Abstract
Nikolas Christakis
University of Athens
Women motorcyclists: gender migrants on the borders of non-community
The life-stories of women motorcyclists indicate that their love for motorcycling is attributed by them to their ‘unnatural nature’ (tomboys). Moreover, they overcome a general feeling of suspicion, while at the same time they face doubt, derogatory admiration and discarding equality by men, losing in the process many of the ‘prerogatives’ usually connected to femininity. Individualised and alone, they cannot relate and belong to any ‘us’. Motorcyclists have traditionally been a special group (a model of the distinct gender ‘attributes’, ‘sensitivities’ and activities), which in this case stretches to its limits in the form of an unconventional femininity (contrasting a fragmented masculinity) and an ‘academically’ constructed non-community that would be interesting to contemplate on.
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