Stark Raving Madeleine

I was once told by a toddler in a tutu that “Girls don’t ride motorcycles… only boys do.” When I insisted that the shiny red Ducati 900SS (with the half fairing and Termignoni pipes) parked outside was mine and I had, indeed, ridden it to ballet class today… she told me I was being ridiculous and walked off.

Next week, little Debbie Lynn came up with folded arms and told me in no uncertain terms that “Girls don’t ride motorcycles… my Mommy said so”. Not about to lose an argument with someone who still needed help getting their velcro shoes on, I raced out to the bike after class and started it up just as little Debbie Lynn was leaving the building with her Mommy in tow. As I pulled away and turned the corner, I saw a pink tutu bouncing as a little girl pointed and pulled on her immaculately dressed Mother’s arm.

Week three, Debbie Lynn arrives and conspiratorially shares with me “Girls DO ride motorcycles! I see them from my carseat!” At the end of class, I spy her talking to my motorcycle outside while her mother takes a call on her cell, when her mother drags her away, little Debbie Lynn blows my motorcycle a kiss before merrily skipping away.

One convert for the girl team… now let’s get to work on her mom.

Tags: cafe racer, chromo, ducati, female, girl, kawasaki, lady, monster, moto girl, motorcycle, riders, riding, suzuki sv650, woman

Finally I’ve finished the skateboarding video teaser for the upcoming documentary. These girls were amazing and kind and lovely and fearless! While I’m still not quite brave enough to drop in on a cement bowl, I have been inspired to keep skating and am skating every day along the cobbled streets of London, despite many a “women don’t ride skateboards” being muttered at my back. For all the dirty looks, it’s worth it to see the sparkle and awe in a little girl’s eye as she sees me riding a skateboard.

It’s for all those little girls that we’re making this documentary. Whether you skateboard, ride a motorcycle, start a rock band, or any other kind of adventure… you’re pretty cool in my books. Let’s get those stories out there, so that little girls have something to see other than bland pop stars and vain celebrities!

Please subscribe to our YouTube channel, we need to show the world that people really want to see girls doing awesome stuff. More videos are coming soon!

Tags: girl power, girls, portland trifecta, rip, skate park, skateboarding, skateboards, vert, women

Have you ever felt guilty for not appreciating how much you have? If you do, you’re not alone. One of the most frequent things I hear from people is just that. “I should feel lucky for having so much, but I don’t.”

We do have a lot, but it’s too much. Just think about how many choices we’re faced with daily. Many of us start our days with what used to be a simple cup of coffee; now we decide between non-fat, half-fat, full-fat, soy, decaf, half-caf, hazelnut/amaretto/vanilla, with whip, no whip, extra hot, iced, room for cream, sugar, Splenda, Equal, Stevia… and the endless options don’t stop after we grab our coffee. We choose cereal from an entire grocery aisle of options. We choose television programs from hundreds of channels. Looking something up on the Internet provides us with thousands of websites from the simplest query. It’s overwhelming. So many choices give us the feeling that we should be able to control every teeny aspect of our lives, so when our lives go awry, we feel responsible.

Advertisers have sold us the idea that choice = freedom. While that is certainly true for big things like voting, it doesn’t necessarily hold true for which brand of bottled water we buy. The human brain can only manage so many things at once. It’s exhausting. Sometimes I think we’re so wrapped up in wondering if we bought the right car seat that adding the burden of learning some of the basics like dealing with teething, what to do if the baby won’t latch, and other things that deal directly with caring for this new person in our lives, feels like too much. We are so focused on getting the right accessories and then wonder why it doesn’t all go smoothly like the advertisements promised it would.

We are lucky. We do have it all; we can vote, we can work, we may even have a woman president. We have bigger houses, nicer cars, and more clothes than our parents had. Some of us even have housecleaners and nannies. We take yoga classes and get massages. We’re so lucky that it’s too much. We gather more and more stuff, do more and more activities and wonder why we feel so empty. It’s time to cut back.

Tags: advertising, choices, consumption, economy, green, options, overwhelmed, resolutions, simpler living, too much, voting

Nana lived only a few blocks from the ocean. I don’t remember much about actually being at the beach, what I do remember are the walks to the beach, those I remember distinctly. We’d walk down flights of moss covered stone steps hidden away between blackberry bushes, ivy, and wild roses. We took our time, picking blackberries, braiding ivy and roses into crowns as we danced and sang. These walks to the beach hold some of my most cherished memories. It’s only now that I realize how fortunate I was to have a grandmother who didn’t need to act “grown up”.

