The document discusses the author's favorite invention - the bicycle. It provides several reasons for this, including the freedom and mobility the bicycle allows without being "tethered" like electric devices. The bicycle helped women gain more independence in the late 19th century by allowing them to travel farther while wearing more practical clothing. It also improved people's health and was more efficient than walking or other forms of transport. The bicycle continues to provide environmental and health benefits today.

1. My Favorite Invention: the Bicycle

2. There are many inventions I use and
love everyday
• Of course, the internet and computers are
taking up my time, are very interesting and
fun, and help me in my job
• Refrigerators are keeping our food fresh
• Electric lights are so basic that we don’t even
think about them, yet life would be very
different without them.

3. However, for my favorite invention I won’t
choose any of these extremely necessary ones
• I absolutely appreciate electricity and I
know how much it helps us, but because
the inventions rely on electricity, I don’t
want to choose one for “my favorite”.
• Lack of “romance”
• And……..

4. ….because anything electric is
“tethered” to the wall---no freedom
(in a way)

5. The “romance” of a bicycle is because I
can go far and be free

6. A bicycle helps me carry heavy bags of food and other
items.
Groceries
Pet supplies
Books from the library
Clothes I bought
My kids!
Futons when my kids were at hoikuen (daycare center)
Cats
A dog
Plants and pots for the plants and soil for the plants.

7. My kids (a few years ago)

8. My kids are way too old for riding on my bicycle now, but it is still
a good memory for me. In America it was impossible for my
mom to ride like that with me and my sister because of the big
roads there not made for biking. So it was a new experience for
me here in Japan when I became a mom. We had a LOT of fun.

9. Carrying a (small) dog on a bicycle is
also great fun. My dog Teru LOVES the
bicycle. (Which of these shows how
Teru REALLY rode on a bicycle?)

10. Save money with a bicycle
• Buy something heavy and bring it home
without a car.
• Cheaper than the bus and train.
• Bicycles can cost 10,000-30,000 yen but they
can last for 6 or 7 years or longer depending
on if you take care of it well. This means per
year the cost is around 2000-3000 yen.
• (You might have to fix the tires sometimes if
you have a tire puncture.)

11. Stay in shape with a bicycle (130lb=59kg)

12. Cycling is very efficient (効率的)

13. More about efficiency

14. Efficiency compared to some other species

15. S.S. Wilson, Professor at Oxford. (Used
to ride his bicycle 100 miles a day)
• It is worth asking why such an apparently simple device as
the bicycle should have had such a major effect on the
acceleration of technology.
• The answer surely lies in the sheer humanity of the
machine.
• Its purpose is to make it easier for an individual to move
about, and this the bicycle achieves in a way that quite
outdoes natural evolution.

16. • “When one compares the energy consumed in
moving a certain distance as a function of body
weight for a variety of animals and machines, one
finds that an unaided walking man does fairly
well (consuming about .75 calorie per gram per
kilometer), but he is not as efficient as a horse, a
salmon or a jet transport. With the aid of a
bicycle, however, the man’s energy consumption
for a given distance is reduced to about a fifth
(roughly .15 calorie per gram per kilometer).

17. • “Therefore, apart from increasing his unaided speed by
a factor of three or four, the cyclist improves his
efficiency rating to No. 1 among moving creatures and
machines.
“For those of us in the overdeveloped world the bicycle
offers a real alternative to the automobile, if we are
prepared to recognize and grasp the opportunities by
planning our living and working environment in such a
way as to induce the use of these humane machines.

18. •
“If one were to give a short prescription for
dealing rationally with the world’s problems of
development, transportation, health and the
efficient use of resources, one could do worse
than the simple formula: Cycle and recycle.”

19. Bicycling is very “in” these days:
• “For those of us in the overdeveloped world
the bicycle offers a real alternative to the
automobile, if we are prepared to recognize
and grasp the opportunities by planning our
living and working environment in such a way
as to induce the use of these humane
machines.

