This is totally us! Right now! Except we don’t have a cat with us. And our biceps are way bigger. Bike+bus=<3 twitter.com/familyride/sta…
— familyride (@familyride) April 8, 2013
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Sound Transit’s new bike + bus ad
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Comments
12 responses to “Sound Transit’s new bike + bus ad”
Why is the kitty fat? More bike less bus, kitty.
You presumably meant this as a joke, but this is just rude. Biking is for everyone. Fat people can ride bikes too. Biking doesn’t automatically make you skinny. And fat isn’t automatically bad.
Go cry to your mother.
Cute ad! My kid and I love our “bike-bus combo!”
Maybe it is catbus. Catbus is fast, but not skinny.
I saw this last night and I was thinking, get hit by a bus, fall in love with a passenger raise a family!
Or is it, mate a bus and a bicycle get a cat, two people with health issues and a daughter?
What a zooy ad.
So clearly A doesn’t care about being rude, and that’s understandable- we’ve never met in person, and s/he has no reason to care about my feelings in particular. But I don’t think this is really about MY feelings. I’m wondering about this blog’s position on fat jokes in general. Isn’t the idea that we want to welcome everyone who’s interested in biking and making the streets safer for biking? Why single out a group for ridicule? What do we gain from that? Sometimes I see this attitude expressed among bike enthusiasts + bike advocates when we’re talking about topics that should have nothing to do with individual body size– commenters will refer to “fat-ass SUV drivers” and the like to indicate their distaste for them. I don’t see the point, and I think it’s a jerk move.
Agreed. I dislike the whole “ride a bike – you’ll lose weight!” incentive. Not only is it not always true (I think “Just Ride” by Grant Petersen has a good breakdown of why) but I like my body the way it is. I ride my bike because it feels good and it’s easier to park in the city and gas is expensive. I also like fat people, and I like fat people to feel good and have an easier time parking and save money on gas. It’s totally possible to point out the inherent inconsiderateness of driving an SUV without linking it to body type.
For the record, commenter opinions are theirs alone and are not necessarily endorsed by Seattle Bike Blog.
My official stance: Not only is personal shaming wrong, but it’s also not an effective way to bring about change on a personal or societal level. You can shame someone for breaking a law or being a jerk, but not for being the way they are. Bicycling is great in a lot of ways, and each person cycles for different reasons. If someone starts biking in part because they want to lose weight, that’s great for them. But it’s not anyone’s job to judge a person and prescribe cycling as some kind of “cure” for being who they are.
I do think that, on a macro public health level, reducing the obesity epidemic is a good reason to invest in walking and biking safety and access. But the same argument should not be reduced to a personal level.
I suppose we could have a whole debate over whether or not a fat kitty joke is fat shaming, but that might be a conversation for another blog/day.
Thanks for responding.
Sure, I will readily concur that the original comment about a cartoon kitty was not as hurtful as if it had been made about a photograph of a real person, and the tone of the original comment was ambiguous- could have been just a silly joke. But the tone turned nasty very quickly after I raised an objection. I understand that as the blog owner, you want to foster open discussion and not only allow comments that agree with you. I still think that there’s no reason to welcome (or allow) comments that are just mean-spirited making fun of people’s appearances. What kind of readership/commenters do you want for the blog? A variety of people of all shapes and sizes who are enthusiastic about biking? Or people who are stuck in the elementary school mentality of mocking people for how they look? Group 2 will tend to drive out Group 1. I have been really impressed with this blog in the past for how it has approached issues like this– the posts and the comments have generally been thoughtful, earnest, and welcoming– so this is just an attempt to protect something I really like from declining.
Thanks to Kommish for the recommendation– I will have to look up “Just Ride”.
A = Anal Cavity
I’m glad to see the transit+ bike message out there. Using them together expands your options tremendously, especially combined with a good smart phone app to improvise routes if your plans change during the day and you’re adding a new destination.
I hope Metro does something similar…
Maybe they picked a cat because some people think of dogs as chasing bikes :-) LOL
Stay with the blog Jessica. Every site has the occasional douche posting. :-)