Last weekend, I participated in the first Kidical Mass Ride of the season in Ottawa. What is Kidical Mass? From their website, it’s an alliance of hundreds of organizations from Canada to Australia united by the vision that children and young people should be able to move around safely and independently on foot and by bike. Children who are active by bike and on foot from an early age remain so as adults.
So where does the feminism come it? @envirojen.bluesky.social, a safe cycling advocate in Halifax says: “If you’ve attended one of our (Kidical Mass) rides, then you’ll know that many of us were radicalized by pushing a stroller, or cycling with kids. Motherhood has certainly helped me flex my movement building muscles.”
This photo is actually from an anti-pipeline protest in 2016, but I have seen the same sign at many protests around women’s rights, and this one has a bicycle. The older woman in the picture has a sign attached to her mobility device that says “I can’t believe I still have to protest this shit”.
Change requires a mass movement. ‘Stop De Kindermoord’ in the Netherlands (1970s) and the ‘Baby Carriage Blockades’ in the USA (1950 & 60s) are historical examples of safe streets movements organized by parents, and in particular, mothers.
Historian Peter Norton, a professor at the University of Virginia, has been documenting how the movement for safe streets has largely been the work of mothers. He recently wrote about a protest in Montreal in April 1974, when about 70 parents, wearing black arm bands, marched to the office of Montreal’s traffic director, bearing funeral wreaths to present to him. They were calling attention to the deadly peril children faced on their walks to school. On paper, speed limits in school zones were 20 mph. In the absence of any signs near most school zones, however, motorists drove much faster. The parents demanded signs. The marchers were led by three mothers whose children had been injured by drivers. When the three arrived at the traffic director’s office he refused to see them, and had police escort them out. Before leaving, the women left their funeral wreaths for him at his office door.
Black and white image from the Montreal Star newspaper showing women carrying funeral wreaths, protest signs, and their children as they march in pairs.
Fifty years later the fight continues. As Cassie Smith, one of the Kidical Mass organizers in Ottawa says: Even now women have less access to cars and more caregiving responsibility giving us particular insight into the injustice of space.
This week, an eleven year-old child died while riding his bike in a supposedly safe area near his school. He was the friend of the son of one of my colleagues.
I got into cycling advocacy because of climate change and to have more safe access to the public space, especially for people on bikes, and because cycling is fun and practical. I was aware of some of the equity issues around cycling and active transit more generally, but I have learned a lot since, and now I’m angry. I hope I won’t still have to be protesting this shit for years to come, but I’m fully prepared to do so if necessary.
Last week my husband and I were in Arizona visiting friends, and part of the trip was going to the Grand Canyon. We are (were?*) both avid hikers; we have hiked up to the Burgess Shale, and through Yoho National Park in the Rockies, in Strathcona National Park on Vancouver Island (saw cougar and bear tracks!!), Bryce and Zion National Parks in southern Utah, Keoneheʻeheʻe Trail into the crater of Haleakalā in Hawaii, and lots of other spectacular places. Hiking into mountains and canyons brings an up close and personal experience, and in some cases, the experience borders on epiphanic. That usually happens when I’m alone, surrounded only by the vastness of the landscape, and a silence broken only by the sound of the wind or the occasional bird call.
However, this was the Grand Canyon, which is on EVERYONE’S bucket list. There is a paved path along the South Rim which makes the majestic views of the canyon accessible to everyone. And at times it seemed that everyone in the US was there, along with peoples of the world. We heard French, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Hindi, Tamil and lots of other languages we didn’t recognize. The path was shoulder-to-shoulder people. And that was OK, but we wanted a more “up close and personal” experience (see above). So the next day, we chose one of several hiking trails, called Bright Angel Trail, that would take us down into the canyon (not to the floor, but a fair ways down). We estimated the round trip would take about 3-ish hours; they did say that the way up would take twice as much time as the way down, so we planned to hike down for about an hour.
