A century ago it was scandalous for a woman to wear pants but today the scandal is surrounding a woman wearing a skirt, or rather what she was doing in the skirt. While biking around New York City last May, Jasmijn Rickman was pulled over by an NYPD officer. Her crime? Wearing a short skirt and “distracting the cars.”
Never mind the fact that unless we’re Tow Mater in the movie Cars, it’s the drivers who would be distracted and not the machines, but have the NYPD ever seen Lady Gaga? If pantsless-ness is a crime, there are certainly more flagrant offenders. And if it’s the distraction that’s the issue, I’ve seen plenty of men in tight bike shorts that are far more, um, eye catching than a girl in a skirt.
Rickman was confused at first and didn’t take the officer seriously until he threatened her with a citation at which point she returned to her hotel and put on pants. This past week her fellow New Yorkers, also confused about how a woman’s clothing choices can be held legally responsible for someone else’s actions, staged a “skirt bike ride” in protest. Lots of beautiful women – and even one dude – showed up in an array of skirts to ride around the city and show their support for a woman’s right to wear whatever she feels comfortable in.
New York City is not alone in the skirts-on-bikes controversy. The Sartorialist recently featured a picture of an Italian woman riding her bike in nothing but a madras button-down shirt and a pair of flip-flops. About half of the commenters on the site wondered where the woman’s pants were. And most of the respondents (as far as I could tell) were other women. While most pointed out the chafing risk, many were also concerned about the flashing risk and more than a few worried about the men “circling her like predators”. (Off topic but slightly irritating were the vast number of comments praising the picture of a “bigger” or “curvy” girl. Just like the last time this blew up on his site, I have to say: this girl is TINY.)
I’m a girl who loves her skirts and dresses. (Side note: I just made the cuuutest high-waisted pencil skirt out of a vintage pillow case!!) I wear them several times a week winter or summer, you know how I love working out in them and I’ve even worn them on bikes (albeit with capris underneath – personally I wouldn’t ride a bike in a shirt/dress that short without something underneath). They’re flattering, comfortable and airy – arguably the perfect biking attire. Seriously, have you seen Zooey Deschanel in 100 Days of Summer? Adorable and not a car wreck in sight.
Do you wear skirts everywhere and anywhere or do you save them for occasions where you can safely keep your knees together? What do you think about Rickman’s skirt? The Italian woman’s shirt/dress?
I don’t really wear pants. Okay I do NOT wear pants – pretty much dresses and skirts exclusively with a few slack shorts and a few Nike Dri-Fits thrown in.. so as you can imagine, I’m going to say you CAN wear a skirt while riding a bike. I do it all the time…. then again I ride the most feminine bike in the world (pink and green walled tires… check. pom pom streams…. check. striped handlebars with hearts…. check. flowers… check. basket…. check).
I think it matter the length of the skirt/dress and what you have on underneath it. I wouldn’t wear a mini skirt and ride my bike. Vintage looking sundress? You betcha!
oh and wasn’t one of the reasons for the original difference in the design of males and females bikes due in part to women wearing dresses and skirts?? (well, that and for ease to mount the bike?)
Interesting topic! I love wearing skirts!! Usually I wear bikers or something underneath just in case!
I think a skirt is perfectly fine! Like you said, mens’ bike shorts can be extremely distracting. Er, or so I hear. Not that I’ve ever noticed (Yeah, right!) When I lived in New York I would see guys riding while wearing super-tight shorts and no shirts, and thought how unfair it was that they could go around the city like that and not be harassed. So why was this woman cited, I have to wonder?
As for the button-down shirt, well, it wouldn’t be my choice, but if it works for her, who am I to judge?
I wore a skirt for 18 months as a missionary and I have to say that there are only certain types of skirts that lend themselves to good bike riding. Tight skirts and pencil skirts are usually a no go. I preferred long and flowy but occassionally it would get stuck in my chain so I started tucking them up between my legs which if you are going for fashion makes you look pretty foolish. I think that cute girl wearing a skirt is just fine. If the NYPD want to arrest someone for distracting the cars, why don’t they arrest the Naked Cowboy?
Finland is full of girls biking in skirts but we usually don’t wear anything that short. It is just a cultural feature. American women wear shorter skirts, not that there is anything wrong with that. I personally would never wear a skirt on a bike, that is because I never ride a bike and do not own a skirt.
