Althouse: Romanticizing falling — the New Yorker's angle on women and mountain biking.

July 19, 2020

Romanticizing falling — the New Yorker's angle on women and mountain biking.

I'm a woman and I like mountain biking, but I found this presentation ludicrous:

36 comments:

Achilles said...: Leftists that live in New York are closeted and the embodiment of privilege.

It takes a life without difficulties to create people like this.

The problem is they are determined to tell us all what to do.; 7/19/20, 4:08 PM
Kevin said...: Imagine yourself as a relatively privileged white person exhausted by meritocracy — an overworked student or a fretful parent or a school administrator constantly besieged by both.... 'Wouldn’t it come as a relief, in some way, if it turned out that the whole 'exhausting "Alice in Wonderland" Red Queen Race of full-time meritocratic achievement,' in the words of a pseudonymous critic, was nothing more than a manifestation of the very white supremacy that you, as a good liberal, are obliged to dismantle and oppose?

Applies to mountain biking too.; 7/19/20, 4:12 PM
Joe Smith said...: Tough to get through. Very pretentious. The director was trying too hard. Very little content here for such a long video...get to the point.; 7/19/20, 4:18 PM
Joe Smith said...: And what's with the white ponce in the top hat? Looks damned privileged to me.

Someone needs to go and burn his cartoon townhouse to the ground.; 7/19/20, 4:30 PM
MadisonMan said...: She should really atone for her White Privilege. (I predicted this was a short about a white woman before clicking); 7/19/20, 4:33 PM
rhhardin said...: I'd suggest a vertical climb wingover at about zero airspeed kicked into a one-turn spin, for the best falling experience. No G's starting or recovering.

A regular spin pulls G forces because of the lift you're generating but at zero airspeed there's no lift and no G forces, just the interesting turn that prolongs the moment.

My mountain biking was always an interest in uphill. Downhill just wears out the brake pads. How steep can you climb without going over backwards.; 7/19/20, 4:57 PM
Sprezzatura said...: Didn’t you spend thirty years teaching in WI?

We know that yur not the kind of person who is pushing to maximize in yur own field. Never mind something completely different.

What is ludicrous is your comparison of yourself to those gals. It’s like asking the if the moon is a good singer.

BTW, how many of the comments here are going to circle back to jabber re how the left sux?

At least Althouse is a pro at avoiding things that are not interesting. The same jabber re libs never gets old.; 7/19/20, 5:00 PM
Rosalyn C. said...: Personally I'm more impressed and astonished by the falling done by mountain climbers. 4 Greatest Free Solo Climbs of All Time; 7/19/20, 5:27 PM
stevew said...: Is this what people seek when life is no longer difficult, when acquiring the requisite food and shelter is no longer uncertain? Is this what Maslow meant by Self-Actualization?; 7/19/20, 5:30 PM
Inga said...: She’s young, she can embrace falling all she wants. If she breaks a few bones or gets internal injuries, she’ll heal well most likely, not so much people.; 7/19/20, 5:32 PM
Mountain Maven said...: Lost me at the needle stick.; 7/19/20, 5:33 PM
Rob said...: My subscription to The New Yorker expired in May. I'd been reading it for sixty years. My plan was to start a new subscription, but I never got around to it. What's struck me is how little I miss it.; 7/19/20, 5:35 PM
KellyM said...: It is ludicrous. Crashing is something that happens when you least expect it. I'd rather deal with that than lying there with some quack shoving needles into me.

I've been mountain biking for years and I still get caught out. I've crashed on slick rock (which isn't) in Utah, and scraped both knees until they were raw, and buried my front tire in a rut so hard that it lifted me out of my clips and over my handlebars. I have video, if anyone is interested....I walked away, bruised and scraped up. Some of my best downhill experiences have been when I stopped worrying about crashing and just went for it. Tight switchbacks are what get me, particularly when on a downhill grade.

Is there value in learning to fall well? Yes, but I learned that figure skating. And ended up with a hip replacement for my efforts. No matter. Will be out there doing both again, as soon as I get the OK.; 7/19/20, 5:45 PM
Joe Smith said...: She's just a hero because she crashed. I like bicyclists who don't crash.

: ); 7/19/20, 6:20 PM
Aussie Pundit said...: I imagine that the women in this video are embarrassed by the director's spin, that "crashing has its own allure". They must be cringing.; 7/19/20, 6:21 PM
McSavage said...: https://www.stanforddaily.com/2020/07/08/sports-cancellations/

The sports to be cancelled are men’s and women’s fencing, field hockey, lightweight rowing, men’s rowing, co-ed and women’s sailing, squash, synchronized swimming, men’s volleyball and wrestling.; 7/19/20, 6:26 PM
walter said...: Forgive 'sitter. Zir's IBS is flaring.
By the way, if these gals fall with adequate intensity, they could wind up in a better place.; 7/19/20, 6:34 PM
Inga said...: Not so much older people.; 7/19/20, 6:53 PM
mandrewa said...: It's been decades but I used to bike every day and in every kind of weather. I was good at falling, which translated means I rarely fell and when I did fall I had a talent for not getting hurt. My bike may have gotten wiped out a few times but I didn't. (Either that or I was just lucky.)

So you would think I would find this interesting. But no, it is hard to watch since it is so pretentious, exaggerated and over-the-top.; 7/19/20, 7:32 PM
Ozymandias said...: The film seems so pointless that I’m curious about Ann’s strong reaction to it.

