Are Women in the Motorcycle Community More Attractive on Social?

When an attractive and likeable Japanese user of social media dropped their photos on Twitter, posing with motorbikes and documenting their fast-lane ‘motorcycle lifestyle’, the online motorcycle community jumped on board.

With numerous picturesque locations in the background and scenic shots for the profile’s attractive identity, the user generated a lot of followers and gained a lot of appreciation from the predominantly male motorcycle sphere. The profile being a ‘She’ seemed to have a rapid impact and her following grew thick and fast.

She seemed to have all of the qualities that many motorcycle enthusiasts dream about: a woman who likes to ride motorcycles and who fits into the moto lifestyle. Wears leathers and doesn’t get bothered by helmet hair. Then there was the unspoken aspect of fetishisation that women who like to be around engines of any type seem to be subjected to.

Motorsport of every form is very much a male dominated avenue that few women seem to cross over into successfully unless they are in various forms of skimpy dress on a grid or a podium. The few who do manage to cross that barrier do so, but with a lot of misogynistic background behaviour and eyebrows raised suggesting that they are a gimmick or novelty.

Which is why it seems all the more confounding that when the identity of the persona that the thrust of all of this ‘follower’ enthusiasm and complimentary dialogue was being directed at turned out to be a fifty year old Japanese man.

After garnering over 20,500 followers on Twitter posting as ‘herself’ in Moto wear, either astride or beside her sport motorbike, it was revealed that ‘she’ was indeed a ‘he’. A fifty year old ‘he’ to be exact.

What followed was an exposé of a 50-year-old male Japanese motorbike enthusiast named Soya (Twitter user @azusagakuyuki ) who had decided that he wanted to be famous online and become a social media star.

Why Falsify Appearance?

He chose to use Photoshop to falsify his appearance and was able to engage thousands of followers through a deceptive identity. But why would he choose to do this? The simple answer is that social media itself rendered that to be the easiest way to garner a following and become famous.

If fame is what you are looking for, being an unknown middle-aged man who likes motorcycles is unlikely to send you to the stratosphere of fame just by posting pictures of yourself with your bike. It’s pretty hard to stand out in motorsport, but just being female already stakes your claim for being a headline.

Being an attractive young woman who loves cars or bikes might pique the interest of thousands of petrol-heads who spend perhaps too much time on their mode of transport rather than relationships with women in real life.

This man who wanted some attention from the Moto community felt that the only way he could gain some was to pretend to be an attractive young woman.

Maybe that says a lot about the motorcycle community. When a fake profile female motorcycle rider gets more interest from the community presumably because of her looks than someone genuinely interested and vested in the sport it is food for thought.

If it was a real woman getting followers herself for posing next to a bike without any indication she actually could ride one, would she still be as interesting? Possibly, but that folks, is called modelling.

Be careful of who you follow if it seems too good to be true.