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Council withdraws 'sexist' leaflet advertising sportive

Flyer for Stockton Sportive suggests men should go riding... while women go shopping

A council has withdrawn a leaflet advertising a sportive ride after being accused of sexism for a message that suggested that while men go ride their bikes, women can go shopping instead.

Stockton Borough Council’s flyer featured a picture of a smiling male cyclist* together with the text, “Sarah’s shopping in Stockton with the girls. I’m signed up for Stockton’s Sportive. That’s Saturday sorted.”

The leaflet aimed to encourage participation in the Stockton Velo29-Altura Endeavour Sportive on July 12, which forms part of the Stockton Cycling Festival from 11-13 July.

Cyclists Carole Jones and Yvonne Ramage made a complaint about the leaflet, which reportedly featured only young, male cyclists [presumably there's more to it than the cover shown above - ed]. Besides being sexist, they said it should be more inclusive of older and disabled people, reports the Northern Echo.

Jones, whom the paper says helps run the Cycle Sisters women’s cycling club, said: “Me and my friend, Yvonne, were at the cycle hub centre in Stockton when the leaflets came in.

"At first we just laughed, thinking it was a joke but then we started to take it more seriously. The message of the leaflet is, ‘come cycling if you are a young, affluent male.'

"It’s clear that Mrs Pankhurst’s work is not yet done,” she added, referring to the leader of the Suffragette movement.

Conservative councillor for Yarm, Andrew Sherris, gave his support to the women, saying: “This really is a very poor piece of publicity... and should be withdrawn.”

Stockton Council has done just that, and Ken Dixon, its cabinet member for arts, leisure and culture, said: “It was certainly not our intention to imply that women and girls cannot participate in every part of the festival and having listened to the concerns raised, we have decided to withdraw this particular leaflet and produce a redesigned version.”

According to the Northern Echo,  £514 had been spent on the leaflets, but they had not been distributed beyond the Stockton cycle hub.

Sustrans regional director Bryn Dowson commented: “We’re pleased that this leaflet will be replaced by one with a more inclusive message.”

• Former Team Raleigh rider Graham Briggs, now with Rapha Condor JLT

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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38 comments

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roo | 9 years ago
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This is ridiculous!

As a female cyclist, I was sent this (without the story) and asked what I felt about it. Nothing stood out as offensive. If you want segregate yourself, you will always find a reason to be offended! Should women be offended at the suggestion that they go shopping in town on a Saturday? No, it was his (fictional) partner's choice to go shopping, to partake in an activity she enjoys...just as he is doing. Personally, the advert reads "well, the missus is going shopping, I've got nowt planned! I'll do a sportive!". It's not like it reads "Well, my wife has lots of cleaning, cooking and child rearing to do and that's not MY job!"

As a female cyclist who doesn't enjoy shopping, my general response to the advert is "More fool on Sarah, I'd sooner ride my bike!". I do not feel that the advert is excluding me (as the photo is of a pro cyclist, I'm not a pro either!)

As for the comments about Cycletta, you'd be surprised how many men ride. No idea why but they're there, complete with their numbers....

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Dunks517 | 9 years ago
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If there's such a storm in a teacup then it is my right as a male to ride in one of the women only cycletta Sportives. If there was a men only sportive it would be banned/stopped/forced to change.

It's like loose women on TV. If a men only programme spoke the same way about women it would be withdrawn. If the diet coke break ads were reversed with a group of male builders leering over a scantily dress female office worker it would be banned.

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Raleigh | 9 years ago
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Is doing a sportive the day before a premier calendar a good idea Graham?

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cisgil23 | 9 years ago
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Why didn't Stockton Counil consult with the Cycle Hub before paying out for the printing.
Obviously they knew they existed, as it was there that they did the first leaflet drop.
All of this inter-sexual cr*p would have been avoided.

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Joeinpoole | 9 years ago
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I've never been to a sportive but from the many images I've seen of such events it appears that about 95% of the participants are males in the 25-55 age bracket __ a bit like the bloke on the poster really.

So ... Stockton Council are guilty of targeting their advertising at the demographic group who they think are most likely to be interested. How very *dare* they.

Should I get really upset that Fairy Liquid adverts (or similar domestic products) always feature savvy good-looking women for example? Does the exclusion of men in such adverts indicate that men never do the washing up or are too stupid to understand the particular qualities of Proctor & Gamble's products? Or are P&G just targeting their primary demographic?

What about the Ronseal "it does exactly what it says on the tin" adverts? I've never seen a woman feature on any of those. Why not?

This is just utter PC nonsense as far as I'm concerned. All those feigning faux-outrage need to get themselves a life.

