Except mad bicycle traffic with wellstyled and unhelmeted people, Amsterdam is also surprising with big cultural steps towards equality (see also next post about Bicycle Film Festival).
@wolkenkratzerin and me stopped for a coffee in a little bike shop Cycleyou on the border of the city (this tandem folding bike outside made an inviting sign) and started to chat with this man behind the bar. We made a compliment to this vintage corner included Alfonsina Strada book and spanned about our background. ‘Fixed bikes? Hahaha! Girls group? Hahaha’, but he seemed to be open and interested though, just old-minded. He was hearing attentivly then and wouldn’t laugh anymore.
This is the point where I say it’s a positive signal, where we should just tell, how it is now, how it has changed. Not this: ‘Yes granny, I’m riding with two brakes and stop on the red lights. Yes granny, I’m going to the church every sunday still.’
Don’t cheat elder people about this fake constants, they are more flexible then we expect, even if it’s a big struggle for them to accept new trends. This mold fight keep them younger and help society to understand each other better regardless the age. Also such history marks as books and pictures of womxn who made cycling and competing so accessible nowadays answer for another equality must be made visible.
/tam (inspired by a. and oma e.)