As for an “up close and personal” experience, we did get that…..with PEOPLE. So many people! There was so much foot traffic on this trail, which really surprised us. And this is where the hiking etiquette comes in. It’s generally (so we thought) known that hikers going uphill get the right of way. So if someone is coming up and you’re going down, you step aside and make way for them. Which is what we did.
But not everyone knew about/paid attention to this rule, so I was observing what kinds of people barrelled past us as we were going back up. Young people travelling in groups. Men hiking alone or with a small group. I forgave them if they were not speaking English, because people from other countries may not know about this etiquette. But many of them were speaking English with American accents. Older people and women almost always gave us the right of way, with encouraging smiles and words. I used my hiking poles to great effect, taking up all the space. And going SLOWLY because it was UP.
Ah well….I hope everyone enjoyed their experiences. We did, and met some nice people along the way. Although for our next hike in spectacular scenery, we may choose something a bit quieter…..
* we have not done overnight backcountry hiking for several years!
Image of the Grand Canyon, showing layers of rock in different colours.
(CW: In this blog, I’m discussing an recent Lancet article that uses data classifying people as male” or “female”; the researchers acknowledge that this binary doesn’t accurately describe the population, but notes that data using other classifications are sparse. They add that future research needs to include more categories in order to better understand sex and gender-based global health outcomes.)
Just this month, a comprehensive study came out, comparing the factors for men and women that contribute to disease burden globally. Global Burden of Disease is a term (and whole area of public health and medical research) that “looks at ways to quantify health loss across places and over time, so that health systems can be improved and disparities eliminated.” If this seems like a gnarly complicated business, that’s because it is. It’s also extremely important, especially for identifying and addressing sources of inequities in healthcare systems.
This latest article’s findings are interesting, and also paint a complicated picture of gender-based health disparities. Globally, women live longer than men, but they spend more of their lives with non-fatal illnesses and conditions than men do. Here’s a graph to illustrate, produced for the Guardian news outlet, using the data from the paper:
Graph showing conditions resulting in increased years lived with disability (DALYs), comparing men and women.
What are the highlights here? It turns out that the conditions that predominantly affect women– low back pain, depression, headaches, and musculoskeletal disorders– don’t strongly reduce lifespan, but rather increase disability and reduce disease-free function. Contrast this with the conditions that affect men more strongly– COVID-19, road injuries, and heart disease/stroke, liver and respiratory disease– which do shorten lifespan, but don’t necessarily produce years of disability and suffering.
So, women live longer, but in more pain and with trouble functioning. Men live shorter lives, but with fewer chronic conditions that cause pain and limit function.
Here’s what the study’s co-lead author, Gabriela Gil, of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said we should conclude about this disparity:
“It’s clear that women’s healthcare needs to extend well beyond areas that health systems and research funding have prioritised to date, such as sexual and reproductive concerns.”
“Conditions that disproportionately impact females in all world regions, such as depressive disorders, are significantly underfunded compared with the massive burden they exert, with only a small proportion of government health expenditure globally earmarked for mental health conditions.
“Future health system planning must encompass the full spectrum of issues affecting females throughout their lives, especially given the higher level of disability they endure and the growing ratio of females to males in ageing populations.”
Yes, we already knew that mental health is much less well funded around the globe. It’s interesting (in a bad way) that conditions like headache disorders, which predominantly affect women, are not very effectively treated. We can see this in some graphs showing the temporal patterns of the 20 top causes of global burden of disease, 1990–2020 (p. e290). For conditions like heart disease, tuberculosis, stroke and some others, we see improvements, largely due to advances in medical technology. But for conditions like headache disorders, depression disorders, lower back pain and musculoskeletal disorders (primarily affecting women), the graphs are flat, indicating no improvement over 30 years. I leave conclusions to the reader.
In order to address these sex-and-gender health inequities, we need to be able to measure them. That includes expanding our gender categories and also devising sex-and-gender-specific ways of preventing and treating these causes of ill health, say the authors of the study. I couldn’t agree more.
I feel like there is zero danger of me drowning (not zero, but pretty close). I’ve got lots of endurance. I float well.