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kie7077 replied to Joeinpoole | 9 years ago
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Should I get really upset that Fairy Liquid adverts (or similar domestic products) always feature savvy good-looking women for example?

Smiley face

Like this annoying woman, Harriet I think her name is.

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FluffyKittenofT... replied to Joeinpoole | 9 years ago
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Joeinpoole wrote:

I've never been to a sportive but from the many images I've seen of such events it appears that about 95% of the participants are males in the 25-55 age bracket __ a bit like the bloke on the poster really.

So ... Stockton Council are guilty of targeting their advertising at the demographic group who they think are most likely to be interested. How very *dare* they.

Should I get really upset that Fairy Liquid adverts (or similar domestic products) always feature savvy good-looking women for example? Does the exclusion of men in such adverts indicate that men never do the washing up or are too stupid to understand the particular qualities of Proctor & Gamble's products? Or are P&G just targeting their primary demographic?

What about the Ronseal "it does exactly what it says on the tin" adverts? I've never seen a woman feature on any of those. Why not?

This is just utter PC nonsense as far as I'm concerned. All those feigning faux-outrage need to get themselves a life.

Well those adverts are from private companies. So its up to them if they want to limit their market (or make correct judgements about who their customers are). As this is from a local council, so presumably funded by council tax, and is apparently about encouraging physical activity and more cycling for its own sake I don't see that its the same thing.

That's what I have a problem with - if it were an advert made entirely by a private profit-making company running Sportives, with no state involvement, purely as a commercial venture, I don't think it would bother me all that much (though it still would put me off the event, personally).

And I don't think targeting 'those they think are interested' is the same as sending a message to everyone else that this is not for them. This ad, with the whole 'girls going shopping' bit, seems to be more of the latter.

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Joeinpoole replied to FluffyKittenofTindalos | 9 years ago
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FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:

Well those adverts are from private companies. So its up to them if they want to limit their market (or make correct judgements about who their customers are). As this is from a local council, so presumably funded by council tax, and is apparently about encouraging physical activity and more cycling for its own sake I don't see that its the same thing.

That's what I have a problem with - if it were an advert made entirely by a private profit-making company running Sportives, with no state involvement, purely as a commercial venture, I don't think it would bother me all that much (though it still would put me off the event, personally).

And I don't think targeting 'those they think are interested' is the same as sending a message to everyone else that this is not for them. This ad, with the whole 'girls going shopping' bit, seems to be more of the latter.

Private companies? The sportive appears to be hosted and advertised by 'Velo 29' and simply sanctioned and/or sponsored by Stockton Council as part of their 'Cycling Festival'. It's not clear to me if Velo 29 are a private business, a non-profit or whatever. They're inviting 500-odd riders and charging them £15-25 for the privilege of participating and so generating about £10K in revenue.

Advertising is a notoriously hit-or-miss affair. As you say, private companies can spend their money how they wish, however if this *was* public funds being spent then I'd hope it was being as targeted as narrowly as possible ... because that's a far more efficient use of the money. There's absolutely no point in spending half the money advertising to women if it's well known that 99% of them simply aren't interested.

There's also another way of looking at this. The fact that 'Sarah' has decided to go shopping with the girls is essentially providing the 'permission' that her feeble man needs in order to participate in the event. Ergo ... Sarah is wearing the trousers in that relationship. Sarah didn't need permission to go shopping __ she's her own woman. If she *hadn't* chosen to go shopping then there's no way that her oppressed partner would have been *allowed* to do as he wished for a few hours.

This advert is clearly a sickening portrayal of how dominant women are in their relationships with their pathetic, henpecked men. Otherwise the bloke would be saying "Fuck Sarah. I'm doing what I want and she'd bloody well better have my dinner on the table for when I get back". That's what I'd be saying anyway. Last time I checked in my underpants there was a pair of bollocks in there. The bloke in the poster needs to grow himself a pair.

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Awavey replied to Joeinpoole | 9 years ago
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Joeinpoole wrote:

What about the Ronseal "it does exactly what it says on the tin" adverts? I've never seen a woman feature on any of those. Why not?
.

maybe you just dont pay enough attention to the ads  39
http://youtu.be/1o9X5zaMu-s
http://youtu.be/ZgbFSu99cDM

look Im not some bra burning feminista offended by everything that doesnt promote absolute equality, but when I saw that sportive ad I thought it was pretty rubbish that Stockton Council thought it was appropriate to rely on such lazy gender stereotyping to promote an event that should actually appeal to anyone interested in cycling full stop.

the fact these things are 95% male dominated is precisely the reason why they should be looking to widen the appeal of it, not effectively reinforce messages that do discourage women from taking up cycling recreationally or as a sport & that includes alot of the nonsense thats followed about it online since.

