Issue 3: Revival
The Celeste Barber of Cycling
August 04, 2019
From the pages of Issue 3: Revival
This amateur racer is lighting up Instagram with her ironic, indignant posts that call out the misogyny in the cycling world. When she started, she admittedly didnāt have a clear vision, but within a few months (and after a profile in Bicycling Magazine) her online presence jumped from 3.5k to 10,000 followers. And it just keeps growing. While she might think that was the weirdest day of her life, we bet that the more people who fall in love with the Celeste Barber of the cycling world, life may get a little more hectic.
Why did you start the Instagram account @gravel_tryhard?
I have never been a social media person. I donāt have a Facebook account and I virtually never used social media. But Iām part of a close-knit circle of cyclists who do use it, and itās often a joke or topic of conversation of whatever account is posting provocative pictures of women posing next to their bikes, often with a tight focus on their asses. Weād share the more ridiculous ones among ourselves. Then at one point, a friend of mine had borrowed my camera and I wanted it back. He said, āIāll give it back to you, but you have to take interesting photos and post them on Instagram.ā So I said, āOK if you give me back my camera next week Iāll make an Instagram.ā Somehow, those two completely innocuous ideas collided in my brain: bike babes, and suddenly having to do something interesting on Instagram. Originally the focus of my account wasnāt as clear as it is now. My first thought, which didnāt last very long, was actually, āI bet some of these women are making bank and getting a bunch of free bike stuff and maybe I could just set aside my ethics and be one of them.ā I had this idea that Iād do bike babe photos, but every photo would have some weird, subtle detail that made it obvious that I was actually just joking. But then I started to think a lot harder about what I was doing, and I also started to observe which posts people responded most strongly to. And about two weeks after creating the account, I had focused on creating photos that conveyed to other female cyclists, āhereās what this bike babe photo looks like to me. It makes me laugh, and I want to show you exactly why.ā.
Why the emphasis on anonymity?
I have a day job and stodgy family members. My name and face are out there in public. I wouldnāt get fired but I donāt want those two worlds to collide. I keep what I do on my personal time in a nice box. I have a responsibility to other people as well: I donāt want my family or friends to feel like theyāve been involved in this project if they donāt want to be. Iām not embarrassed or have to keep a secret; itās just a healthy separation.
Do you have a team of co-conspirators?
I hang out with a bunch of cyclists and ideas have come from them or things have spun off. And now that I have a bigger following, people send me ideas virtually every day, and I use a lot of them. But Iām really a one-woman operation when it comes to setting up, taking, and publishing the photos. Itās not some kind of corporate endeavor with a team of creatives. Itās normally just me sitting by myself in the middle of a dirt road in my lingerie, mastering split screen, trying to hold the camera behind my butt while keeping the bicycle from falling over. If someone were to drive upon it theyād probably run over me.
What is your vision?
Iām going to keep going until someone gives me a free bike [she says laughing]. No, I would just be so enormously grateful and so happy if I felt like I had achieved even a little bit of cultural change. A few months ago, I didnāt dare to dream that big. But my thoughts have changed as Iāve watched the project grow.
What does cultural change look like to you?
Itās really hard to say. On the one hand, you could say that cultural change would maybe be a point in the future when companies will no longer use womenās bodies to sell bicycles. And maybe the Instagram influencers of the future will show us photos where theyāre riding their bikes through mud pits and working just as hard to portray a tough, gritty, capable image as they work right now to portray an impractical, ridiculous one. I can say that my goal is not to get individual women to put their clothes on. Iām not creating content to influence the women in the photos, Iām creating it for the people who see their photos. Rather than censoring content Iām uncomfortable with or keeping that content from being created, Iād rather see a world where people feel safe and enthusiastic about responding to imagery that they see as anti-feminist. If people could freely and publicly react, that would be amazing. I could just be flattering myself, but I think that since I started @gravel_tryhard, Iāve seen just a little bit more of that type of conversation on Instagram. For example, a bike manufacturer recently posted a ridiculous video of a model in stilettos, posing with a bare bike frame next to an expensive vase. Traditionally, if you look at a photo or a video like this and you check out the comments, theyāre all men saying things like, āWell dang, I would go on a group ride with her (wink wink)ā or men trying to be coy like āI didnāt even notice her tits, I was too busy looking at the bike.ā But it struck me that on this video, the comments were from both men and women, and they were saying things like āHold the phone, I thought you were a cycling company, whatās the deal?ā or āHey, has she ever tried riding your bikes? What does she think of them?ā They were opening a conversation about something they saw that didnāt look right to them. Thatās a sign of cultural change. In the past, you would have primarily seen this kind of coy, cutesy response from men on these photos, but one tiny piece of evidence of cultural change that I'm actually starting to see is what really happened on this videoāwhich is, people reacted strongly and negatively, and it opened a conversation with the company. Now, part of that conversation is that people, including my followers, will react in ways that I personally wouldnāt. One line that I draw, personally, is that Iāll never say that this stuff is disgusting or that the women who appear in it are disgusting. I also try never to comment on womenās bodies or their personal behavior: I try to keep it exclusively about the photos and what they look like to me as a female cyclist. Not everybody draws the same line, so some of the conversations that start around feminist issues in cycling are conversations that make me uncomfortable from both directions! But the bottom line is, weāre having a conversation and thatās so cool. Itās not just a bunch of men saying āGosh, I wish I was her bicycle seat.ā Maybe I gave that a little nudge in the right direction started a critical and complicated conversation. Maybe I gave it a little push. I hope that I did.
How would you respond to sponsorship requests?
First of all, I am keenly, keenly aware of how incredibly fortunate I am that Iām able to say that no, I donāt need your free shit. Isnāt that amazing? Iām fairly young, but Iāve had some good luck in my life to get to the point where Iām supporting myself and I have a job that allows me to not only survive but also have some freedom. I have to hustle to a certain extent, but I donāt have to hustle to get by in the cycling world. That puts me in a uniquely good position to do what I do: I donāt set out trying to make people angry, but if I do, itās not likely to affect my daily life that much. As for accepting sponsorships, itās a tricky thing. I have accepted gifts from companies since starting this project. Iāve also turned down gifts. I have some rules of thumb: Iām always completely transparent about what Iāve received from whom, and no company will ever become immune to criticism by āpaying me off.ā There havenāt been any huge ethical dilemmas yet, but when Iām not sure about something, I try to fall back to the central principle of the project. I want to make womenās lives better. I hope thatās what Iām creating, something that women want to see that helps them or inspires them or makes their day brighter. If anything interferes with my doing that, itās a nonstarter.
Do you have a sense for how the industry feels about your Instagram identity?
I really, really would love to know. Thereās a part of me that doesn't care what the industry thinks of me. But on the other hand, having a relationship with the bike industry represents influence and access to a larger group of people, including the female cyclists who Iām creating content for. So yes and no that I care. I want to get the word out to more people, but I donāt care about the stuff. You know what I do fear? What I am afraid of is that companies will see what Iām doing, and they will look at that and say āItās not safe for us to put women in our advertising. Women are a timed mine ready to go off and letās stay away from it.ā If thereās one reaction Iām scared of, thatās it.