But I’ve always struggled with lane swimming, with free style/front crawl. I’m horrible at coordinating my breathing. I get water in my nose, hair in my eyes, and I seem to lack the basic coordination to have anything like a real stroke.
I’ve mastered it once in my life, with a total immersion swim coach for triathlon, but even then I was the anchor member of the slow lane. Like I could do it, but I never got any better, any faster. In triathlons, I was always the last person out of the water who didn’t need to be rescued.
I’ve taken learn to swim a bunch but the problem there is that I can swim. I won’t drown. I just can’t do a recognizable stroke that would have me swim laps.
I’ve considered just getting a snorkel for lane swimming!
One thing for certain, this summer I will swim more outside.
But I want your advice about learning to lane swim inside. What’s the best way to learn? I’m too good for learn to swim and not good enough for any masters’ swimming groups.
The blog has some excellent swimmers: Catherine, Tracy, Savita, Mallory, Diane, Nat….I want to join your ranks.
Right now, I’m hoping I can use some of the same kind of blog magic and invoke some Springishness.
This is not the face of someone frolicking in Spring weather. This is the face of someone determined to be outside even if it is kind of dreary. Image description: a selfie of slightly smirky me wearing my husband’s orange jacket (with the hood up) and my green-framed glasses. It’s a dull day and there are evergreens and leafless deciduous trees behind me.
I’m ready for some green leaves and for more flowers and for some consistent warmth.
I want to do some yoga on my patio.
I want to get my garden sorted.
I want to have more reasons to get outside (Ones that aren’t just ’I’d feel better if I went outside for a while.’)
I mean, I know that I live on a rocky island in the Atlantic Ocean so I don’t want to set my hopes too high but even 5 degrees warmer (on a regular basis) and a few sunny days in a row would be great.
If you happen to be a weather witch or am ancient weather goddess, could you conjure up some friendly weather for me? I’ll bake you some great cookies and/or draw you something fun in return.
In the meantime, I’ll keep pretending it’s Spring – opening my office window, standing on the patio whenever possible, drinking tea on my front step, taking longer walks – and perhaps I’ll trick the sun into coming out for a while.
Khalee is unfazed by the weather, she just wants to sniff things and make sure other dogs aren’t walking on ‘her’ path. (My attempts to convince her that it is a public path have been for nought.) image description: a photo of Khalee, a medium sized dog with light brown fur standing on a wet asphalt path and looking alert.
Image description: abstract photo of a bridge railing in a diamond patter, captured using ICM (intentional camera movement) to create blur. Photo by Tracy Isaacs
CONTENT WARNING: this post talks about Weight Watchers and medications used for weight loss.
We have been dissing Weight Watchers here for a long time, from Sam’s “I hate you, Weight Watchers” post more than a decade ago to my “Oprah: Eating Bread, Making Bread,” when Oprah took shares in the company and joined the board in 2016. It’s a business. Businesses are interested in making money. Oprah is a brand unto herself. She too is interested in making money.
The culture of weight loss and diet has a well-entrenched stronghold still today, but the oppositional voices are getting louder. Many of us here at the blog are fans of the Maintenance Phase podcast and host Aubrey Gordon’s book about weight loss myths. We’ve read Kate Manne’s Unshrinking and written about it. And we’ve consistently talked about body image, body acceptance, anti-diet perspectives, the disentangling of size and health, rejection of body-shaming — too many posts to count.
And so it was with interest and not a little bit of suspicion and skepticism that I tuned in to the Oprah/Weight Watchers YouTube livestream “event” the other day to find out what new message WW could possibly be peddling under the title: “Making the Shift: A New Way to Think about Weight.” Could they finally, finally be changing to a new narrative that, despite their brand, is NOT about weight loss?
We have been here before, where they have gone from “Weight Watchers” to “WW,” and where they have gone from “dieting” to “lifestyle” and “healthy habits.” None of these shifts has been enough to change their game entirely. I mean, in the end their users are joining to lose weight. What, I wondered, are they up to now?
