Men on Bikes the Outlaw As the New American Anti-Hero in Sons of Anarchy
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Men on Bikes The Outlaw as the New American Anti-Hero in Sons of Anarchy Diplomarbeit zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades einer Magistra der Philosophie an der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz vorgelegt von Stephanie DIMAS am Institut für Amerikanistik Begutachter: Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Stefan L. Brandt Graz, 2017 Eidesstattliche Erklärung Ich erkläre ehrenwörtlich, dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit selbständig und ohne fremde Hilfe verfasst, andere als die angegebenen Quellen nicht benutzt und die den Quellen wörtlich oder inhaltlich entnommenen Stellen als solche kenntlich gemacht habe. Die Arbeit wurde bisher in gleicher oder ähnlicher Form keiner anderen inländischen oder ausländischen Prüfungsbehörde vorgelegt und auch noch nicht veröffentlicht. Die vorliegende Fassung entspricht der eingereichten elektronischen Version. Graz, im August 2017 Unterschrift: 2 Acknowledgement First of all, I want to thank my family (Mama, Wolfgang, Dimitri, Anna, Oma) for their endless support and understanding. I know it took me longer than expected, but you kept encouraging and believing in me. Noah, a very special thank you goes to you even though you are still too young to appreciate it. You came into all our lives as a blessing in more ways than one. Hopefully, you will want to read this one day. Thanks, Papa, for being the very first long-haired biker that I ever admired in my life. Next, I need to give a special thanks to my amazing friends (Angi, Julia, Silke) who gave me the time I needed and still managed to be there every step of the way. I could not have done it without your motivational speeches and helpful distractions. Finally, I want to thank my supervisor Mr. Stefan Brandt who showed patience and always gave me constructive feedback. Thank you for making my dream to write about my favorite TV series come true. 3 Abbreviations SoA Sons of Anarchy MC Motorcycle Club 4 Table of Contents 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................. 6 2. Sons of Anarchy – Juvenile Rebellion on Quality TV? .............................................. 9 2.1. Tough on the Outside, Soft on the Inside ................................................................. 9 2.2. Anarchy in the USA ................................................................................................14 2.3. Where is the Anarchy in SoA? ................................................................................15 2.4. SoA – The Outsider within TV Genres? ..................................................................19 2.4.1. Making Quality TV? ..........................................................................................22 2.4.2. Scanning the Audience: A Marginalized Group? ..............................................25 3. The Biker Motif ............................................................................................................28 3.1. Rebels in Leather through (Media) History ..............................................................29 3.1.1. Where it all began: From Marlon Brando to Jax Teller .....................................31 3.1.2. The Double Edged Road of Rebellion ..............................................................36 3.2. Being Marked as a Biker: Club Colors & Tattoos ....................................................44 3.3. The Motorcycle: Identity Marker and Symbol ..........................................................46 3.4. The Violent Rebel – An Epitome of Masculinity/Humanity? .....................................49 3.5. With a Little Help from my Brothers: A Sense of Brotherhood .................................53 4. The Outlaw Biker as Anti-Hero ...................................................................................57 4.1. ‘Social Banditry’ in America: Myth or Fact? .............................................................58 4.2. The Outlaw Folk Type in Sons of Anarchy ..............................................................60 4.3. Rise to Anti-Hero or Demotion to Villain ..................................................................67 5. Sympathy with the Devil – The Amiable Outlaw in Sons of Anarchy ......................70 5.1. Personification of Moral Conflict: A Close Reading .................................................72 5.2. Humanizing the Outlaw: A Close Reading ..............................................................75 6. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................80 7. Works cited ..................................................................................................................83 7.1. Primary Sources .....................................................................................................83 7.2. Secondary Sources ................................................................................................83 7.3. Electronic Sources ..................................................................................................85 7.4. Other Sources ........................................................................................................86 8. List of Captions ...........................................................................................................87 9. Appendix ......................................................................................................................89 9.1. Overview of the main SoA Characters ....................................................................89 5 1. Introduction The general idea of the biker as a freedom-loving individual is deeply rooted within American culture and seems to represent a modernized version of the Western frontiersman. Over time, however, the supposedly rebellious nature of motorcycle riders and the fact that they started forming internationally connected clubs reflected badly on their reputation amongst society. People tended to see them more and more as troublemakers and uncivilized rebels as news about criminal activities of clubs such as the “Hell’s Angels” accumulated. A prejudice that also got picked up by the film (and television) industry, for example The Wild Angels (1966) or Scorpio Rising (1969), and further promoted a stigmatization of bikers as violent people and criminals. Nevertheless, alongside the moral criticism of this particular lifestyle, there still remains an aura of the old Western hero who fights against injustice and manages to free himself of corporate as well as mundane shackles. As a consequence of this duality the biker has become an interesting social type and character offering a myriad of options of how to evaluate his ambiguous behavior. As the anthropologist Daniel R. Wolf points out, “[r]egardless of whether we wish to praise outlaw bikers as heroes or condemn them as villains, we simply cannot explain the nature of their opposition in terms of the conventional stereotype of a sociopath” (1991: 348). In other words, it can be argued that the fascination with such bikers happens because of or despite their violent reputation, which also allows for an alternative to the common impeccable hero figures. The present thesis focuses on the popular FX television show Sons of Anarchy (2008-2014), displaying the outlaw biker as a special kind of flawed hero, or better said, anti-hero that struggles between being bad and doing good or vice versa. By telling the outlaw’s side of the story, the audience receives an insight into his life and is able to witness what makes him as human as us. It is the aim of this thesis to show that as a member of such a minor sub-culture you will have to face both rejection and (limited) acceptance from the rest of society, which is made clear in the case of the show’s protagonist, Jax Teller. Concerning the basic outline, the first chapters will deal with giving an overview of the main themes found in Sons of Anarchy while also trying to explain how certain stylistic features help to establish the setting for the depicted outlaw motorcycle club. A special focus will be given to the concept of ‘anarchy’ as such since the TV series repeatedly draws upon the general understanding of anarchism as a form of rebellion against any oppressing or 6 hierarchical system. The following chapters are then concerned with the question in how far the show in itself can be seen as a generic outsider compared to other television productions. After a short historical prelude about television history and the changes in modern programs, it will be discussed whether Sons of Anarchy counts as ‘quality TV’ or not. Nowadays, this question about a program’s possible qualitative traits seems especially interesting because of the general and ever rising appeal of more serious and violent shows with ‘evil/bad’, but still likeable, characters: the so- called anti-heroes. Another relevant issue has to do with the audience and their personal involvement with the show’s plot and protagonists. Since Sons of Anarchy focuses on social outsiders, it could be argued that viewers of such a show have to be able to identify themselves with that kind of marginalized position. Next, it is important for this thesis to determine the possible origins or prototypes of the biker (motif) as he is known today both in real life as well as on-screen. The respective chapters will look into the first biker movie, The Wild One, with Marlon Brando as well as the popular road film from the 60s, Easy Rider. This is done in order to find out how these