I too think @saskia has an an important point here.
But it's possible to do something. I, for one, try to actively keep some sort of gender balance when deciding who to follow. Does it work? Kinda 🤷♀️: 49 male, 35 female as far as I've counted correctly (not counting org accounts, bots and - and there the problem begins people where I'm unsure or who don't identify within the binary scheme).
I think apart from actively keeping at least an eye on whose content you choose to see, you can try to be inviting, fair and chill.
One example for the bike community: my wife and I cycle. She uses an E-Bike, I don't. Do I mock her for that? No. Do I still mock her occasionally for other bike-related things? Yeah... Should I be better than that? Absolutely!
Any other ideas always welcome! ✌️
@saskia 🔗 https://toot.community/users/saskia/statuses/109591740405457826
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Still struggling with gender imbalance on here. No offence guys but I'd love to see a more equal representation of genders on here, esp talking about #cycling #activetravel #BikeTooter #ukcyclingtweeps
@cweickhmann hi Christian, I would like to give you my impression that find it disturbing and sad that the first example you would choose is whether or not you mock your wife for using an e-bike 😞
I’m certain you mean well, since your post is about improving gender balance and by association being more welcoming to women. But of myriads examples, I find that the one you chose is awkward and defeats the point.
@koalie
Well, it was just a random example. And I know that people in general, but often women, are being mocked by male cyclists if they choose an e-bike. So, the way this was supposed to be understood is: don't mock ppl (in particular women) for choosing an e-bike.
I'm not sure if we misunderstand each other here.
@cweickhmann we do not misunderstand each other. Thanks for speaking up in the first place. 🙏
I think that choosing positive examples is preferable. I acknowledge that your first association is very telling of how widespread it may be.
I have a recent positive example: at the bike workshop, the male clerk seemed happy to be servicing my e-mountain bike, possibly because I was the only female customer among several. I took his eagerness as encouraging 👍 We want more of the good vives!
@koalie
That's good. Don't know if I'll get her this far, as she's only in Instagram land at this point.
I'm an electrical engineer, a profession which is almost comically male-dominated, especially in Germany. And so, there's a lot of misogyny. And the only way I've found so far to stay sane and actually change something is pointing it out, right on the nose. Which is, admittedly, awkward and should've been explained in this context in the first place.
Anyhow: thanks for the exchange. I'll keep the lessons in mind!
@koalie
And one of the reasons I had this in mind (apart from the fact that the original post was rather from the cycling bubble) was this episode of The War on Cars podcast I had recently listened to.
https://thewaroncars.org/2022/08/16/all-bodies-on-bikes-with-marley-blonsky/
Where Marly Blonsky explains how she is often approached in a very unpleasant way for choosing an e-bike.
I feel I need to clarify this because I specifially think it does *not* defeat the point. Because if you're following transport topics, they're very male-centric and it's an everywhere-topic.
Then again, I respect your feedback and hope this makes my comment less awkward in retrospect.