The woman who was almost cited was a tourist visiting from Holland.
The past few years I havent worn than many skirts. I just don’t have any that fit me and are stylish..they are all stretched out from when I lived in them while pregnant 🙂 Nothing more comfy than an elastic waist skirt though!
And you see more skin in the ads of women’s magazines than you do in these pics. People need to get a life. Who cares! These girls are wearing short skirts. Would I be in trouble b/c my half sleeve tattoo distracts cars? I mean really..where do we draw the line on this nonsense!
If you need someone to take that blue skirt you posted about off your hands, you just let me know. 😉 Or, I know someone who makes a mean wrap skirt.
for this very reason 99.8% of the skirts I own have built in shorts.
I grownup that way (shout out to dirty red and american apparel)!
I find the idea of riding in a short skirt a little odd, but I don’t think it should be illegal. But then again, I’m in Colorado so cycling usually means a real road bike, which would be crazy uncomfortable without the padding of real cycling shorts
I love skirts — I have the hardest time finding pants/shorts that actually fit (without having to take them to a tailor) so I stick with what does fit: Skirts!
Honestly as long as they have underwear on I don’t care about the skirt — although I think the shirtdress picture is a tad short.
Okay, new rule: Women must wear skirts when riding a bike. Hey, I don’t make the rules.
I also think ticketing her for it is absolutely ridongculous. Now, if she was riding commando, I’d understand. The distraction; still not the ticket.
I’m still in disbelief that this story can be true. Did we just zoom back to the days when a woman is “asking to be raped” because she’s dressed too provocatively?
I personally don’t wear skirts on a bike, but I have the right to wear a bikini if I want to.
Oh, and I love all of those outfits in the photos.
There’s more than one guy in my town that adds to the local motto (keep Austin wierd) by riding their booked in traffic in nothing but a speedo. One guy’s is lime green. It’s ridiculous to call that a crime, unless there is actually some indecent exposure, then people need to get over it.
have you seen BitchCakes from NY? She bikes in skirts and stilettos everywhere!!!!
http://www.sherylyvette.com/
I was going to say BitchCakes does it everywhere! Skirt’s pantyhose, stiletto’s, tube tops, the girl is out there all the time!
I’m not a stiletto and skirt biker, but definitely a wedge and skirt bike — glad there are more of us out there 🙂
I wear skirts and dresses a lot during the summer. I don’t see why wearing a skirt while riding a bike is a crime – though I wouldn’t do it in a skirt that short, but I probably wouldn’t wear anything that short out in public anyway.
I live in skirts from the moment that the weather allows it. I have one on right now, in fact. I ride my bike in them daily. I have never (that I know of) flashed anyone or caused a single accident (again, that I know of). I don’t usually wear anything under them, but I also don’t ake a habit of wearing short skirts, so this isn’t really a problem.
Please tell me there is an online tutorial for how to make a high-wasited pencil skirt out of a pillowcase. I have a pillowcase and a need for a new skirt.
I live in Italy and most of the women over 50 in my neighborhood exclusively wear skirts and dresses and they ride bikes everywhere. Granted, those ladies aren’t wearing tiny skirts, but the younger women often do. I’m not sure the Italians even recognize the concept of a skirt being “too short”. As far as traffic goes…the guys in the white spandex bike shorts? The ones that are sweaty and opaque? It’s hard enough to drive over here without having to look at that!
I am a fairly average American woman – size 10 mostly. But over here, I’m a gigantic freak of nature. (They use the word “robusto”, but whatever.) These women all have tiny little skeletons like birds. I could snap their scrawny pelvises with a good hip bump. In fact, my friend who is a similar size as me was told by an Italian man, “You are like…how do you say…Goliath.” So much for Italian charm, huh? But my point is that woman in the photo is definitely a bigger girl for Italy.
I’m not a skirt-wearing type of girl, but I don’t see any reason to not wear a skirt while riding a bike. If others can stop looking long enough to drive, that’s their problem.
By the way, I love Jasmijn’s skirt! Adorable!
One of my favorite things to do every year on the first warm day of spring is to go biking in a skirt! I love the feeling of the air on my legs! And quite frankly, even if my skirt blows up and shows some underwears, it’s still less revealing than the bikini I wear on a regular basis, so who the heck cares??
