ABSTRACT

This paper frames the embodied experience of bicycling using theories of performativity and materiality. In doing so, the paper provides insights into embodied processes that regulate the gendered and classed cycling body across age. Drawing from interviews completed with newcomers to Toronto enrolled in a bicycle mentorship program, this paper highlights how context-specific social norms exist around who is read as cycling appropriately. Two norms consistently discussed are that cycling can be at odds with femininity and that it is a symbol of poverty. These norms act as discursive regulatory frameworks for gender and class performativity. Cycling can also be an experience of ‘intense embodiment’ in that it can bring the absent body back into consciousness. This experience is dynamic and elicits diverse emotions. Furthermore, cycling is not only found to increase people’s awareness of their materiality, but also their bodily fluids challenge the notion of ‘secure’ bodily boundaries. These material processes can be gendered and/or classed, and can affect access to mobility and public space. By studying identity formation processes as they relate to cycling, this paper sheds light on the power-laden underpinnings of identity-based differences in cycling.

摘要

本文使用表演性和物质性理论构建了自行车的具体体验。在这样做的过程中，该论文提供了对跨年龄调节性别和分类自行车体的具体过程的见解。通过对参加自行车指导计划的多伦多新移民完成的采访，本文强调了特定背景下的社会规范是如何围绕着谁被恰当地解读为骑自行车而存在的。一直在讨论的两个规范是，骑自行车可能与女性气质相悖，并且它是贫穷的象征。这些规范充当了性别和阶级表演性的话语监管框架。骑自行车也可以是一种“强烈体现”的体验，因为它可以将缺席的身体带回意识中。这种体验是动态的，会引发不同的情绪。此外，人们发现骑自行车不仅可以提高人们对其物质性的认识，而且他们的体液也挑战了“安全”身体界限的概念。这些物质过程可以是性别和/或分类的，并且可以影响对流动性和公共空间的访问。通过研究与自行车相关的身份形成过程，本文阐明了自行车中基于身份的差异的强大基础。