Bike Scoop is a community of people interested in cycling - ranging from urban biking to leisure to bike racing. The first post comes from Araceli Garcia who lives in Brooklyn, New York and traverses the city on her bike with her husband Claudio.
Hello, my name is Araceli. My story is about how I learned to ride bicycle. I was not fortunate to have a bicycle while growing up. By the time I was in my late twenties, I was eager to learn to ride. I looked at people riding bicycle and it looked very easy to do.
My husband is a cyclist. When we first met, I thought he was a professional rider. He had a T-Mobile bicycle and matching uniform all in the same pink-white colors. He wanted to teach me to ride, but I was so scared to try his bicycle. His bike was too tall for me and very light which made it seem not solid. The wheels were also very thin. I thought that due to that I would fall easily because it's hard to get my balance. I gave up after a few tries on his bike.
One day I was reading the newspaper and I found an article about Bike New York, a program which provides classes for children and adults in different locals in New York City. I registered to take my first class. In the meeting there were three or four teachers to assist us. We were fifteen students, all of us from different ages and ethnicity. This fact gave me confidence about learning to ride bicycle at my age. Age is not important to start to learn something new. There were people in their twenties through their sixties.
To begin our class, the teacher welcomed us and gave us instructions on how to adjust a helmet properly. He explained the mechanics of the bike, then took off its pedals. He wanted us to be able to feel relaxed and try to walk with the bike and then bent our feet forward to get balance. It was a fun time.
In my second class I felt more confident. The class started with wearing a helmet and again no pedals attached to the bicycle. Then the teacher observed us seeing who managed well to advance to the next steps. He installed the pedals again and gave new instructions. I walked the bike for a while until I put my feet in the pedals and rode for 30 seconds or more. It was an incredible feeling like flying. After my third class I registered for my first organized ride.
The ride was in Pennsylvania. It was called The Covered Bridges Ride. It had different distances and speed levels. It included rest stops. Participants could stop whenever they needed. I choose the 20 miles ride which started at 7:30 in the morning. I rode very slowly as it was my first opportunity sharing the rode with other riders. I liked to look around and enjoyed the scenery. I was happy when I saw the halfway point rest stop as I was so thirsty. I drank water, ate cookies and rested for a while. Then I rode the bike back to the start this time choosing to ride in the road with cars. I felt better managing the bike until I met a stick of wood that made me fall in the road. It wasn't a large piece of wood, but I lost my balance passing it. I hurt my knee, but with pain I continued to ride to the finish. I changed my clothes and waited my husband as he did the century ride.
Together we went to eat lunch and share with other our experiences about the day.
They had a great lunch consisting of pull pork sandwiches, fruits and cookies which were all very delicious.
I hope to participate and have fun in another ride this summer.
If you are interested in sharing stories about biking, please join the community and reach out to us to post your stories.
As A Female Gamer, I've Experienced The Sexism In Gaming That Far Too Many Women Do
Have you ever been told to "go back to the kitchen"?
I've played video games ever since I was little. Games like Mario Bros, Pokémon and (even occasionally) Minecraft were the pastime for my brother and I; they're fun, and it's easy to connect with friends and family over games. Only recently did I gather up the courage to start playing huge multiplayer FPS games.
Though it may not seem like a big deal to some, there's a major difference between playing Mario Kart on your Nintendo Switch and playing large multiplayer FPS games like Valorant or CS:GO. Not only are these games faster and more intense (unless you're crazily cracked at Mario Kart), but the environment can be drastically different for women, and that was something I was all too aware of.
My personal experience in games like these have been pretty lucky so far. I speak on voice chat sparingly, and only queue up with people I know. But even I haven't escaped the classic "go make a sandwich" taunt or the original "it's a female" sneer from people who are supposed to be my teammates. These comments don't seem like much, but as someone who only casually plays games with friends, it quickly turns a night of fun into one of tension and frustration.
Of course, that isn't to imply that comments like these are in any way OK if you're not a casual gamer. The simple fact is that these comments are never OK.
Part of the problem, I think, is the prevailing idea that video games are meant for boys. Though video games are often marketed towards men, women have been a major chunk of the gaming audience for a long time, peaking at 48% in 2014 and settling around 45% from 2018-2019. The misconception that women are outsiders in video games gives immature men or teenagers the confidence to be outwardly toxic and brashly sexist, and is truly a delusion that needs re-writing.
Women belong in video games and do not deserve to be taunted or criticized, especially not in response to their gender.
Earlier, I said that I got off easy, and that's true. Many female gamers have been sharing their experiences with sexism in Valorant over TikTok, Twitch, Reddit, and several other platforms, and have much worse examples and experiences than I. While reddit threads give voices to the many women plagued by sexism, there are still several in the thread countering that trolling insults are just a part of the gaming experience and that this overreaction has a simple remedy: thicker skin.
While it's immeasurably difficult to miss the point when so many women (and men) have painstakingly typed it out for you on Reddit, I find it much harder to miss when you see it in action.
This TikTok posted by Tiffae shows the verbal abuse women face on the daily: getting called a "good for nothing fucking whore" or told that her teammate hopes she gets "raped in an alley". Tiffae writes in the description that this is merely the harassment she receives on the daily, and despite it all, she still loves gaming. If that isn't a thick skin, I don't know what is, but having a thick skin is not the point.
No one deserves this kind of harassment and no one should ever feel entitled to demean someone like this.
Though I wish I could say this behavior is limited to Valorant, that just isn't true. Sexism in gaming has a long history, a notable example being Twitch streamer Hafu's experience in a 2016 professional World of Warcraft tournament. Competing in the tournament, she encountered a team called "Gonna Rape Hafu At Regionals", and was understandably appalled and hurt by the name. If actions like this are acceptable at the professional level, what does that say about games that aren't monitored or watched by anyone?
This issue is not an easy one to tackle, but it is an issue that has gained traction thanks to the outspokenness of gamers around the world. Games like Valorant are taking strides to protect their minority gamers, and in the meantime, several Discords are popping up, acting as a safe Haven (See what I did there, Valorant players?) for female gamers.In the end, I hope most gamers agree with Tiffae in choosing to continue gaming despite the hate and toxicity. If I've learned anything, it's that the best way to improve the community is to change it yourself by standing up for others and speaking up. So please, if you hear someone berating a fellow gamer, plant your feet as though they were a spike in Valorant, and stand against it