame on the vacuous milieu that is British media, and the low-grade/big return glitz and allure of instant celeb TV. Almost all teenage girls in the street will know who Cheryl Cole is. Hardly any, if none, will know who Victoria Pendleton, Lizzie Armistead, or Nicole Cooke are. All you need do is scan the endless ranks of trashy kiss-and-tell 'magazines' polluting our stores to see whose faces (and lives) are wallpapering the teenage years. Such as it is, the UK at present provides an extremely shallow and 'basic' version of culture. As a consequence, and returning to the main story, cycling just doesn't dovetail with the current tribalistic iPod/iPhone/iTunes generation of young girls.
We carry many, global, cycling issues on our NÖ Endeavour blog, and have observed that there is a vast population of women into biking, most of whom reside overseas, the States particularly. Nearly all these are post-teenage, and tend to focus on the 'fixie community'. Here may be the way to get UK young women even just looking at a scene. Fixed gear bikes are on the whole more urban/street/glamourous, when compared to simple road bikes. They encompass the same values with associated clothing and music. Some might argue against this, but the fixie bike is undoubtably 'cool'.
So although factors such as safety and practicality have been mentioned in this Comments board, we should consider that when you're a teenager those measures simply don't exist - such values are the domain of the adult world - the youth market being all about a form of controlled anarchy. A dearth of decent cycle lanes will not deter the youth who wants to ride. It is also worth noting - the ironic paradox - that a supposedly image-conscious, weight-obsessed, and eating-disorder aware generation of young girls are ignoring an activity which can lead to a huge boost in self confidence, via physical, and to some extent mental, exercise. Another oddity is the apparent even playing field between the sexes, sharing similar interests in music, technology, dress - a parity of pastimes, one which ceases once sport enters the fray. What happened to all the young girls who rode on the craze for scooters alongside their brothers and friends?
In conclusion, the answer is culture, via role models. And given that teenagers now are fully-absorbed into an iPod/iPhone/iTunes driven lifestyle, it is only when the bicycle is being ridden by their jingle-jamming peers that we might see some more widespread teenage girl adoption of the two-wheel cyclorama. And this can happen almost overnight. Such is the viral mobilisation of youth culture. Perhaps not Kate Moss, as has been suggested, but if Lily Allen's new video saw her nonchalantly cruising the streets on a fixie, or BMX, blissfully delivering next summer's 'life is sweet' anthem, bike shops will be inundated.