As children, we’re naturally full of spirit, whimsy, and a strong yearning for knowledge. Our days are filled with excitement and our sense of adventure wins out over the challenges and obstacles we encounter. Why then, do we as adults frown, scoff, and even sneer at the idea of fun or silliness? Why are we so anxious to “grow up” and distance ourselves from the spirit of youth?

Why does there come a point when responsible adults exchange their guitars for briefcases, their motorcycles for sedans, their snowboards for golf clubs? What happened to the freedom that was supposed to come along with the added responsibility of being in charge of your own life? As we grow through childhood, pressure is put on us to be increasingly more self-conscious. Certainly by the time we make it through high school, most of us have learned, rather painfully, to keep ourselves as inconspicuous as possible. Heading out into the world of adulthood, it’s soundly reinforced that we need to “look the part”, “be serious”, and “act responsibly”.

Now, you’ll get no argument from me that adults need to be responsible. It’s just that I’m thinking along the lines of: not causing harm to others, paying bills on time, not forgetting to feed the dog, and taking good physical care of ourselves and dependants. What I don’t understand is this; how did riding a skateboard, spontaneously jumping into a pile of leaves, or spending an afternoon drawing pictures with crayons worm their way into unacceptable, irresponsible adult behavior?

We’re too hard on ourselves and each other. Living life with spirit and enthusiasm is far more important than meeting someone else’s standard of appropriate behavior. We need to discover ways of reclaiming the youthful spirit that brightened our childhood and we need to let it be okay for others to do the same without judgment. It should be fun to be an adult. Funny thing is, the more we open up and allow ourselves the space to be real, to do and say the things we please, the more it allows and encourages those around us to do the same. My grandma had that effect upon people, and it’s a gift she passed on to me.

I thank her for it every day.

Tags: adult, child, childhood, dancing, experiencing, growing up, happiness, joy, life, responsibility, self-conscious, singing, youthful

The idea that as modern women we can “have it all” pushes us to achieve more and more. The images in magazines and on television project the modern woman as being a laughing mother/professional career woman in a crisp white shirt and without a hair out of place. We’re sold hair dye, deodorant, lipstick, and skin cream based on this concept. We’re reminded often that our foremothers worked hard and sacrificed much for us to be free and equal, but with that comes a sense of obligation on our part. How can we let them down by not taking advantage of that and well… “having it all”?

We like to think that we have moved beyond the unrealistic expectations that we imagine our grandmothers had to live up to. In the 50’s, the show Leave It to Beaver epitomized the perfect mother in June Cleaver. Always wearing a smile and pearls, June was unflappable, the house spotless, dinner hot and hearty on the table at five o’clock every day. She was standing at the door with cookies and milk at the end of every school day and brought her husband his slippers and a paper when he arrived home from work.

We congratulate ourselves for reaching a level of society where we can look back on June Cleaver and the like as women who sacrificed their own dreams and needs, in order to be a good wife/mother/woman. Now we have our own careers and our husbands have to fetch their own slippers. But we are foolish to throw around such easy congratulations… living up to the standard of June Cleaver would be a piece of chocolate frosted layer cake compared to the new standard we are living with. In true Modern Woman fashion, we have raised the bar. I’ll see your hearty meal and raise you an international corporate empire, celebrity status, a television show, a few magazines, and dozens of cookbooks. In other words, a Martha Stewart.

Today we have Martha setting a whole new level of achievement for us. June may have been stuck in the kitchen making wholesome pot roast dinners and chocolate chip cookies all day, but Martha has us coming home from a full day at the office just in time to encrust citrus infused tilipia fillets and hand-roll lavender crepes stuffed with crème fraiche and drizzled with fresh raspberry coulis.

We’re still running the household, but now it’s under the added pressure of having a well-paying professional career, breaking glass ceilings, and looking flawless while doing it. After all, Martha runs a huge company and then heads home to host elaborate dinner parties complete with handmade party favors. She never raises her voice and heck, she even went to prison gracefully.

While Martha has us creating our own personalized wrapping paper, there’s a boatload of svelte celebrities taunting us into yoga and pilates and pole dancing classes in an attempt to make our bodies supermodel slim immediately after childbirth. A multitude of do-it-yourself television shows encourage us to re-tile our bathrooms, faux paint our living room walls, or build our own brick chimneys.

Isn’t it time we asked ourselves if this is too much?

Tags: balance, better, career, children, diy, do it yourself, have it all, Housewife, husbands, june cleaver, living, martha stewart, modern woman, perfection, raising kids, stereotypes, wife, women