I like the idea of cycling in a knee-length twirly skirt. It seems very pseudo-european to me! I wouldn’t feel comfortable biking in a short skirt without bike shorts underneath. Actually, to be honest, I do’n’t even work in airy skirt without shorts underneath (one windy day + playground duty at the school made me realize just how good a decision THAT was!). But I certainly don’t want anyone else telling me what I can and cannot wear! I work with 12 years-olds whose shorts are so short that you can see their entire butts. IHonestly ,they make that cyclist look downright modest! Gotta love the whole “women she-devils tempting the poor defenseless men” approach to life…way to disrespect both men AND women! (And now, that Italian woman is NOT “bigger”. Give me a break.)
(As an aside: I’m still having problems in the comment box. My cursor is above and behind where I’m actually typing, and there’s a huge lage between typing and the letter showing up. Hence me not correcting my typos. Any suggestions? Thanks!)
i have the same issue with cursor/leaving comments! 🙁
I can’t believe she got pulled over!! I’ve seen worse…and you’re right–Lady Gaga is a far worse offender!
And that girl is NOT bigger or curvy. Look at her arms–tiny! I totally agree with you!
As for biking in a skirt? Not for me…too self-conscious and I’d be worried about the breeze!
Um … those awful, skin-tight biker’s shorts are WAY more of a crime than a woman looking beautiful and comfortable in a skirt.
Seems like an inappropriate response on the police’s part!!
I like the padding in my bike shorts, so I wouldn’t ride in a skirt, but a round-town sort of bike probably makes that less of an issue.
It infuriates me that women’s clothing choices are responsible for the actions of others. Yea for those who staged the skirt bike ride. That’s ridiculous, and I think I’d have wanted the ticket so I could sue the cop for stupidity and teach him a lesson. (Not that I’m a huge proponent of frivolous law suits, but I get so frustrated with things like this.)
Unless you have a skirt guard on your rear wheel (which are hard to find in the U.S. — hell, you can hardly find a chain guard anymore), you either have to wear pants or a short skirt. It covers her butt, so I don’t see anything wrong with it. I’ve ridden my bike in a skirt tons of times, though normally it’s either my favorite skort or a somewhat fitted denim skirt (fitted enough not to flap around, but not so tight I can’t move my legs).
The day they mandate cycling shorts and jerseys for public bike riding is the day I stop riding my bike. Or the day I move to Canada.
Could she really have gotten ticketed for that? I mean, REALLY? That sounds incredibly illegal. If being female and wearing a skirt is a traffic hazard, then they need to go find the Jersey Shore and start handing out tickets like candy.
Yeah. People walk around in less clothing than that, not sure how riding a bike is any different. Would I get a ticket for walking around in a bikini? Then how is that more distracting? /sigh.
I normally bike in bike shorts for the comfort, but occasionally, I’ve worn running skirts, granted with the built in underwear, but um… that’s just the same as if I was wearing a skirt and boy shorts.
Some people seriously are lame.
I can’t believe the audacity of that cop. Has he seen the billboards in NYC? If so, then he should be aware that they cause more distractions (with Lady Gaga and underwear ads all over them) than one woman on one street riding a bike. NYC is about free expression. Take that away and you’ve simply got a city, not the Big Apple. Hey Officer, lay off!
I like the tutu riding in your first pic!!! Honestly, women get blamed for so much… guys, if you can’t keep it straight, don’t blame the gal. Sure, something way too short is kinda weird to me but still, it is the drivers prob!
I don’t wear any skirts or dresses anymore cause my feet don’t fit in anything but sneakers due to wide & bunions PLUS with the fad pat loss, it hurts too much to wear regular shoes. What will I do when I find a job – insist I can wear my Hokas to work! 😉
I LOVE the first girl’s skirt! super cute! and you are going to need to post some pics of your pillow case skirt, because i want to see this creation!! I’ve biked in a skirt, ran in a skirt, swam in a skirt (that was unintentional, actually) and skipped in a skirt, and never had a problem..I think as long as you aren’t naked, then what’s the big deal? 🙂
I’ve ridden bikes in everything from a floor length full circle skirt (tucked that up, yo) to a mini skirt. The miniskirt actually worked best — it flounces down over the seat behind you, covers everything important, and you don’t risk getting it caught in anything. Otherwise you need something just past the knees at least, or if you get any speed at all it’s Marilyn Monroe all over the place. None of that is any reason NOT to wear a skirt. The whole ticketing thing would be kind of funny if it weren’t for the trend in making women responsible for everyone else’s actions. I mean, I know women can be distracting in some circumstances. A friend of mine’s belly-dance troup stopped traffic accidentally once, doing a performance in a public park. But it’s not *their* fault someone rubbernecked into a fender-bender. You park the car, *then* watch the performance, not the other way around…
Love skirts! I’ve been shooting on location with B this week and half the time I’ve been wearing skirts even though I’ve been helping move grip and sand bags around. They are comfortable. Granted they arent short skirts that would be un comfortable for me and possibly for others. It’s important to me to keep others in mind.
