Where are all the women in Bicycling magazine?

I picked up Bicyling magazine, the June 2007 issue, today.

I paged through this issue, and in over 69 advertisements that appeared in its pages, 5 featured women. All the rest featured either men (about 70% of the resy, while 30% didnt' have any people in it - just photos of cars and bikes.)

Now obviously a lack of female representation in advertising is not the fault of Bicyling but of the advertisers, nevertheless it's an interesting and saddening trend.

And what were the 5 ads that did feature women? Well, one only featured the side view of a woman's naked buttock. It was advertising a bike seat. So, that features a woman as a sex object. ("So comfortable you don't need shorts," is the logo, but still...)

One features a woman doing yoga in silhouette and relaxing in a hot tub - this was an ad for Arkansas toursim. (Also featured the only blacks I saw in any of the ads.)

The next was of a woman putting a bike into the back of a car, advertising something called Thelma. The woman is dressed in shirt (not revealing her belly button!), skirt (down to her knees, can you believe it?) and Crocs, rather than biking gear.

There's a full page ad for GU energy gel. Has tiny inset photos, one of kids running a race and one of a woman rider. I'm not sure but I think one of the riders in the full color center ad is also a woman... the first time a woman in a bicycling mag ad is shown actually doing any biking.

There's a beer ad that's got a skinny woman and man dancing, the woman of course wearing a tank top and swaying her hips, the guy with unbuttoned shirt revealing his abs...In silhouette on the bottom of the page are a man and a woman on bikes...and the woman is biking in front of hte man, leading instead of following...

Another ad for GU, featuring two road cyclists, the one behind being a woman...

A full page ad for Diamond Back racing featuring their women specific bike - way back on pg 128

A Dahon ad featuring the back of a woman - dressed in shirt covering her torso and blue jeans, as she runs out of the picture.

And then an ad in the very back "classified" sections or whatever it's called, featuring a woman in an ad for a pajama gram - the ad is for the man to send this to mother or wife.

It's been some years since I last read Bicycling magazine, but I noticed this dearth of women in advertising even then... it hasn't gotten better.