Glocalizing Cycle Chic

Glocalizing Cycle Chic:The Aesthetics of Bicycle Advocacy

Chris McConnell

UT Austin, RTF Department

Global Fusion, October 23. 2010

Glocalizing Cycle Chic

• Introducing Cycle Chic• Copenhagen as imagined Ecotopia• Fetishization of the feminine• Model for US? Texas?• Advocacy as identity

Copenhagen Cycle Chic

• Copenhagen-based bicycle advocacy blog that features images of stylish women and men commuting by bicycle.

• "Bike Advocacy in High Heels“ est. 2007• Clearly intended for an international,

Anglophone audience.• Contrasts Copenhagen’s cycle culture with

sport-oriented culture in US and elsewhere.• Offers Copenhagen as a transportation model

for other cities• Expanded to satellite cites and blogs.

Cycle Chic

We realised that making urban biking look effortless - which it is in Copenhagen - was an inspiration to people abroad who wished for the same thing where they live.-Mikael Colville-Anderson

Colville-Andersen, M. (2008, February 5). Copenhagen Cycle Chic FAQs. Copenhagen Cycle Chic. Blog, . Retrieved October 22, 2010, from http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/2008/02/copenhagen-cycle-chic-faqs.html

Selections from Manifesto

• I choose to cycle chic and, at every opportunity, I will choose Style over Speed.

• I am aware that my mere presence in said urban landscape will inspire others without me being labeled as a 'bicycle activist'.

• I will endeavor to ensure that the total value of my clothes always exceeds that of my bicycle.

• I will refrain from wearing and owning any form of 'cycle wear'.

• Colville-Andersen, M. (2008, April 14). The Cycle Chic Manifesto. Copenhagen Cycle Chic. blog, . Retrieved October 22, 2010, from http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/2008/04/cycle-chic-manifesto.html

Cycle Chic - Alternative View

• Cycling as sport– Requiring specialized clothes and safety

equipment– Emphasis on speed and performance over

practicality

• Cycling as dangerous activity• Cycling as gendered masculine

Copenhagen as Ecotopia

• Cycling is integrated into urban transportation mix, unlike many other cities

• CCC also leverages Copenhagen’s cultural cachet and reputation as a city with a high quality of life.

• Above all, CCC offers a fantasy of a city where one can take relaxed bike rides surrounded by attractive stylish women.

Glocalizing - Blog Examples

• Spin off blogs in other cities– Official

• London• Barcelona• Dublin• Helsinki• Lisbon, etc.

– Unofficial• San Francisco• Curitiba• Estonia• Porto Alegre, etc.

Lisbon Cycle Chic

Gender and Cycling• As a fashion blog, it’s

unsurprising that CCC emphasizes images of women

• Yet images of women produced by men figure prominently in promotions of cycling as lifestyle.– Contrast with cycling as

sport/renegade pursuit– Reifies notion of women

as vulnerable?

Gender and Audience

• CCC doesn’t publish audience figures: Are readers men or women?

• Male gaze: provides the pleasure of looking at women with a fairly constrained range of body types and ages.

• Could provide examples of riding to women - could just be material for male fantasies

Gender and Cycling

• "I can ride till my legs are sore and it won’t make riding any cooler, but when attractive women are seen sitting upright going about their city business on bikes day and night, the crowds will surely follow.“– David Byrne

Byrne, D. (2009, May 28). Book Review - 'Pedaling Revolution - How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities,' by Jeff Mapes - Review - NYTimes.com. NYTimes.com. Retrieved October 22, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/books/review/Byrne-t.html?_r=1

Gender and Cycling

Model for Other Cities?

• Copenhagen– Flat– Cool, mild climate – Infrastructure developed since 1970s

• Austin– Not flat– Hot much of the year– Infrastructure largely developed for cars– street clothes and relaxed riding not so practical

Cycling as Identity

• Conventional bike advocacy emphasizes safety, infrastructure, policy issues

• Newer advocacy emphasize issues of identity as cyclist

• Furness (2007): Critical Mass as statement of identity - movement for visibility

• Cycle Chic provides more tools for articulating cyclist identity - away from sporty or outlaw image.

Cycle Chic as Global Imaginary• While Cycle Chic may not provide a solid plan of action for

improving transportation - or even increasing cycling - it offers a view of how life could be conducted, what Appardurai (1990) terms an imaginary.

• limited use in pragmatic or policy terms• Yet it can provide a means to mobilize potential cyclists to

ride or lobby bike-friendly policies.

“Roadways are the new runways for these style-obsessed cyclists, their bikes no mere conveyance but a racy adjunct to their look. More than a few are infusing what used to be an athletic, or purely practical, pursuit with eye-catching glamour and sex appeal. Their style, a modish amalgam of fashion and function, is documented on blogs and emulated by like-minded sisters on wheels. “

Ruth La Ferla, New York Times, September 29, 2010

Glocalizing Cycle Chic

• Copenhagen Cycle Chic presents an idealized – and sexualized – vision of cycle commuting.

• While it’s an attractive fantasy of a relaxed, environmentally sensitive lifestyle, the practicalities aren’t easily adapted to many locales

• What it does accomplish is offer viewers the opportunity to imagine how casual cycling might be possible in their own cities.

• Political and Policy cycling information is often boring or nerdy; while problematic in its gender politics, Cycle Chic adds a utopian affective dimension to bike advocacy.

Austin Critical Mass