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FluffyKittenofT... | 9 years ago
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That cover-line just makes me cringe. I don't think you have to be conciously 'PC' to just find it naff.

I'm not into cycling-as-sport particularly anyway, but the implication that its stuck somewhere between Saudi Arabia and golf clubs, in terms of its social attitudes, doesn't really draw me to it.

Edit - personally I think that this came from a public body, a local council, makes it worse than similar things from entirely private businesses. Local councils are supposed to represent everyone, if a business wants to alienate its customers that's kind of self-limiting.

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KiwiMike | 9 years ago
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Just about every other ride in the world manages to advertise to its market successfully without alienating 50% of the population whilst looking like a monkey fornicating with an object of sporting apparatus.

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BigDummy | 9 years ago
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Quote:

Besides being sexist, they said it should be more inclusive of older and disabled people

This demand actually makes this style of advert impossible doesn't it?

The advert uses an imaginary man (let's call him Steven) who has an imaginary other half called Sarah. Imaginary Sarah happens to be planning an imaginary shopping excursion, so Steven is planning to go for a bike ride.

The reader (whoever they are) who is assumed to be willing to consider going for a bike ride is supposed to be attracted by Steven's enthusiasm for his plan, and to sign up for the bike ride also.

The complaint assumes that a woman will learn from the advertisement that she should go shopping, and older people, people with disabilities, and presumably minority ethnic origin people (although they aren't mentioned) will feel that the event has nothing to do with them.

If the leaflet designer had instead imagined a woman in her 60s who suffers from diabetes but who was going on the sportive while her imaginary son Oliver was going to the beautician to have his sack waxed that would (arguably) deal with the problem but at the risk of (a) making the event appear to have nothing to do with its (actual) core audience - which isn't a great advertising tactic - while (b) still running the risk of creating a load of additional unhelpful stereotypes.

The entire "imaginary person looks forward to weekend plan" style just has to be binned, doesn't it?

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shay cycles replied to BigDummy | 9 years ago
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BigDummy][quote wrote:

The entire "imaginary person looks forward to weekend plan" style just has to be binned, doesn't it?

Not really - it just needs to be done without the standard patronising gender stereotyping. For example the advert could just as easily show a couple or a group of people planning to go off and ride the sportive.

If they want to make the sportive look more attractive than alternatives such as shopping they can easily do that at the same time without stereotyping e.g. "what are you doing this weekend? Shopping, cutting the grass, watching the football....? Well we're all off to have fun riding the .... sportive"

You could equally have a series on the same theme with each showing a different individual who's looking forward to the weekend plan to ride the sportive.

Councils generally know how to be inclusive but they don't always get it right.

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mooleur | 9 years ago
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"I'm Brian and so's my wife!!"

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allez neg | 9 years ago
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Of course, "Sarah" might spend all week as a 6 foot tall hairy-arsed scaffolder called Dave, and its only on Saturdays that he puts on something fabulous to go shopping with the girls.

I know I do.

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farrell replied to allez neg | 9 years ago
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allez neg wrote:

Of course, "Sarah" might spend all week as a 6 foot tall hairy-arsed scaffolder called Dave, and its only on Saturdays that he puts on something fabulous to go shopping with the girls.

I know I do.

So that's you?

I didn't recognise you from the front.

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viveLaPants | 9 years ago
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Presumably the complainant will be outraged at the Hub webpage which shows a man on a bike, men with a bike and a woman.....walking kids.  21

I think its been blown out of all proportion it's a standard ad game using initial letters Saturday Sarah Shopping Stockton Sportive, maybe womens tiny brains can't compute that  24

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notfastenough | 9 years ago
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It's all a bit nonsense really - it is patronising to women, but apparently it's perfectly fine in the other direction - after all, I was up 5 times in the night to sort my twins out, but that's ok, because according to the advert, SMA 'know Mums', and they're 'doing great'.

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mooleur replied to notfastenough | 9 years ago
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notfastenough wrote:

It's all a bit nonsense really - it is patronising to women, but apparently it's perfectly fine in the other direction - after all, I was up 5 times in the night to sort my twins out, but that's ok, because according to the advert, SMA 'know Mums', and they're 'doing great'.

Ooooh those adverts really annoy me.

I'm feeling a day of rants coming on. Be prepared people of the internet!

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jollygoodvelo replied to notfastenough | 9 years ago
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notfastenough wrote:

It's all a bit nonsense really - it is patronising to women, but apparently it's perfectly fine in the other direction - after all, I was up 5 times in the night to sort my twins out, but that's ok, because according to the advert, SMA 'know Mums', and they're 'doing great'.

