The Bikeriders – And Why Do Women Like Bad Men

Today I saw a trailer for the upcoming The Bikeriders with Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer and Austin Butler based on Danny Lyon's black and white photography book of the same name, first published in 1968. 

Such is the feral demand for information on anything Butler and Hardy with regards to costuming, the costume designer for the movie Erin Benach, has an entire fan club requesting information on the jacket patches Butler is wearing in the trailer. 

I've done some quiet digging, but nothing has come up. I suspect a lot of the jackets were custom made. Maybe they could be Frankenstein jackets like the one Marlene Stewart made for Tom Cruise, in Maverick. 

I'll definitely be checking out the film, as it looks stunning visually. But I've been thinking about a broader subject on why women are so drawn to men on motorbikes. The so called bad boys, which has its roots in Hells Angels of course, the Rockers V Mods uprising of the late 50s and 60s that saw two conflicting British youth subcultures clash on Brighton beach in 1964, and then of course, Marlon Brando in 1953's The Wild One. 

What is about the Bad Boy, that women love so much, and men aspire to me, at least in some capacity. Even the most celebrated and desirable protagonists in modern day cinema, are bad men. James Bond has a licence to kill. Solange in Casino Royale asks Bond, 'why can't good men be more like you?' To which Bond replies, 'because then they'd be bad.' 

Here are 5 reasons why women like bad men

Women are by nature nurturers. Bad guys normally come with a lot of issues and women want to flex their nurturing instincts and fix them. Like a mechanic takes in a broken car, sticks it up on the ramp and figures out what's wrong. Women won't let us off the ramp until they're done. And once we're fixed, they no longer have that itch to scratch. They can let us go back into the wild knowing they did a good job. But it's more that bad men get gentrified by good women. And once we become civilised, their job is done, and we no longer challenge them. 

Bad men notoriously have Emotional Detachment Disorders. Meaning they struggle to commit to anything. Again this throws down the gauntlet to some women who either believe they can iron out this flaw by being their unicorn, or can relate to it in some capacity as it mirrors their own disorders brought on by past emotional traumas. In short, bad men don't stick around, and even though women won't admit to this generally, it can prove to be a magnetic lure. 

Height. Bad men are typically tall, and they need to be in order to stay at the top of the social pecking order. A bit like a bull elephant that has dominion over multiple females, and has to constantly fend off the challenges from other bulls in order to keep his concubines to himself. Only the larger bulls are capable of doing this. Thus height, build and stature is crucial to a bad man, and this gives him confidence amongst his tribe. Confidence, height, mystery, all characteristics and physical attributes that women have sought in men for protectionism, since the dawn of time. 

Forbidden fruit. The bad boy image serves as a fantasy. Something that can provide the necessary risk for a partner whose life is all to laid out, predictable, boring. Every human has their own risk percentage that they can tolerate in their lives. Some are higher than others, people are Formula 1 drivers, others choose to play chess, you get my point. For those with a low of percentage of risk in their life, a bad boy can offer a fix of risk, much like a drug. 

Leather. It has to have something to do with the clothes. The look, the leather, and sticking strictly the biker look, it's never corduroy and flat caps. Leather is a sexy material, it's often skin hugging, accentuating the shape of a man's thighs or behind. We also don't see a lot of leather on men outside of the bikers uniform. Not head to toe leather at least. It's unquestionably a look that is to its own, and the antipathy of corporate, or retail, or fill in the blank. 

These are my thoughts on why women like bad boys. I'd be curious to know yours, and am excited to watch The Bikeriders in cinemas June 21st. 

Photo by Daniel Thürler on Unsplash