Girl on a Motorcycle

I recently read a titillating piece of short fiction about tough, boyish women on motorbikes. It surprised me that, even in the twenty-first century, this image still felt somehow subversive. The female biker is nothing new, but whether a real flesh and blood woman or a fictional character, society still experiences a collective frisson at the thought of her.

Motorbikes have always been symbolic of rebellion. As a traditionally male mode of transport, the bike is seen to embody the spirit of independence, dominance and danger. These factors are amplified all the more when the rider is female. Many men feel intimidated by this. It’s common, especially in the bike community, for them to react by reducing women to pillion-fodder - merely decorative accessories for vehicles, whether or not the woman herself is the bike’s sole rider.

However, the iconic girl-on-a-motorcycle image is one that intrigues and arouses me. The closest I ever got to being one myself was a couple of years on a moped as a teenager, but nevertheless I chose to wear full leathers, gloves and the biggest, butchest pair of boots I could find. My tough image was somewhat undermined by the fact my bike wouldn’t go over 40mph. Still, it was a start.

Here’s part of a rather telling article from the Deccan Chronicle on the allure of the motorbike in Indian culture, and how men perceive female bikers:

‘…The sight of a woman on a bike is an instant turn on. Megan Fox in super hot pants straddling a bike in Transformers 2 and Priyanka Chopra in Don up the oomph factor while they accelerate and sizzle on a machine.

“A hot woman riding a Harley Davidson, dressed in a leather suit and wearing red lipstick — it’s every man’s fantasy,” says adman Prahlad Kakkar.

Anshumani Khanna, creative director, DDB Mudra says, “If you have a good looking woman and a motorcycle, then you are the envy of every person in the group. And that’s what most men want — to be envied. Bringing women and bikes together is not the closest you can get to appeal to men’s sensuality, but it’s definitely an appealing image, it has always been.”

Kakkar calls a motorcycle a modern-world replacement for the stallion, which has traditionally been a symbol of power and virility. For a long time, a women on a horse was seen as something erotic, now the motorcycle has replaced it.

Women are no longer just the titillating element on a bike. The “men’s territory” has now been invaded by women biker groups. They love speed and the adrenaline rush as much as their male counterparts. A remarkable change was seen in the show Stuntmania, which had four women stunt bikers out of the 12 participants. They not only stunned everyone with their skills, some performed better than the men. “If a man can ride a bike and perform stunts, so can women, and we have proven that,” says 25-year-old Smitha Gondkar, a professional stunt biker and one of the participants in Stuntmania Season 2. She loves her Pulsar 250 as much as any other biker would. “Biking is liberating. It makes me feel free. The fear and excitement is something you don’t get anywhere else,” she says. When Smitha started riding bikes, men wouldn’t take her seriously. “They used to consider me as just another babe who was there to be a pillion rider. It was frustrating,” she adds.

Vartika Pandey, another avid biker based in Pune, recently rode across 12 states to spread awareness about smoking. Being a woman biker makes her feel special. “I love the sound of my bike and the way it looks as much as any other biker. My bike is like my companion…”’

Full article here.

Paul Raymond

From the Guardian article by Catharine Arnold on the late Paul Raymond’s biography, offering an insight into the world of gentlemen’s clubs and erotic publishing:

“Raymond arrived in London at the same time as the striptease boom. While nude tableaux had been popular since Queen Victoria’s day, it was illegal for the performers to move. The Lord Chamberlain could close down a show if he considered it obscene. Raymond swiftly exploited a loophole in the licensing laws by making his club “members only”, although he endured battles with council officials, the police and moral watchdogs throughout his career. When Raymond opened his Revuebar in 1958, it proved an instant success. At a time when it was fashionable in London to be northern, this middle-class Catholic schoolboy from Glossop reinvented himself as a hard-boiled spiv, gaining credibility with the Krays, Frankie Fraser, Peter Sellers and Diana Dors. Soon he was boasting that his income from the Revuebar was £2,000 a week, 10 times more than the prime minister, Harold Macmillan. He’d never had it so good.