The event started off inspiring confidence that maybe, just maybe, real change is afoot. Oprah, in her “girlfriend” way, started with a story of total humiliation during her first appearance on the Tonight Show in 1985, when Joan Rivers asked her how she gained “the weight” and had her promising to lose 15 pounds by the end of the show (after which she gained 25). She lamented her contribution to narratives of “weight loss success” over the years, including pushing liquid diets as a path to weight loss. She claimed that one of her career lowpoints, about which she is filled with regret, is that time she rolled a cart of fat equalling in weight the fat she’d lost, onto her stage.
But in her preamble, right after she told her stories, she identified obesity as a “disease” for which no one should carry shame. We should all, she said, love our bodies. She listed of a range of possible ways to go, none of which anyone is obligated to pursue. You do not deserve to be shamed, she said, “whether you choose to start moving more, whether you want to eat differently, whether you want to change your lifestyle, whether you want to take the medications, or whether you choose to do absolutely nothing.” To be satisfied the way you are, where you are, is totally “up to you.” Then the CEO of Weight Watchers, Sima Sistani, came on and apologized for her company’s contribution to diet culture and the harm it has caused to the people who did not reach their goals on their program.
This “event” is part of a series of media moments paving the way for Weight Watchers to start promoting the use of weight loss medications. This is not brand new news, but it was news to me. And I have to say, if you had asked me to predict that “we should all love ourselves without shame” would end up at “and if that includes taking medications to lose weight so you can conform to the cultural standard for acceptable bodies,” I would not have landed there.
With the diet/points program failing to help people achieve long-term weight loss (because diets don’t work), it had two choices: become irrelevant or start encouraging people to take medication. I’ve had it pointed out to me that in some ways this strategy is more on point with the truth of what is required for successful weight loss. And that may be the case.
What I find most egregious about the live-stream is the mixed messaging. I have never thought that the only reason diet culture is harmful is that it’s almost impossible to lose weight and keep it off. That is a harm, to be sure, if people are going to continue to chase an unattainable goal and support the industry that promotes it. But I continue to think that more serious harm is that it reinforces the idea that the only acceptable body type is slimmer. Whether through diet or exercise or medication, weight loss is still the goal. Are we resigned to maintaining this picture and keeping weight loss as a life goal?
This tweak to the weight loss narrative adds a further layer of personal responsibility onto a problem of cultural harm. Keep in mind too that the drugs work by making it easier to consume fewer calories. So in the end, they reinforce the connection between calorie intake and weight gain or loss, thus offering credence to the view that dieting would work but for the dieter eating more than they “should.”
If we could rewrite that conversation with Oprah and Joan Rivers, the gist of it would still be that Oprah should lose the weight, and if that means taking the meds, then take the meds. But is it not more concerning still, is it not, that Joan Rivers felt she had the right to call out Oprah’s size (at all, nevermind so publicly on national television)? Of course Oprah has now very publicly affirmed her use of the new weight loss drugs, like Ozempic, for the purposes of weight loss. And these have now been built into Weight Watchers’ business plan.
It’s tricky of course. No one wants to say we don’t have choices, and that if people opt for a certain choice that’s their business. But there is a tension in broadening the range of pathways to body-acceptance to include new forms of weight loss. It falls into the same category of tension, I think, as anti-aging cosmetic procedures like fillers and surgeries. The more people opt for these “treatments,” the more the prizing of youthful appearance and the rejection of aging faces and bodies remains the normative standard. Does that mean these things shouldn’t be available as options? No. But does it mean that there would be less harm and more opportunity for a healthier and more realistic range, if fewer people chose them. And it would be better if we didn’t feel that normative pressure so strongly. But it’s tough to be an outlier and it takes energy, effort, and awareness to reject the messaging.
To me Oprah + Weight Watchers + weight loss meds is a scary trifecta. The mixed messages have hit a new low. Their contribution to the fear of being fat has not stopped. It has simply evolved with the times to generate a new and profitable income-stream.
