I should probably just shut up

[darkemeralds]

BikePortland, a bike blog I read daily, had some good coverage today of an unplanned bridge closure affecting a whole bunch of bike-riding commuters (including me). The post elicited lots of comments, many of them straying into broader issues of city streets, traffic management and transportation.

Someone said "All of this insanity, just to put in a street car that's slower than walking and poses a major hazard to its faster and cheaper counterpart, the bicycle. But I understand though, fat people need a way to get to Next Adventure [a sporting goods store]!"



I thought for a couple of minutes, decided I couldn't stay silent, and responded:

As a person who doesn't meet your (implied) standards of acceptable physical size, can I just say how very sick I am of fat bigotry? Not to mention transportation bigotry.

I don't love streetcars either, but a) not everyone can ride a bike; b) not everyone who needs public transit is fat; and c) not everyone who bicycles every single day is (or gets) thin. I'm living proof.

So please check your privilege and reconsider comments that demean, hurt, and alienate at least one member of this community. Thanks.

Then I felt all skittish and scared for speaking up, afraid I was going to get reprimanded by the attractive thin people.

The trouble is, on a blog like BikePortland, I'm such an insignificant minority that nobody even bothers with that. I'm just an embarrassment. It's a weird spot to be in.

Comments

[kis]

Good for you! I'll be interested to hear the response.

Which reminds me ...

[darkemeralds]

Which reminds you...? What'd I miss?

There's been no response. Every time I make a comment in this general area on that blog, it goes completely ignored. There is a ringing silence, the silence (I imagine) that precedes embarrassed throat-clearing and subject-changing after a social gaffe.

That's the kind of reader who mostly frequents BikePortland--young, fit, athletic, and sure they're right. I really do read it for the articles (which are excellent), but I get sucked into comment threads now and then.

[kis]

It reminded me that someone was promised a response after offering a similarly unpopular opinion. I checked. Nothing has been forthcoming, despite three subsequent posts.

As for the young, fit, slender cyclists - perhaps they'll have absorbed something that makes them think twice?

[darkemeralds]

Oh! *headdesk* Duh. Don't you just hate it when your elegant subtlety is wasted on a ditz-brain?

I can only hope that one or two people reading comments on that blog picked up a hint. I don't really need to educate people--I'm reacting more out of a need to speak than to be heard--but if education happens, that's good too.

[kis]

I don't really need to educate people--I'm reacting more out of a need to speak than to be heard

Yes. That's something we rarely do, I think. Or we undervalue it because there's no concrete pay-off. Speaking even when we don't expect opinions to be changed by it is still worthwhile.