A BIKE IS NOT JUST A BIKE

A salute to the bicycle as a tool of liberation for women of the past and present.

“A bike is just a bike,” Jeanneret writes, “unless you were a girl on a bike. Then it was a powerful statement.” Mixing images of modern children on wheels with historical scenes of riders briskly exchanging heavily ruffled skirts for bloomers, pedaling off to work, carrying suffragist signs, and breaking athletic and other records, Pereira depicts a racially diverse cast of girls and women speeding proudly across the pages on bikes of different eras or posing with safety helmets and, sometimes, medals. That exuberance is reflected in the author’s commentary, which mixes scornful references to early bogus claims that bike riding was “unladylike” and could lead to “bicycle face” (a condition made up by sexist doctors), bowlegs, or internal illnesses with gleeful insights about how the bicycle helped, and is still helping, women defy expectations about their proper places and duties. “You’re a champion for equality. You’re creating possibilities.” This paean to progress in gender equality includes nods to transgender and Paralympics champions, too; the book closes with a fuller profile of Annie Londonderry, a journalist and self-described “new woman” who biked around the world from 1894 to 1895.

Vigorous and heartfelt.