The first 2 comments on HN on this article about women in cycling are talking about men in cycling instead.
It’s fascinating. I can’t tell if it’s a sign of HN commenters never talking about the topic itself, about HN being predominantly male, or the fact that women issues are constantly ignored in society and men tend to make things about themselves instead.
... as a point of contrast between how men's and women's health are discussed. Here, HN illustrates the issue raised in the article. We could hope to do better, primed with such information, to have a curious conversation about how to prevent labial swelling before it requires labiaplasty.
Balls and shafts stick out more than labia, so in this situation, it's entirely fair to suspect that the remedies for male cycling problems are of (even more) benefit to women. You know, like split saddles that don't poke at the crotch region, but support the "sit bones". Which are unlike the garbage saddles that come most cheap, bicycle-shaped objects.
Do you suppose that this first-order reasoning was not available to the riders, their doctors, and saddle designers? Would you be willing to consider that balls and shafts may stick out differently than labia; and how addressing those differences may be more fruitful than reducing a 3-dimensional problem to a one-dimensional consideration of "more vs less"?
The cutout saddles actually cause similar injury in women. That's a big point in the article. Women need specialized support in that region, not a complete cutout.
There's famously more men in tech and people like to talk about themselves or apply a situation to themselves. I fully expected comments to talk about how this affects men.
I believe you'll find the reverse happens too; talk about an issue affecting men to a prominently female audience and the topic will be changed to how it affects women.
That's not an excuse. Men can and should be capable of "oh shit, we should fix this bad experience women have!" Without needing to center men's experiences.
> That's not an excuse. Men can and should be capable of "oh shit, we should fix this bad experience women have!"
Why?
I never see any of the womens books, magazines and websites my wife visit ever go "Oh shit, we should fix this bad experience for men first" before discussing anything.
Demographics discuss what they find relevant, usually. Why is this a problem for you?
You aren't paying attention to women's media if you think that's the case. Plenty of women's media discusses the difficulties in men's lives. And when they do, for instance talking about testicular cancer, they tend to stay away from, "ok but breast cancer is worse actually. "
We should all be comfortable lifting each other up, rather than focusing only on our own demographics. Otherwise those without power will suffer needlessly.
For what it's worth, I didn't downvote you for being trans; that wasn't obvious at all until you edited your comment (yet my question specifically allowed for that possibility). I downvoted you for being reductive and dismissive of the problem; and for suggesting a "solution" that the article clearly describes as a common and inadequate approach to the problem whose application results in injury requiring surgery.
>I downvoted you for being reductive and dismissive of the problem; and for suggesting a "solution" that the article clearly describes as a common and inadequate approach to the problem whose application results in injury requiring surgery.
You should re-read the article. Your interpretation doesn't align with my takeaway from it, and I'm curious why that is.
The article mirrored my advice. Their number one golden rule was padded shorts: "Endura’s Pro SL bib shorts, which use silicone in the pad to prevent "bottoming out," unlike foam."
I suggested investing in a good pair of women's padded cycling underwear without specifying a brand. I've never even heard of the Endura brand.
>For what it's worth, I didn't downvote you for being trans;
What an absurd statement. It's a) not a fucking competition and b) nearly impossible for you to know that and c) not going to be universal for all balls-havers and all labia-havers.
Also, like, what is your comment even aiming to achieve?
Are you hoping people will be like, "oh yes, I'm interested in learning how we could improve the lives of women but this insightful comment about balls made me really think about how I shouldn't"?
>What an absurd statement. It's a) not a fucking competition and b) nearly impossible for you to know that and c) not going to be universal for all balls-havers and all labia-havers.
As a trans person, having both equipment, and being a long distance cyclist. I was just sharing my experience.
But as usual the anti-trans people on HN have censored my comment.
>Also, like, what is your comment even aiming to achieve?
Sharing my opinion in a way that people hate I guess?
How dare I share the recommendation for women's padded underwear.
Then I retract b) in this case. You are in the nearly impossible case - a woman who does know that, for them, the situation was worse as a balls-haver.
But it's hard to generalize, and the original comment did an extremely typical thing in men's spaces -- taking a woman's experience and immediately responding with "but men also!" Could be your comment simply coincidentally fit the pattern.
Also, extremely fuck that transphobe poster. They can eat shit.
A lot of people including me have great experience with gel-padded saddles (Sportourer FLX in my case). No chafing or any other issue even after >100km rides. On the other hand, I can't ride unpadded saddles even with well-padded shorts; it's just too painful. I've tried several.