It’s an interesting thing to watch a trend begin to happen. A few years ago when the inaugural International Female Ride day came into existence in the beginning of May 2007, I shrugged and said “ok.” I would be out there riding anyway and it’s primarily taking place in Canada, so…whatever.
Last year, the day came around again. I didn’t think much of it other than “good for them, they’re keeping the event up.” But then I was perusing my Google news reader one day and I saw a post that Biker News Online had about it and I was actually surprised at what they had to say:
Oh Please!
Apparently some folks are trying to organize an “International Female Ride Day” on Friday, May 2, 2008…Why do women riders need a special day to celebrate themselves? Why do we need to raise awareness of women riders?
Who gives a f**k?
Look, I have all the respect for women riders, just as I would for male riders. I’m not bashing them. I’m bashing this lame idea. I’m sorry, but do we need “female empowerment” in the motorcycling community?
If a chick can master a motorcycle and hold her own among the biker crowd, does she need empowering?
“Hello, I’m a chick, I ride a motorcycle. Today is my special day to celebrate my biker-chickness”.
Barf!
That reaction actually made me pause to think and prompted me to write Women only motorcycle events-sweet or sham? which got some really interesting responses, most of them saying that these women’s-only events, while nice once in a while, are really unnecessary. The outcome of organized them actually causes women to be segregated and it’s slippery-slope to have too many of these all-women events.
And now, it seems, Harley-Davidson has jumped on the bandwagon and piggy-backed onto Motoress’ 2009 International Female Ride Day, which is Friday, May 2nd, by declaring the month of May “Women Riders Month.” They’ve planned two organized rides on May 1st: one to NYC and one to Milwaukee. And if you can’t make it to either of those rides, you can stop into your local HD dealership to see if there are any rides being organized in your area.
For the remainder of the month HD will encourage women to get out onto the open road and learn more about wrenching their own bikes by attending their women-only garage parties (My friend ArtBiker has a really funny post about not being allowed in to an HD dealership when there was a “women’s only” event happening).
In a recent press release, Leslie Prevish, Harley-Davidson’s women’s outreach manager said: “In the past 20 years, the percentage of women who have purchased new Harley-Davidson motorcycles has tripled, with women now accounting for nearly 12 percent of new Harley-Davidson motorcycle purchases.”
They’ve smelled the blood in the water, girls, and now they’re coming for ya! Watch out!
Clutch and Chrome has an interview with Vicki Gray, founder of Motoress, in their latest podcast. She discusses the idea behind the ride and its incredible success. So if you’re interested in hearing what she has to say go check it out.