It’s no secret that the image of a motorcyclist in popular culture—from films like Easy Rider and The Motorcycle Diaries to real-life celebs like Brad Pitt and Keanu Reeves—is male. OK, there are a few exceptions—Marianne Faithfull in The Girl on a Motorcycle (first released in the US as Naked Under Leather, which tells you where the film’s real interests lay) and Kino of the anime/manga Kino’s Journey, who travels the world with her talking motorcycle, but they’re the few rather than the many. The lesbian community is far more welcoming to female motorcyclists than is the straight world, at least in popular culture (I once wrote and presented an academic paper on the topic) but for the most part, motorcycling emains identified with men.
Maybe that can change if more people watch Indy Saini’s documentary Women in the Front Seat, which offers a window into the worlds of many different women who ride motorcycles. They’re a diverse crew, and they ride a variety of bikes for a variety of reasons, because reality is manifold even if perceptions are narrow. I wish this movie had existed 20 years ago when I was a more appropriate age to take up a new form of transportation (although some of the women featured look like they might be my age or older, so maybe it’s never too late).
The meaning of the title will be clear to anyone familiar with bike culture—riding in the back is known being in the b*tch seat, with the implication that real men ride in front and are actually driving the bike while their girlfriends are mere passengers behind them. One of the women featured in this film even mentions that she first rode a motorcycle in the back, but since a woman was driving, realized she could do that too (and proceeded to do so). Other women describe being stared at and put down by questions such as “Where’s your husband?” “Are you one of those dykes on bikes?” and “Isn’t that an awfully large bike for a little girl?” Spoiler alert—the answer are “none of your business,” “I’ll have to ask my husband what that means,” and “it seems not—just watch me!”
Saini was introduced to motorcycling by her Punjabi father, and says riding helped transform her from “a somewhat broken kid into a woman who was able to make a lot of her dreams come true.” The women featured in Women in the Front Seat are all ages and ethnicities and types. This diversity reinforces the message that there’s no specific class of people entitled to ride, and the sexism of male riders and society at large is no match for the sisterhood they will find among their fellow female riders. Underlining this point, Women in the Front Seat pays a visit to a number of different women’s motorcycling clubs, many with clever names like the Femme Fatales (an international club with a branch in Arizona) and the Piston Annies (a play on the band name “Pistol Annies”). Their members make it clear that they not only enjoy riding, they enjoy riding together. Many also do charitable work, which is an old tradition in motorcycle clubs.
The women interviewed have many reasons for riding, but one that comes up again and again is the opportunity to experience the world firsthand, absent the protective shell of an automobile. You get some of that experience vicariously through the touring footage included, which shows you what a person riding up a mountain road or down a country lane on a motorcycle sees. These women are aware of the dangers specific to motorcycling, many of which stem from careless or lawless motor vehicle drivers, and some have been in serious accidents (with the X-rays to prove it). They continue to ride because it gives them joy, and riding in a group is safer than riding solo, in part because it takes away a standard driver excuse—“I just didn’t see you!”| Sarah Boslaugh
Women in the Front Seat is available for streaming on Amazon, Tubi, Google Play, and YouTube Movies. You can learn about Indy Saini’s other work on her web page.
