Thousands of cyclists across Canada came together on June 22 to celebrate and strengthen mental health and raise $800,000 for the cause. Our Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) team, Is This Wheel Life?, was there.
Ride Don’t Hide is a community bike ride taking place in 19 communities across Canada, benefiting the Canadian Mental Health Association.
Is women’s mental health more important than men’s? Is it right to exclude those who want to support mental health for all? These were questions posed by some who ultimately didn’t agree with the premise of a community bike ride supporting women’s mental health. We are entitled to our opinions, but do not let ideology be your only guiding factor.
It can be argued that health care in general is a women’s issue. Just look at the statistics. Women perform four out of five paid health care jobs. Eighty percent of all those accessing health care services between the ages of 20 and 30 are women. So, when Island Sexual Health closed their Lansdowne clinic this year, which group do you suppose was disproportionately affected?
If you look at women’s treatment within the medical profession, female hysteria was once defined as an “excess of emotion” that was somehow related to the female uterus. Male doctors used to treat all sorts of ailments as female hysteria, including fatigue, insomnia, and loss of sexual desire. This has led to the dominant discourse by male doctors as being to refute a woman’s initial health concerns, often at their patients’ own detriment.
Is it an issue of respect by disrespecting another group? Simply put, we are elevating the attention of mental health for women to one that is equal to men’s mental health. So the answer, inevitably, for me is “yes.”
Correspondingly, the CCSS agreed and supported this by pledging to cover the team registration costs for up to 10 cyclists.
How did our CCSS team fare in Victoria? Remarkably well! The team came in second overall with $522 raised. Our team captain came in fifth overall with her individual pledges raising $212. Victoria alone raised over $16,000.
Go to ridedonthide.com/bc/ride/victoria if you would like to donate.