20. Bicycle culture in Japan, Denmark (has
a bicycle highway), Holland

21. 10 countries with most bicycles per
capita
• http://www.theworldgeography.com/2011/07/10
-countries-with-most-bicycles-per.html
• I love it that Japan is on this list (and this does not
surprise me).
• I did not know about this when I moved to Japan
but I think the countries that have high number
of bikes per capita must be easier to live in
maybe: high in safety, care for environment,
consideration about people’s finances.

22. Women’s freedom started with the
bicycle
• 19th-century women were severely trammeled their
entire lives.
• Forget the glass ceiling; women in those days were
trapped under the glass floor. Battles like "equal pay
for equal work" were decades away.
• The Victorian woman's cause was more along the lines
of, "We'd like to leave the house, sometimes ...
please ... if it isn't too much trouble.“
• (from) http://mentalfloss.com/article/19373/how-
bicycle-emancipated-women

23. • The fashion for women at that time tended
toward helplessness and frailty.
• Consider the image of a Victorian lady: She's
sickly and pale, relies on men for everything,
and occasionally peeks out from behind an
ornamental fan (usually before touching her
wrist to her forehead and fainting).
• http://mentalfloss.com/article/19373/how-
bicycle-emancipated-women

24. • The frailty of a "lady" was such that
preventing females from studying,
working, voting and doing much of
anything at all seemed a rational
measure.
• {at this time women did
• not vote, work or go to school
• beyond the basic level}

25. On the other hand, working class
women were hardworking
• The frailty of the upperclass women was socially projected.
A gentleman taking a trip to the market must have come
across dozens of hardworking women from the lower classes.

26. • In fact, he may have employed one such woman
to support the proper ladies at his home while
they gossiped, blushed and passed out.
• But men didn't see those hardworking females as
proper ladies. A proper lady was seen as weak,
defenseless and entirely dependent on men.
• http://mentalfloss.com/article/19373/how-
bicycle-emancipated-women

27. • Clearly, women haven't undergone any
fundamental alterations of their physiological
makeup in the last hundred years, so what
allows them to live the robust, fainting-free
lifestyles they do today?
• Foremost, the Victorian lady rarely exercised
or engaged in physical activity, which left her
poorly conditioned.
• Secondly, it was fashionable to be frail.

28. • Just as American women in the 1950s were
expected to become June Cleaver and young
girls today aspire to Gwen Stefani-like
independence, the Victorian woman was
expected to adopt certain behaviors.
• http://mentalfloss.com/article/19373/how-
bicycle-emancipated-women

29. June Cleaver=1950s housewife
Gwen Stefani= 2000s independent female pop singer

30. • The third contributing factor to the frailty of the
Victorian lady was clothing.
• Their garments were typically thick, exaggerating
the female form while concealing the flesh.
• Curves were accentuated by tightly laced corsets,
which, when coupled with long and heavy
underskirts, greatly limited women's ability to
move or even breathe. (Hence much of the
fainting.)

31. • This attire was not only intended to restrict
women physically, but morally, too.
• In a society where the accidental exposure of an
ankle took on the pornographic stature of a lap
dance, such dress was required to protect a lady's
virtue.
• In fact, the term "loose" originated to describe a
woman who went uncorseted, while "straight-
laced" women obeyed societal dictates.

32. • Eventually, some women began to take a
stand, and, in 1888, a letter published by The
Rational Dress Society -- a group of women
who argued for reasonable clothing -- stated,
"the maximum weight of under-clothing
(without shoes) approved by The Rational
Dress Society, does not exceed seven pounds.“
• http://mentalfloss.com/article/19373/how-
bicycle-emancipated-women

33. • By the late 1880s, the bicycle's popularity really took
off. For instance, in 1880, a group of early cycling
advocates called the League of American Wheelmen
had a membership of 40; by 1898, its ranks had bloated
to nearly 200,000.
• Cycling was so popular that in 1896 The New York
Journal of Commerce estimated bicycling was costing
theaters, restaurants and other businesses over 100
million dollars per year. Considering the way the bicycle
was exploding in popularity, it was only natural that
women should get in on the act.

