Recent Posts
-
5 Sexy Reasons for Wearing Red, today and all month!
1 day ago -
Time for YOU! PAMPERING tips from self-love January to take with you all year!
1 week ago -
Loyalty is Royalty!
2 months ago -
Spiders and Cats and Fun Facts, OH MY… It’s Halloween time!
3 months ago -
Cami and Tap, a Lingerie Pairing Must-Have!
3 months ago -
Banish the August Blues by celebrating National Wellness Month
5 months ago -
The Joys and Challenges of Solo Female Travel, Plus our Top 3 Destinations!
7 months ago -
JuliannaRae.com’s Natalya Silk PJs Selected Best Silk Pajamas for Women by NYT’s Wirecutter
8 months ago -
Chemise Please! Plus… the lowdown on the nightgown | Julianna Rae
8 months ago -
Funny Quotes about Motherhood that you don’t have to be a mother to LOL about | Julianna Rae
9 months ago -
4 Ways to Show Your Love for Planet Earth this April
9 months ago -
5 Outstanding Gift Ideas for the BEST Bridesmaids
10 months ago -
Simple Steps for Hand Washing Silk Perfectly Every Time
10 months ago -
Black Fashion: Two Woman who Ripped the Seams out of Racial and Gender Discrimination
11 months ago -
Football Love or Football AND Love? Plus, Super Bowl food ideas sure to please!
11 months ago -
Enjoy 7 Days of love with Valentine’s WEEK!
11 months ago -
We Fall in Love with 5 Perfect Love Matches through History
1 year ago -
Welcome to the Future of Smart Clothes and Wearable Technology
1 year ago -
12 Coffee Table books sure to please this Christmas
1 year ago -
Why is the Gingerbread cookie a man? Plus, a gallery of delightful decorating ideas
1 year ago
Pleasure Pedaling, Honor your Foremothers and Go for a Ride!
Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride. ~John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy was right when he said that riding a bike is a simple pleasure. If everything on your bicycle is in working order then all you need is a little air in your tires and off you go! It is that simple to enjoy a breezy bike ride to your favorite coffee shop. Bicycles give us the freedom to explore our neighborhoods and parks while giving our bodies a boost with the exercise from pedaling.
Speaking of freedom, is there anything more symbolic of freedom than a bicycle? After all, it was the choice ride of Alice Hawkins as she rolled through Leicester, England to promote the women’s rights movement.
And, just as the bicycle-powered Hawkins and her message around Leicester it also became a tool for independence and emancipation. Take Annie Kopchovsky, a 23-year-old mother of three who wanted to disprove the challenge (which carried a monetary prize) that women weren’t physically capable of riding a bicycle around the world.
On June 27, 1894, having only learned to ride a bicycle two days before, Kopchovsky left Boston behind, spinning the pedals of a 42-pound Columbia bicycle while wearing full skirts. But, by the time she made it to Chicago on September 24th, she was 20 pounds lighter and ready to give up. She only decided to continue when given the opportunity to trade in her heavy Columbia for a much lighter bicycle. Gone were the bloomers, too, and by boldly and smartly selling advertising space on her bicycle, she was able to self-fund the entire trip! Fifteen months later, Kopchovsky returned to Boston a full fourteen days under the allowed time securing the $10,000 prize. Her published account in the New York World was described as the “most extraordinary journey ever undertaken by a woman”.
A year later in 1896, another woman grabbed the handlebars to encourage more ladies to ride bicycles. Maria Ward’s guide to cycling for women, “Bicycling for Ladies,” was written specifically to give women the knowledge about buying, riding, and maintaining their own bicycles without the help of a man. In her introduction to the chapter “Women and Tools”, Ward writes, “I hold that any woman who is able to use a needle or scissors can use other tools equally well. It is a very important matter for a bicyclist to be acquainted with all parts of the bicycle, their uses, and adjustment.”
Ward’s book came at a time when there was a lot of controversy on the merits of cycling for women. Some thought that a woman on two wheels would lose her morality and sexual innocence, as well as allow her to roll into questionable contact with men. Doctors also argued that there would be gynecological consequences and wrote journal articles about the “Harmful Effects of the Bicycle Upon the Girl’s Pelvis.” However, one newspaper writer wrote in women’s defense “When a woman wants to learn anything or do anything useful or even have any fun there is always someone to solemnly warn her that it is her duty to keep well. Meanwhile, in many states, she can work in factories ten hours a day, stand behind counters in badly ventilated stores from eight o’clock to six, bend over the sewing machine for about five cents an hour and no one cares enough to protest.”
We’ve come so far, haven’t we? Thank you to our foremothers for paving the way for so many things including giving us the right to the simple pleasure of a bicycle ride. Take some time this waning summer season and get out and spin those pedals, you won’t be disappointed! If you haven’t been on a bicycle in a long time, it’s time to get re-acquainted, the road is calling you.
Deb Fries is a freelance designer and writer and has worked at Julianna Rae in graphics and customer service, she currently writes lifestyle pieces for the blog at https://www.juliannarae.com/blog/.