Raymond’s genius was to package mainstream pornography as a lifestyle accessory. The self-appointed “king of the keyholes” understood the voyeuristic aspect of male sexuality, providing a titillating, rose-tinted world populated by statuesque strippers with names like Creme De Cocoa and Tempest Storm. By appealing to the lowest common denominator, Raymond built up an empire worth £650m, ranging from magazines such as Men Only to a property portfolio. By the time he died he owned most of Soho. But there were lapses of judgement. An attempt to emulate the Bunny club drew the threat of legal action from Hugh Hefner. Raymond sold up to John Aspinall and shamefully left the club as normal one evening, minutes before his entire staff were fired. An attempt to cash in on the emerging gay scene with a transvestite revue floundered until it was rescued at the eleventh hour by one of Raymond’s proteges – Danny La Rue.

Showbusiness disasters make good copy, and Willetts provides a string of anecdotes, such as the lion-taming act that featured in one of Raymond’s early national tours. This involved two girls posing nude in a lions’ cage, while Nikolai the lion-tamer put three elderly big cats through their paces. The routine nearly ended in tragedy at the Nottingham Empire when Rana the lioness lashed out with one paw. With admirable sang-froid, Nikolai stared her down and completed the performance, as his white glove turned crimson and the girls remained motionless on their pedestals in poses of frozen immobility that would have impressed the Lord Chamberlain himself.

Another life-threatening act involved Miss Snake Hips, who performed with a nine-foot-long boa constrictor. When, on her opening night at the Revuebar, the boa got aggressive and started to squeeze, Miss Snake Hips had to be rescued by former heavyweight boxer turned doorman Nosher Powell. One gimmick, which featured naked girls swimming in a giant fish tank, nearly ended in tragedy when a performer passed out after being overcome by chlorine fumes. After this, Raymond restricted himself to less dangerous acts, such as one featuring a horse trained to remove girls’ underwear. A simple trick – sugar lumps attached to the lingerie at strategic points – ensured that neither strippers nor animal were injured.”

Full review here.

Twisted Photos, August 2010

The photos from last week’s “Arabian Nights” event at Club Twisted are now up online. Click here for the gallery.

London Fetish Weekend 2010

From the LFW newsletter:

“Now in its third year, the London Fetish Weekend is firmly in the diaries of kinksters worldwide. Tickets have been selling fast and include guests from around the globe and as far away as Australia!

The fun packed weekend offers something for everyone and kicks off on 1st October with a Club Subversion Special at the Colloseum in Vauxhall. The theme for this year’s event is Uniforms which is great for boys and girls! Subversion will have five themed areas including a huge dungeon area by Playpenz with ambient music so you can hear your whip crack, a French maid cafe with maid service, a pumping dance area with resident DJs Marky Moo, Si and Bas along with guest DJ Miles. Doors open at 10pm and tickets are just £18 in advance or £20 on the door.

Saturday daytime is shopping time with the London Alternative Market at the Royal National Hotel near Russell Square. A great chance to pick up outfits, toys and accessories from some of London’s most talented kinky traders. As well as being a great place to shop it’s also a great place to meet up with friends or make new ones in the bar area. The market is open from midday to 6pm and is just £6 entry (tickets are available in advance or on the door).

Torture Garden, the world’s largest fetish club, presents the London Fetish Weekend Ball at Mass in Brixton on Saturday night. This huge event features 6 themed rooms, radical performance art, body ritual, fashion shows, burlesque cabaret, live music, art installations, eclectic music and an enforced fantasy dress code. The range of music from DJs including David TG, The Secretary and Jimmy Mofo will make sure your feet don’t touch the floor from the moment you arrive! Tickets are £27 in advance or £30 on the door.

On Sunday you can choose from twelve workshops within three streams of play; Fetish & Fashion, SM play and Bondage brought to you by SiMply Workshops and the LAM. Workshops start at midday and go on until 6pm but you can arrive when you want and choose which workshops you attend as the day goes on. Food and drink are available throughout the day and with tickets at just £8 for the full day it is a great chance to brush up on your SM skills and pick up tips on play and fashion whilst socialising and making new friends.

Finally, Sunday evening is After Pandora in London Bridge. The theme is Bedtime Stories and will entail an enchanting night of kinky fairy tales, a sexy playful night to wrap up a fabulous weekend of fetish clubbing. Tickets for this adult pyjama party are £10 and numbers are limited so make sure you book in advance.”

Click here for more information.

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