Love ZD’s clothes in 500 days of summer. That was the best part of that movie!!!
I wear dresses whenever I can, especially in the summer! Come on, how else do you catch a draft!? Seriously though, I’d run around in my dress if something fun came up while I was in it. I just thinking about the undies I have underneath and try to be conscious of if I’m accidentally flashing people or not.
Quit trying to pin people’s stupidity on an even more stupid reason, aka what someone is wearing!
By the way, I’m going to take a quick moment to say that this is the same exact instance as people rubber necking accidents on the highway and causing traffic jams on the other side of the road. Why aren’t they issuing warnings to the drivers who crashed for that?
I biked to class in college and often in skirts, but never in short mini skirts because that’s practically impossible to do without flashing, and I’m not comfortable with that. There are ways to change how you peddle so the flashing risk is reduced if the skirt isn’t too short.
That said… I’m really surprised the offense was distracting cars. I was expecting to read that she got a citation for indecent exposure or something (though her dress is not nearly as short or tight as I was expecting – and for the love of college girls everywhere, wearing underwear under your skirt if you’re biking helps too.) A citation for indecent exposure if she was flashing people while biking wouldn’t have bothered me that much, but the distracting cars bit… I doubt she was more distracting than those billboards in Times Square that are really tv screens. I mean geez, it’s New York City. It’s not like you move more than 2 blocks every ten minutes. I don’t like this idea of blaming the girl for someone else’s actions when the drivers should have their eyes on the road and other cars and not on a girl’s crotch anyway.
Why can’t people just let us live and breathe in our skirts and be happy?! First of all, you rock the bike/skirt look. Second, people should give skirt/biking a try. It is kind of fabulous. Third I can’t believe this is such a controversial topic. Don’t people have other things to talk about??
xo,
Sarah
Get Up & Go
Oh and it is only a crime if the skirt is heinous. Haha!
xo,
Sarah
Get Up & Go
I ride primarily for exercise because it’s not possible for transportation around my area. However if I lived in a more bike friendly area I would bike to work and around town for fun…both of which usually involve skirts. 🙂
Holy cow, that just makes me see red. (The ticket, not the skirt.) I’ll be over here spluttering incoherently in the corner . . .
(Also, as Kat pointed out in the very first/second comment, a big part of the reason women’s bikes are designed differently from men’s is precisely because women used to wear freakin’ skirts all the time: the lower, slanted bar allowed the skirt to drape down and cover the ladybits. It’s not like skirts on bikes is new thing, for the love of Pete.)
I have nothing to add on the bike skirt issue. However, it seems as though NYC cops may be bike-haters in general. This guy in NYC got cited for “not staying in the bike paths.” Then he made a video about what happens if you stay in a NYC bike path.
Hilarity ensues: Link to video
Please – I’m working at Starbucks right now and the only thing I’m wearing is a tank top and flip flops. It’s the summer. I need to breathe.
I’ve worn skirts on my bike plenty of times. Usually longer (down to my knees-ish), flowy ones. They are comfortable to ride in and I don’t ever feel like I’m being obscene. I’d say that I’ve probably been more scandalous in short shorts than I ever am in a skirt on a bike …
I’d love to see how you made your pillow-case skirt! Do post!
I almost exclusively wear skirts when biking. Actually, I think there are a lot of benefits to biking in a skirt (one being that you don’t get as obvious of sweat mark on your butt and another being that biking in pants gives me an uncomfortable and unnattractive muffin-top). If people are getting distracted by a pretty regular outfit, that’s totally their own fault. unrelatedly, though, I’ve been cautioned against wearing a skirt due to the possibility of the skirt/dress getting caught in the wheel or something… so that might be worth looking out for.
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If I can bike wearing a kilt a woman can bike wearing a skirt!
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