34. • Before bicycles came along, the horse was the best
means of individual travel. Of course, women's access
to horses was limited.
• Horses were dangerous and difficult to control; and
conventional medical wisdom suggested that riding
them could damage a woman's body.
• Women were supposed to ride sidesaddle, with both
legs hanging off one side. In that unnatural position,
women were unable to ride for long distances,
reinforcing the idea that they shouldn't be riding at all.
• http://mentalfloss.com/article/19373/how-bicycle-
emancipated-women

35. • Bicycles, by comparison, were easy to
manipulate. There was no reason a woman
couldn't get on a bike and sedately pedal
farther from her home than she'd ever been
before. No reason, that is, other than her
cumbersome attire and the convention that if
she did so, she'd either have her virtue
corrupted or die of exhaustion.

36. • In order for women to take part in the new craze
without becoming entangled in the bike's chain,
they needed to wear shorter skirts or even
(gasp!) bifurcated garments called bloomers. It
was also necessary that they leave the house and
exert themselves physically -- all activities
previously considered unladylike.
• http://mentalfloss.com/article/19373/how-
bicycle-emancipated-women

37. Clothes for biking brought more
freedom in general

38. • The severity of the outcry against women
participating in these activities is proof of their
effectiveness. The brave women who donned
rational dress were criticized, denied access to
public places and widely mocked in the media

39. • Female cyclists were often accosted verbally
and physically as they rode. Emma Eades, one
of the first women to ride a bike in London,
was attacked with bricks and stones.
• http://mentalfloss.com/article/19373/how-
bicycle-emancipated-women

40. • Many people feared that the unprecedented mobility the
bicycle allowed women would corrupt them morally.
• In fact, a business called The Cyclist's Chaperon Association
provided "gentlewomen of good social position to conduct
ladies on bicycle excursions and tours." These
gentlewomen had to satisfy strict criteria to qualify as
guardians of virtue.
• They were married ladies, widows or unmarried ladies over
30. They needed three personal references, two from ladies
of unquestionable social position, and another from a
clergyman of the church -- all this to protect women from
becoming morally debased by their bikes.

41. • Even in the face of this overwhelming social
condemnation, cycling groups persevered and
eventually wrought fundamental changes in
society's view.
• Women did get out on their bikes and, to
everyone's surprise, didn't faint or commit
egregious moral atrocities.
• http://mentalfloss.com/article/19373/how-
bicycle-emancipated-women

42. The vehicle of women's lib
• In fact, they discovered what everyone who rides a bike
learns: It makes you more fit, more relaxed, and more
aware.
• Women gained increased self-sufficiency, better physical
conditioning, and, as a bonus, won some freedom from
their restrictive clothing and its attendant social bonds.
• The 1900 United States Census Report, released more than
20 years after the introduction of the bicycle, said, "Few
articles ever used by man have created so great a
revolution in social conditions as the bicycle." For women,
this held especially true.
• http://mentalfloss.com/article/19373/how-bicycle-
emancipated-women

43. • The bicycle continues to endear itself to free
thinkers. Even today, it's the centerpiece of many
reform movements.
• Jacquie Phelan, for instance, is a feminist
mountain biker who founded WOMBATS, the
Women's Mountain Bike and Tea Society. A three-
time world champion voted one of the 10 best
mountain bikers of all time, Phelan is a tireless
warrior in the fight for equality.
• http://mentalfloss.com/article/19373/how-
bicycle-emancipated-women

44. • As the bicycle continues to lend itself to causes of
all kinds, it is important to remember its first
battle. Liberating is a word easily associated with
cycling.
• Flying down a tree-lined road with the wind in
your face is certainly a liberating experience, but
for early female cyclists, a simple bike ride was
liberating in a much more significant way.
• http://edition.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/0
5/20/women.bicycling/index.html

45. • As an 1896 issue of Munsey’s
Magazine explained, "To men, the
bicycle...was merely a new toy, another
machine added to the long list of devices they
knew in their work and play. To women, it was
a steed upon which they rode into a new
world."

46. Early bicyclists who were women

47. Of course environmental benefits are great too!

48. THE END