"Granny gear" and sexism

[Smokin Joe]

Granny gear was a term I first saw in an edition of Richard's Bicycle Book, late seventies or early eighties I believe.

I'm quite happy to use a granny gear when needed and also to go on calling it that.

 

[Blue Hills]

I think it says something positive.

Granny bashing and dumping are perjorative terms toward the person doing the bashing or dumping. The terms are protective toward Granny.

Granny flats are a way of providing a safe, semi independent living space to an elderly parent - most often granny after grandad has died.

I feel duty bound pk to caution you that with this sort of clear thinking, textual analysis and sensitivity to the intricacies of human interchange you risk being burned.

 

[classic33]

I blame Henry Ford for the introduction of the granny gear.

 

[mustang1]

They don't - https://www.theguardian.com/politic...olly-curtis/2012/jan/16/costa-concordia-women

I had no idea. Thanks for the info. Kids should def be given priority, but then you cant let kids go without their parents (else who will bring the kids up if the parents perish?)

 

[slowmotion]

Gonna stop derailing an interesting topic?

Certainly, and I promise never to use the G word again.

 

[Blue Hills]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygy7UDADXDg&list=RDYgy7UDADXDg&t=41

 

[keithmac]

and some people seem to enjoy entering the thread to find fault with the motivations of others, so far we have had:

• its PC gone mad
• "womens rights" crap
• a battle for the high moral ground
• and now some people just seem to find fault just for the sake of it

no-one is forced to think about it if they don't want to. Rather than discuss the topic we get people trying to shut the discussion down by mocking or putting down other posters. If its blatantly not sexist I'm sure it would be easy to disprove rather than just attacking other people motivations.

That was my opinion on the matter, nothing more; nothing less..

 

[screenman]

View attachment 408911 Certainly, and I promise never to use the G word again.

I am currently looking at a longcase now. It is a few minutes fast, never mind rather early than late, in most cases.

 

[Paul139]

To me the original post sums up a lot of what is wrong with the world in general. Looking for problems and offence where there really isn't any. Yawn!!

 

[bpsmith]

Well, I think we sometimes call the functional equivalent to an unusually small chain ring, when it is at the rear, a dinner plate - showing that light hearted nicknames don't have to be tied up with gender assumptions or value judgements.

You do realise that it’s called a dinner plate because those who use them eat too much and so need an easier gear to get up the same hills they needed a harder gear for previously.

I find that highly offensive and may give up cycling as a result.

 

[Julia9054]

To me the original post sums up a lot of what is wrong with the world in general. Looking for problems and offence where there really isn't any. Yawn!!

You genuinely think that being asked to consider the origins of an expression is what is wrong with the world in general?
You can't just go "oh, I've never thought of it like that" and then either continue to use the phrase or not to use the phrase as you see fit? Bit sad really

 

[bpsmith]

I think the point is that were over analysing absolutely everything to the nth degree these days and wasting time on stuff that people genuinely don’t find offensive.

Personally, I have never used the term, although I do think it’s a daft thing to get work nd up about.

Being asked to think about such things isn’t the issue. I do enjoy discussing stuff that questions the norm and resolves things that should never have been.

Is this one of those things? I doubt it. That’s my assumption based on the fact that nobody has yet stated that they have taken offence to the term. Perhaos it would be useful for anyone who does to post that here, so we have a better idea on how much of an issue this really is?

 

[mjr]

Is this one of those things? I doubt it. That’s my assumption based on the fact that nobody has yet stated that they have taken offence to the term. Perhaos it would be useful for anyone who does to post that here, so we have a better idea on how much of an issue this really is?

Yes, please post here so you can be ridiculed like your concerns have been(!)

Useful for who?

 

[bpsmith]

Yes, please post here so you can be ridiculed like your concerns have been(!)

Useful for who?

I am not suggesting anyone is ridiculed. Far from it.

Useful to any reader of the thread as to whether people actually do take offence to this definition.

 

[freiston]

Apologies if this has already been brought up (I haven't read pages 2-11) but I tend to use my granny gear most when suffering from man-flu. I'm not keen on the term 'man-flu' but I'm more than happy to call my granny gear my 'old man's gear'. There are plenty of men and women with more than a decade's seniority to me who I consider to have bodies in much better nick than mine but there's no denying that most of us cannot physically do what we did when we were younger.