Women in the Biking World

 Trying to match up the everyday to images from the media can be difficult when all the images you seem to find are biker ‘babes’ hanging off the back of the motorbike. Is it just the simple answer that sex sells or is there something more going on behind the scenes’, well I think the answer is both. Yeah, sex sells and yeah having a beautiful girl draped over a Ducati will attract plenty of attention but in reality, there is a whole other meaning to the ‘biker’ for many women.

Charlotte Attle, 31 has grown up on the bike scene and believes being a biker mean “Freedom, it’s liberating being on the back of a bike or riding your own. It also means family, the people I have met through the biker community are some of the loveliest people I could wish to have in my life and have been there for me through thick and thin

When speaking to the Wife of a MC member she told us being a bike meant ‘being part of a family of likeminded people who are brought together through a love of motorcycles.” Family is a word that came up time and time again when speaking to those within the community and asking what the community means to them.

However, when searching through the media there seem to be 3 main ways women and motorbikes are portrayed. The first is a woman who is empowered, riding the motorbike and sometimes driving the story line. While this is great, it is this character who is usually sexualised and falls right into the male gaze. The second is a woman who is masculinised, demonstrating typically male personality features, possibly trying to make the character more relatable to a male audience. Third we have a typically attractive girl – often young who doesn’t ride but rather is either picked up or taken for a ride by the male biker protagonist. This is used in the media often to show the dominance and authority of the rider and once again sexualise the female. None of these portrayals are particularly positive.

There are certain shows in the media which clearly show these portrayals of woman within the biking world and how each can lead a different life while still all connected by the motorbike life. A show such as Sons of Anarchy while not portraying what reality in club life is like shows us a glimpse of varying different roles women within the life have.

The Wife of a motorbike club member is something that within the media and stereotypes of western culture is seen to be a woman in a tough environment of sexism of often hard decisions. But what about the real women who have chosen this life what do they think of the stereotypes?

The wife of a MC member when asked if a woman was to be in the background within this lifestyle replied “Personally I don’t care if I offend someone by being outspoken when others think they should be quiet” later in the conversation also adding “yes it can be a sexist environment, but so can most of life

When I asked the same question to another MC members wife her answer was totally different “You are in a man’s world you have to remember to behave and to never make a show of your man, some of the time he will go with the lads to different parts of the country for parties and I think the majority of women would prefer it if they were able to go but we can only go on certain occasions.” She then carried on to say “It’s hard to not want to be involved but unfortunately it’s a combination of points made that can make you feel in the background."

So, there are two women supposedly living a similar life with great differences in how they see themselves living that life. The two women spoken too are from different generations which could be the reasoning behind there opposing views on how a woman should behave. The older generation that are now biking wives still see themselves as the tradition ‘old lady’ (a term used to describe a member’s wife). They firmly believe their place in the bike world is behind and supporting their husband. While they have personal choice within the everyday “There are certain things that are expected of an Old lady”.

Whereas the younger generation are backing allot more “personal choice, there is so much choice out there for women now and it’s all really nice stuff” Women are becoming allot more independent and wanting to be able to show that.

Another MC members Wife had this to say on the topic “I don’t think it matters whether you are a man or a woman. It’s always been something I have enjoyed. I was brought up abound bikes from an early age. I have been going to motorcycle events since I was 8years old and 16 years later I am now married to a biker. Personally, I think men and women generally play different roles like in most aspects of life.”

So is the choice of where to stand, down to each individual woman or is it a generation thing and maybe for the older generations an aspect of respect that used to be found in everyday life where a wife is a homemaker that is being lost. Caryl Clement of Furies MC said “They have the choices prescribed by the bylaws of the club they chose to join, and that choice was theirs to make to begin with. Change also comes from within.”. If we consider this then the free choice of the women within the biking world is not how to behave within club life but from the initial choice to be involved within this sub section of society.

A Male member of an MC had this to say “The way women are treat within this world is completely dependent on the man involved, the way I treat my woman is as queen and show her respect. I treat her with the dignity she deserves as the life we live is a hard life, which we as members expect to be made easier with equal respect and dignity  back from our women.”