PERSONAL BOUNDARIES ARE SUBJECTIVE.
In spaces that are characterized by physicality, noise, darkness, confinement and – possibly -intoxication, personal boundaries are unfortunately exceeded more often. This crossing of boundaries usually affects people who are already discriminated against by existing social power relations, for example because of skin color, gender, sexual orientation, religion or because they are not able-bodied. People affected often leave spaces after such negative experiences, which further manifests the existing discriminatory conditions.
In order to prevent this, it is important that every person is able to know their boundaries as best as possible and respect them as well as those of others, thus be as aware as possible.
The messenger community is a very special place to most of us that regularly attend championships and alleycats. Some of us found a first or second family within the community, many of us are really well connected and share many friends in all kinds of places. We of course do not want to deny this. But still, the community is very cis-male dominated and the world we live in, unfortunately did not teach most of us solidarity and cooperation:
Only 10-20% of the participants of championships in European area were WTNBIA+ and most of the messenger companies we know have a strong surplus of cis-male riders. In our experience, it is not unusual that there are only few or even none WTNBIA+ people taking parts in alleycats in some cities. We highlight this because spaces with an excessively high amount of cis-male people can be intimidating or in general uncomfortable for many people (of all genders). In addition, championships, by definition, are sporting competitions, which further encourages dominant and macho behaviour. All of this makes the messenger community a place where different people, especially WTNBIA+ can quickly feel unwelcome.
But of course we do not want to criticize sexist discrimination only, we want to criticize ALL discrimination and (learn to) break down the behavioural patterns associated with it. Therefore we have built this website and formulated a guideline which intends to facilitate the access of championship organizations to the topic awareness and establish stable awaremess structures. We want to work towards a new social state in which respecting one’s own and others‘ boundaries is a matter of course. As a community, we can set a good example and advocate for respectful, appreciative interaction with one another.