The Bicycle Was the First Dating App

What the Victorian insult “bicycle face” tells us about slut shaming today

About a hundred and twenty years ago, men warned women that riding a bicycle could permanently deform their face.

Their chin would jut.

Their brows would furrow.

Their cheeks would freeze in an unbecoming rictus.

Physicians debated various causes. Some blamed the seat. Others blamed the vibrations. Some blamed, simply, the strain of pedaling and keeping one’s balance. Popular journals warned women that riding a bike could cause everything from appendicitis, to gallstones, to “apoplexy of the brain”.

They called this malady bicycle face.

Women with bicycle face, said one digest, were “characterized by a hard, clenched jaw and bulging eyes.” They would appeal “pale, often with lips more or less drawn.” Weak women were in danger. Dyspeptic women, too. And especially young women. And especially the old.

Of course, this was all especially bullshit.

But it happens to be bullshit for an interesting reason. This was the time of the bicycle boom. And women — much to the chagrin of…