ABSTRACT
Continuing with the study of cycling as a social practice, we now come to the third and final dimension: meanings. What has become abundantly clear, however, over the course of the previous chapters is that meanings are inseparable from the consideration of materials and competencies. The Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act of 1928 had removed the property qualification on voting for women over 21, highlighting the intersectionality of gender and class identities at the core of British society. A range of nineteenth- and twentieth-century cycling advertising literature is used to consider changing presentations of class, gender and citizenship, respectively. Examples show how cycling has been implicit in the construction, reproduction and performance of social identities. Historically, cycling practices have been used to both reinforce and to challenge class, race and gender identities and inequalities. They both replicate dominant power relations across these categories and in their intersection and have also been used to challenge them.