The downhill sequences are so largely unrelated to the director’s comparative references to “falling” and “crashing” as to leave that theme little more than a verbal gimmick.

Moreover, these women seem to have so little of any substance to say about what they're doing and why they’re doing it--their hesitancy, their snippets of inchoate thoughts, their up-talking, their overall inexpressiveness are finally just annoying.; 7/19/20, 7:44 PM
Michael K said...: We had a doctor's wife who was mountain biking with a friend when a mountain lion attacked them and started to drag her away into the bushes. Her friend and another passerby beat the lion off with tree branches. That's a serious risk. The Sheriff's helicopter went looking for the lion later and found another victim. He had been taken from behind while working on a chain break. The lion had eaten his liver.; 7/19/20, 7:52 PM
tommyesq said...: Total readership of the New Yorker is 1/4 Tucker Carlson's nightly average, and I suspect very few readers click through and watch the video. No one cares what the New Yorker has to say.; 7/19/20, 8:02 PM
gilbar said...: haven't had a serious bike crash since 4th grade (lost both front teeth)
But,
i've put numerous motorcycles down; and of the ones i have memory of; they were pretty exciting.
[don't ask me about the deer that put me into a coma with TBI, i have NO recollection]
Sliding down on the pavement at 40 to 50 miles an hour Really makes you feel like you're living; 7/19/20, 8:04 PM
tastid212 said...: downhill, indeed. i wonder, will this woman, whom i admire in many ways, especially in regards to taking risks, what regrets will she have when she is 50 or 60 and constantly taking pain meds or CBD or whatever just to get through the day - forget about not being able to mountain bike any more? would a guy like to share that dream / future? personal best - yay! - but what is she going to do to help a single other person (other than paying her acupuncturist, M.D. and pot dispensary?

ps - i let my subscription to the new yorker lapse twenty years ago. and i haven't missed it either (well, other than some of the roz chast cartoons).; 7/19/20, 8:12 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: Ashes ashes, we all fall down

Tomorrow Never Knows; 7/19/20, 8:13 PM
HMuns said...: Ann. You're a tool.; 7/19/20, 8:37 PM
wildswan said...: Dropped off at the eye needle. And would never start mountain biking or anything else if an ad connected the sport in some way with acupuncture. They used to use fun to sell sports; now they think they can use woke politics and, I guess, woke medicine. Waiting for the fall to see who's right.; 7/19/20, 8:56 PM
PluralThumb said...: Ludacris would be watching kids ride bikes at about 2 miles per hour. A home made video maybe not too ludacris.
Yes. Trying this is extreme and I did notice an olympic or similar medal, that is out of my league. I street skateboarded for about a decade with reluctance to get sponsored. I understand trying to express any feelings through thought and words. We just called the such, being in 'the zone'. Although, what came to mind is following Michael Pheps, a pro swimmer through some of his career. I lost research or following after his career was over. A lot of confusion to say least, and similar chaotic behavior from some other post athletes. I'd say extreme sports dowside is transition. This is where the ancupuncturist I feel is important to balance out the extreme comfort and relaxation. The kids have to find a balance through life in life with that.; 7/19/20, 9:08 PM
Earnest Prole said...: Learn How to Fall

You got to learn how to fall
Before you learn to fly
And mama, it ain’t no lie
Before you learn to fly
Learn how to fall

You got to drift in the breeze
Before you set your sails
It's an occupation where the wind prevails
Before you set your sails
Drift in the breeze

It’s the same old story
Ever since the world began
Everybody got the runs for glory
Nobody stop and scrutinize the plan

You got to learn how to fall
Before you learn to fly
The tank towns, they tell no lies
Before you learn to fly
Learn how to fall; 7/19/20, 9:20 PM
PluralThumb said...: Inga, you're the tool.; 7/19/20, 9:35 PM
PluralThumb said...: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool_(band)

Tomorrow never ends.

- Sorry, not sorry. Did not learn html as of yet.; 7/19/20, 9:45 PM
mandrewa said...: And then I feel bad for criticizing this. Someone worked so hard to make this.

And it is beautiful.

The things these people say are not especially profound. But the words are authentic. And they are doing something special. Even if it is irritatingly reckless. And the actual expression of these women is really in what they are doing and feeling. It is not a verbal thing.

So it is pretentious. And I kind of wonder if there is a formula behind this sort of film: a method that film makers are taught.

But even so it's not a bad film, it's kind of special, and it is remarkable that people are doing this.; 7/19/20, 10:30 PM
Jimmy said...: Both the New Yorker and NYT are now just propaganda organs of the left. This isn't new, its been that way for decades. But lately they have given up any pretense of being actual journalists.
Pravda, during Stalins time, wouldn't have wanted to hire the people now writing for either of those rags. It is embarrassing to see how far they have fallen.; 7/19/20, 11:40 PM
h said...: Preparing the battlefield: Now that it looks like Biden will win in November, there will need to be a shift in attitudes from "reopening is too dangerous" to "it's really cool to take risks."; 7/20/20, 6:13 AM
Martin said...: All I could think about in watching that, other than "WTF is the acupuncture at the start about?" is the Eloi from H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine."; 7/20/20, 10:19 AM
PM said...: I hike where mountain biking was invented. The tough downhills are on trails bikers aren't allowed on but do anyway. This lady might like one called Zig Zag.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4i348QLIac; 7/20/20, 1:00 PM