Bike Lust: Harleys, Women, And American Society

by Barbara Joans

Book Overview

Bike Lust roars straight into the world of women bikers and offers us a ride. In this adventure story that is also an insider's study of an American subculture, Barbara Joans enters as a passenger on the back of a bike, but soon learns to ride her own. As an anthropologist she untangles the rules, rituals, and rites of passage of the biker culture. As a new member of that culture, she struggles to overcome fear, physical weakness, and a...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0299173542
• ISBN13: 9780299173548
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.4" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Finding your place in the world

This book is about identity and the various Harley sub-cultures. It has little to say about metric cruisers, sport-tourers, or any other type of motorcycling. It is not a textbook. It is for riders or wanna-be riders. It is for fun, for personal enjoyment. And I did enjoy the book. It helped me learn that I should not waste money on a Harley when I replace my metric cruiser. Apparently I belong with the sport touring folks who wear high-visibility protective gear and top-of-the-line full face helmets by choice, not law. I enjoyed the book, although the author's opinion of helmet comfort is misinformed and probably based on ill-fitting headgear. I know I don't want to be part of the culture she describes, but I recommend the book. I disagree with her on many points, but I recommend this book. It's really a treat to read.

Participant-observation as Being There

BIKE LUST is a unique, forceful and informative ethnography in which Barbara Joans takes the reader inside the minds and hearts of an emergent, important and incompletely understood American subculture. She tells much of this story in the language and with the forcefulness of a cultural insider. I know of no account of Harley culture like it. The examples are clear and cleanly and drawn, not only in the manner of a professional anthropologist but also as a storyteller with a sharp ear for language. Joans comes to the task with particularly apt credentials, and the originality of her technique illuminates the character of the group she represents. An accomplished anthropologist with an established reputation in the field, Joans has not written simply an anthropologist's monograph, but by adopting the voice of her study population, she brings the reader inside the community; she makes the events and the people come alive. This combining professional precision with subcultural patoise, enhances the portrayal. You find yourself seeing through biker's eyes, hearing and absorbing biker terminology and world view, and feeling the clamminess of water-soaked clothing after a stormy night's ride. Because of Joans' highly accessible style, often invisible prose, and the intrinsic interest of the material, the work will have broad appeal. "Bike Lust" should find extensive readership among the general public because of its readability,and because of the adventures it recounts. A significant part of Joans' contribution to this literature is her use of both masculine and feminine perspectives in equally engaging ways. For this reason it might be argued that Joans' work is the first effectively ethnographic study of this subculture.

Informative and enjoyable read

This was an informative and enjoyable book, especially for the targeted audience. As an earlier reviewer wrote, it is not a scholarly treatise with data, so if you're an academic looking for such, you'll be disappointed. But for the motorcyclist and passenger, especially the Harley owner, it's a good read. Basically, the female author offers her opinions on Harley owners and passengers, based on her fairly recent involvement in the lifestyle. She categorizes and describes both male and female enthusiasts. Being female, and since females constitute most of the passengers and are such statistical outliers as riders, the author spends most of her time on female related issues. Her anecdotes, and those of the females she interviewed, of their riding experiences are both informative and entertaining. As a fairly recent Harley owner, I really benefitted from her insights, and I recommend the book to all my riding friends, especially the females.

I couldn't put it down

Riveting. Reading the profiles of the different types of male and female personalities that ride motorcycles became so fascinating that I couldn't put the book down. Dr. Joans presents the profiles so well that one enjoys reading as much as if one were reading a number one best-selling novel. The book presents factual information with a unique, fluid and vivid use of the written word. I simply couldn't put the book down until I was finished with it. Once finished with it, I longed for more. I just couldn't get enough. One hopes there will be a sequel into the world of these fascinating people, each so very different, yet each tied by a love to ride big motorcycles.

Bike Lust could be called Lust for Bikes

Joans has produced a unique, forceful and informative ethnography in which she takes the reader inside the minds and hearts of an emergent, important and underreported American subculture. Joans has supplied this missing study with the language and forcefulness of a cultural insider. There is no other account like it. The accounts are clear and cleanly and drawn, not only in the manner of a professional anthropologist but as a storyteller with a sharp ear for language. Joans comes to the task with particularly apt credentials and the originality of her technique illunminates the uniqueness of the group she studied. This is in many ways an amazing work. Joans, an accomplished anthropologist with an established reputation in the field, has not simply written an anthropologist's monograph but by adoping the authorial voice of her study population she places the reader inside that population. She makes events and people come alive. This act in itself, combining professional precision with subcultural slang, is badly needed in anthropological accounts. While reading the book, instead of feeling like a dispassionate observer one finds oneself seeing through biker's eyes, hearing and absorbing biker terminology and feeling the clamminess of water-soaked clothing after a stormy ride. Because of her highly accessible style and the intrinsic interest of the material, the work will have broad appeal. It will find extensive readership among the general public because of its readability and because of the adventures it recounts. A significant part of Joans' contribution to this literature is her use of both masculine and feminine perspectives in equally engaging ways. For this reason it might be argued that Joans' work is the first real study of this subculture.