From all of us at Fit is a Feminist Issue, Happy Mother’s Day! For lots of us, today is a day for celebrating, honoring, remembering and being with our mothers. My mother is far away, and I plan on celebrating and having fun with her for her birthday in June, so we’ll be making do with a social phone call later. I’m having lunch with a friend and her mother. And I’m taking a walk to enjoy and photograph the explosion of color in the flowers and trees, sending those photos to my mom, who loves spring color as much as I do. Here are a few glimpses from around my neighborhood earlier this week.
Yellow and orange and white tulips, waiting by the steps.hardy daffodils and yellow and purple flowers.A yellow tulip with fringy purple flower friends.A luscious display of magenta tulips.
One of my favorite Mother’s Days involved some mothers, but not my own. In May of 2008, I won a mountain bike race! Full disclosure: I was in the beginner women’s category, and there were three entrants:
me
my teammate Julie Lockhart, who was then at least 25 years older than me and not an experienced mountain biker
some woman whose husband– a MTB racer–gave her a mountain bike and entered her in the race that morning (I think the tag was still on the bike at the start line)
This race was at the Brialee RV and Tent Park in Connecticut. The route was a typical New England one, with roots and rocks, twists and turns on narrow single track, with steep but short ups and downs.
I was advised to get the hole shot– first in the group– if possible. I did, and pedaled as hard as I could to put some distance between me and the other two competitors. It was tough, but fun.
I finished in first place. Hey, a win is a win, okay?
Talking with the other women as we posed on our podium (yes, there was room for all three of us), I found out that the new-bike-for-Mother’s-Day-woman gave up on riding quite quickly and just ran with her bike the whole way. She was a trail runner, and finished only eight minutes after me.
This woman’s story reminds me of what I love about mothers. They join their loved ones in activities for which they might or might not be prepared, they accept whatever gifts are offered in the spirit in which they are given, and then they just flat-out make it work.
Happy Mother’s day to all of you out there who join in with us, lovingly accept our well-intentioned gifts and make it work.
Mother’s Day race finish line. Hope they’re going out to brunch later…
Wow, I’d forgotten that body parts, other than knees, could hurt. It’s been awhile.
I’m back at personal training and I’m walking lots, and I’m riding my bike outside. Everything is going well except in my newfound pain free state, I discovered that I’m now strong enough and mobile enough to hurt other parts of my body. Lol.
Last week, I rode my bike and went to physio and then personal training and then hopped on a plane. So, there was lots of physical work and then sitting. I flew to an event, the Canadian High School Ethics Bowl, and there was more sitting. By the end of it all, my back was pretty stiff and painful.
Above Sam and a friend’s dog, on a lunch time walk at the Ethics Bowl. Below, the Museum of Human Rights where the event was held.
Luckily, I have regularly scheduled physio appointments, so after Monday back at work where I rediscovered my standing desk, Estee helped me out my back to rights. More stretching! Yay!
It’s not serious and I’m not stressed. But it was a bit of a reminder that as my knees get better, I might have to pay attention to other body parts too. Mostly for my back, it means stretching and moving between sitting and standing and getting some walks in during the day. All good.
Oh, also, my mother and I often joke that we have all the same injuries and issues. This week she also hurt her back gardening. So we’re stretching together. Happy Mothers Day!
🎧 I just read on my friend Todd’s social media that Lael Wilcox is about to try to beat Jenny Graham’s world record for cycling around the world (124 days / 11 hours) and is doing a podcast at the same time.
“This summer, I’m riding around the world to try and break the women’s Guinness World Record (currently held by Jenny Graham at 124 days). I have to ride a minimum of 18,000 miles (29,000km). The route isn’t set and that’s part of the fun! I asked Bea & Luca, expert route builders and race organizers, to design my track through Europe. In this episode, we go over the rules and talk about the route. I don’t love planning, but every time I look at a map, I’m filled with excitement for the big ride! I’m starting on May 26 in Chicago and I’ll be publishing an episode every day– 10-20 minutes to share stories from the road. “
“The findings showed that Gen Z were the most sociable cyclists, too. They were the most likely to seek company on bike rides, and it was mainly them that contributed to an 11% increase in the number of new online communities, and virtual ‘cycling clubs’.