The "man who is useless around the house" - frequently featured in washing powder or cooking ingredient adverts - gets on my t!ts too.

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allez neg | 9 years ago
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It might be very clever marketing - el cheapo sexist leaflets printed in a very small quantity, then let it go viral. Hey presto - loadsa publicity, and quite possibly loads of women signing up as a form of protest.

Maybe, anyway.

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farrell | 9 years ago
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I've now got 'Hiphopopotamus Vs. Rhymenoceros' stuck in my head.

Yes, sometimes my lyrics are sexist
But you lovely bitches and hoes should know I'm trying to correct this.

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mooleur replied to farrell | 9 years ago
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farrell wrote:

I've now got 'Hiphopopotamus Vs. Rhymenoceros' stuck in my head.

Yes, sometimes my lyrics are sexist
But you lovely bitches and hoes should know I'm trying to correct this.

Hahaha ace. Thanks for the earworm!

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lookmanohands | 9 years ago
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 37 will somebody think of the children  13

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allez neg | 9 years ago
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Sounds like the start of a Bernard Right-on joke:

A gay black man, a jewish guy in a wheelchair and an elderly muslim woman go to a photoshoot for a cycle sportive leaflet..........what a splendid example of an ethnocentrically inclusive and diverse event.

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MrsK | 9 years ago
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Could someone please organise a sportive and call it MAMILfest? There are those women-only ones after all so it's only fair.

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mooleur | 9 years ago
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Don't get me wrong, I don't want to ostracise a demographic by laying down stereotypes here... however, I do find there is a strong correlation between needlessly expensive gear, adorned by helplessly out of shape males with temper issues.

There are, of course, plenty of male 40/50 something unshaven high end gear buying folk who'd kick my ass any day of the week, but at least they don't whinge about it if they don't, and at least they're polite when they pass me.

Incidentally this seems to be a similar demographic as those that whine on forums about cheating on fantasy games run by volunteers and complain about the fact that they're not in team Sky because they're obviously do a way better job than Sir Dave and everyone who wins a race is on drugs and that women's racing shouldn't be taken seriously because they're biologically incapable, but that's a whole other conversation.  3

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allez neg replied to mooleur | 9 years ago
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mooleur wrote:

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to ostracise a demographic by laying down stereotypes here... however, I do find there is a strong correlation between needlessly expensive gear, adorned by helplessly out of shape males with temper issues.

There are, of course, plenty of male 40/50 something unshaven high end gear buying folk who'd kick my ass any day of the week, but at least they don't whinge about it if they don't, and at least they're polite when they pass me.

Incidentally this seems to be a similar demographic as those that whine on forums about cheating on fantasy games run by volunteers and complain about the fact that they're not in team Sky because they're obviously do a way better job than Sir Dave and everyone who wins a race is on drugs and that women's racing shouldn't be taken seriously because they're biologically incapable, but that's a whole other conversation.  3

I wholeheartedly agree with all of the above. Now get back into the kitchen!  3

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farrell | 9 years ago
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I'd imagine Emmeline had more pressing matters than complaining about badly dressed dicksplashes mucking about on bikes on a Saturday afternoon.

But then I'd also imagine that the best move to stop a leaflet I found offensive being seen by a large audience isn't to take a scan and run to the press with it, thus handing the company and event you're angry with a huge boost to their advertising.

You could also say there is also a curious logic of two people who run a women's only cycling club complaining about inclusivity.

All seems a bit storm in tea cup really.

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mooleur replied to farrell | 9 years ago
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farrell wrote:

I'd imagine Emmeline had more pressing matters than complaining about badly dressed dicksplashes mucking about on bikes on a Saturday afternoon.

But then I'd also imagine that the best move to stop a leaflet I found offensive being seen by a large audience isn't to take a scan and run to the press with it, thus handing the company and event you're angry with a huge boost to their advertising.

You could also say there is also a curious logic of two people who run a women's only cycling club complaining about inclusivity.

All seems a bit storm in tea cup really.

Absolutely. If you have a look at the comments on the facebook article (repost from road.cc) it only serves as testament to this. It's slightly cringeworthy to be honest.

The kneejerk media reaction to this has only made the situation worse, more average sportive geezers are gonna view all women cyclists as raging narky feminists (yeah most of us are...) - instead of just "people who ride bikes" - which is what we ALL are and what we should all be seen as.

I don't think it's wrong that the publication has been pulled, but the subsequent actions and reactions to it are not healthy. It's as bad as the drivers v cyclists thing, it's like men vs women!

I'm all for sticking up for "our bit" of the sport and making sure we all work to create a healthy, welcoming environment for all people to enjoy - but outing the publishers right away, and then whipping up the story to encourage a flurry of naysayers only makes things worse.

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