My pal Mel is a super rad lady.  She is a PhD candidate at the University of Minnesota, studying bicycle activism and backlash, community building, and feminism, and likes radical activism, veganism, cats, babies, NPR, unions, Wisconsin, Surly beer, and coffee.

Over the years we've talked about bikes quite a bit, including gender issues within the bike world.  We recently have started a "blogversation" called, "WTF and “the cyclist:” dialogue about identity and definitions," that she posted up on her blog.

We're talking about...

Is "woman" or "female" a more inclusive term for identity?

How do you define "cyclist," and are there reasons why people would choose not to self-identify as a cyclist?

If you're interested, please read through and chime in.  Ideally, this will be a conversation with all of you, and not just between Mel and me.