See, as a young, plus-sized woman who cycles mainly for pleasure, I’ve never felt like I belonged on cycle lanes. I felt too young, too fat, too poor.
I felt that I had to have permission to belong – be a certain age, or level of fitness. That I had to be ‘training’ for something, have the right gear, or take cycling seriously as a sport – not merely as an escape, a means to an end, or to get to work.
Even former Olympic and World Champion, Chris Boardman MBE told Cycling Weekly that he’d been “battered by the cycling community for wearing normal clothes on a bike”.
It’s gatekeeping of the highest, most gross order.
So, I couldn’t be more elated, or more refreshed, to hear that Gen Z-ers are simply shrugging their shoulders at stereotypes, and getting on their bikes instead – complete with their friends right alongside them.
They’re choosing an activity that they enjoy, and that makes them feel good – all while saving money, the planet and being sociable.
Cycling aligns with their values because they’ve created an inspiring, eco-conscious community (both online, and IRL) that they believe in, and feel represented by. They’ve managed to embody everything that makes cycling great – and it’s what it should be. “
📺 And a shameless personal plug here on what to watch this weekend. I’m recommending you check out Sew Fierce. It’s a Canadian reality show, a drag design competition, in which eight clothing designers compete to make the best drag outfits. Season Two is just out on OUT-TV but you can watch the first episode on YouTube. My middle kid’s partner is Calypso Cosmic, one of the eight top drag designers on Season Two of the show. Go check out their fabulous creations!
Sew Fierce, Season Two
You can also watch Calypso live and in person, with other performers, at The Well in Hamilton this weekend.
I’m writing this on the heels of losing a dear friend. It is hard to think about how the world will look without her joy, her laughter, and her indomitable spirit. She was the friend you called for an adventure or for a hug. A weekday breakfast meetup or a trip to Scotland to buy yarn – she was up for it.
Our friendship was formed inside and alongside a community of knitter friends. The community has added and subtracted members as the years roll by, but/and the foundation has remained the same. Friendship. Love. Support. Celebration. Commiseration. Caretaking. Adventures. And a whole lotta yarn.
I know these are crocheted flowers, not knitted, but they are blue and too pretty. Photo by Anya Chernik on Unsplash
As we have gathered together this week to be with one another in community I am so aware of how my different communities support me. They steady me when I wobble and they celebrate me when I triumph.
I am fortunate to have a few communities that I hold dear. As our little knitting community is rocked by this loss, friends in our respective other communities have joined to steady us. Support. Caretaking. Commiseration. Friendship. Love.
When I think about how deeply ingrained these communities are in my life I often think back to graduate courses on feminist theory and feminist collectives. While there are many ways to define feminism one important way for me is “in community.” When one rises we all rise. When one falters those who can will hold steady.
This is a time of faltering and holding steady. Faltering without my friend while others hold me steady. Using their strength to support others in our community as we all work through individual and collective grief. Those who know me best know that when I am quiet, tucked inward, I am faltering. They know when I say I am “hanging in there” that I am doing anything but. They steady. They hug. They listen.
I hope this post comes across as a celebration of communities; mine, yours, ours. I hope your communities are holding you up, comforting you, singing your praises, or whatever else you need at this moment. If you are reading this and struggling to identify your community please know that FIFI is a community that you are already a member of here on this page. And I hope it goes without saying to hold your people so close because the world out there is shaky and you may just be what is holding them up.
In community.
Amy Smith is a professor of Media & Communication and a communication consultant who lives north of Boston. Her research interests include gender communication and community building. Amy spends her movement time riding the basement bicycle to nowhere, walking her two dogs, and waiting for it to get warm enough for outdoor swimming in New England.
