I can still clearly remember sitting in my dad’s race car when I was six as he got ready to do race prep on the car. I didn’t understand much of what he was doing, and honestly, I was pretty much just interested in making ‘vroom vroom’ noises in the driver’s seat rather than holding the flashlight for him again. 13 years later, I still make ‘vroom vroom’ noises in the driver’s seat, but it’s in my own car instead of my dad’s. Cars are a huge part of my life, thanks to my dad, and in my free time I enjoy posting my car on social media.
For those unfamiliar with the car community, it is fairly common for enthusiasts to post edits and photos of their cars on social media, mainly Instagram and TikTok. My experience posting in the car community as a female has been overwhelmingly positive—but I’m one of the lucky ones. The majority of people I have interacted with online in the community have been very cool and don’t care if I’m a man or a woman. What matters is that there is a mutual appreciation of cars. However, there is the occasional person who doesn’t exactly agree with that.
The first TikTok I posted that got a bit of traction, just over 7000 likes, was back in 2022 and I was so excited about it. Since it had more traction than most of my videos, I was getting a lot more comments than I was used to, and I was doing my best to respond to all of them. Again, being one of the lucky ones, the majority of responses were people who were super cool and genuinely just shared a hobby with me. One of the comments I’ll never forget, though, was from a user who decidedly thought I was using cars for attention and followed it up by telling me I wasn’t pretty enough to get attention from cars. Unfortunately, comments like this run rampant in the comment sections of girls who post about their love of cars. TikToks are posted all the time making fun of female car influencers and calling car girls cringey or using it for attention. So why is there such a strong hatred for ‘car girls’ and why do many of us feel like there is a difference between ‘car girls’ and female car enthusiasts?
You can say sexism is the root cause for men disliking women’s presence in the community, and that might not be entirely wrong, but the root of this run much deeper than that. Women like Lella Lombardi and Vicki Wood have been racing since the mid 1900s when it was a delusional idea, and modern-day drivers like Danica Patrick, Hailee Deegan, and Lia Block still make names for women in the community without an absurd amount of backlash. On the other hand, a quick scroll through most female car influencer’s social media will show the hate that car girls regularly get.
Unfortunately, when you look at some of the most popular accounts of these influencers, an large amount of them have used their sex appeal to gain a mass following. Posting half-nude photos in front of an M5 Competition is a surefire way to get likes as it targets the male demographic heavily. Many of these girls make use of sites like OnlyFans, as well, and whether or not they have a genuine interest in cars, they give ‘car girls’ a dirty name.
The other side of female car influencers are girls who just make content because they love it and don’t use the fact that they’re a woman to gain a following. Weirdly, these girls are usually the ones who get the most hate. Interpret that as you will but there is a plethora of female influencers who post content for fun and to share their hobby, most of whom grew up around cars, and they get told that they’re in it for attention. The OnlyFans girls and so-called automotive models have ruined the car scene for women who simply enjoy being involved in the community, and aren’t in it for attention, sex appeal, or money. There is an association with ‘car girls’ as girls who pose nude with sports cars and don’t have any interest in cars, which perpetuates the idea that women don’t belong in the community.
Thus, many of us girls will refuse to call ourselves ‘car girls’ and instead will just call ourselves enthusiasts. It doesn’t stop people from being hateful if they want to but it’s an attempt to separate us from the sex-driven and ‘fake car girl’ scene that has given us a bad rep. Girls like Hailee Deegan and Lia Block don’t get this ‘fake car girl’ hate because they’ve already proven themselves as real from their backgrounds and qualifications. Any female car enthusiast who wants respect pretty much has to prove herself with such or she will face the infamous ‘fake car girl’ allegations.
This is not to say all of the males in the community are accusatory and horrible and deny us of our roles in the community, though. I have met tons of people (both male and female) through the online car community that are genuine and supportive. A lot of my closest friends have come from cars. My hometown has a decent car scene and I’ve never encountered anyone who has questioned me or my love of cars. I think the ‘car girl’ hate really stems from the bad rep we have gotten, and social media has perpetuated this idea that ‘car girls’ are cringey. Women who are part of the car scene in person, in my opinion, never get the same hate as women online, and I think that is because the influencing aspect of it has been part of the reason for all of this hate.
Again, I’ve been one of the lucky ones, and my thoughts on this topic come from my experiences and observations in the community. This is definitely a controversial subject in the community, but I know many of the girls I’ve spoken to have felt the same way I do. At the end of the day, whether you’re a man or a woman, the car scene should be about cars, not sex.