Between Man and Machine: A Socio-Historical Analysis of Masculinity in North American Motorcycling Culture by Joshua Robert Adam Maynard A thesis submitted to the Department of Sociology In conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada May, 2008 Copyright © Joshua Maynard, 2008 Abstract There has been a longstanding fascination with motorcycling culture in popular mainstream North American media, but this culture has only recently become the focus of rigorous, contextualized academic research. While smaller research projects have studied specific aspects of motorcycling culture, few academic researchers have investigated the exclusionary discourses that underpin motorcycling culture and none have done so in a methodical manner. Using a series of columns published over a thirty-five year period in the popular Canadian motorcycle magazine, Cycle Canada , I have analyzed the discourses through which motorcycling culture comes to have meaning to its participants and I have elucidated the socio-historical understandings of masculinity that are present in North American motorcycling culture. This thesis provides a historical sociological analysis of motorcycling discourse through a feminist lens. I view gender as a relation that must constantly be (re)negotiated amongst socially constituted subjects and I pay particular attention to how technological discourse is made socially durable and sustainable by the interface of material (motorcycles) and organic (human) beings. Longitudinal analysis of Cycle Canada illustrates the presence of heteronormative discourses that constrain readers' choices of gender identification and sexual orientation to traditional notions of masculinity. In an effort to create solidarity with their readers, the magazine editors cater to the perceived interests of an idealized male audience by performing these masculine identities. Though motorcycling culture in Canada is increasingly diverse, Cycle Canada has only begun to reflect this diversity in the past two years of publication. Explicating the social, political, economic, technological and historical context which gave rise to particular masculine identities in motorcycling culture allows us to focus on the positive agency involved in the performance of masculine identities, while still recognizing that there remains room to include other figurations of identity beyond traditional concepts of heteronormativity and homosociality. ii Acknowledgements I would like to offer my thanks to everyone that has participated in the development of this research, as well as my sincerest condolences for having to put up with me these past two and a half years. I thank my dear friends Ted, Kate, and Mandy for dragging me away from my work on occasion and restoring my sanity at much needed intervals; I know how unmotivated and stubborn I can be at times. I am indebted to Colm Kelly, Gayle MacDonald, Steven Pidwysocky, and most of all, Dawne Clarke, for serving as both mentors and friends during my time at St. Thomas University. I would not have made it this far without your encouragement and belief in my potential. I am grateful to all the staff, librarians and faculty at Queen’s University for their assistance and their willingness to share their knowledge and experience. I cannot overstate my gratitude to my thesis advisors Roberta Hamilton and Mary Louise Adams for their enthusiasm, inspiration and their unwavering faith in me, and I am thankful for their academic and spiritual guidance; their advice, comments and critiques have never led me astray. I extend my deepest gratitude and love to my family. To my sister, Avery, whose imagination, playfulness, and artistic vision are some of the things that I have sought to include in my own work. To my father, Clayton, who has instilled within me the same passion for adventure and wanderlust that I see in his eyes. To my mother, Judy, who has granted me the courage to follow my dreams and the strength with which to fulfill them. In the spirit of solidarity through shared knowledge, I dedicate this thesis to everyone who might benefit from its use. iii Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ iv Chapter 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 Thesis outline ............................................................................................................................... 5 Chapter 2 The formation of motorcycling culture ............................................................................ 7 Culture, what culture? .................................................................................................................. 8 Affectivity in motorcycling culture ............................................................................................ 11 Masculine technology and the ‘fellowship of the wrenches’ ..................................................... 17 The masculinization of the motorcycle ...................................................................................... 24 The formation of a masculine motorcycling culture .................................................................. 28 Motorcycling culture during the 1920s and 1930s ..................................................................... 35 Chapter 3 The influence of war in motorcycling culture ............................................................... 39 Motorcycling culture after World War II: The rise of a rebel .................................................... 44 The Wild One and media influence on motorcycling culture during the 1950s ......................... 53 The Civil Rights Movement, Second Wave Feminism and biker exploitation film, or: How Japanese ingenuity subverted biker subculture during the 1960s and 1970s ............................. 60 Chapter 4 ‘In my beginning is my end’ – analysis of Cycle Canada magazine ............................. 70 Theory ........................................................................................................................................ 72 Method ....................................................................................................................................... 74 Analysis ...................................................................................................................................... 76 The soldier/laborer habitus as represented in Cycle Canada magazine ................................. 76 The managerial/professional habitus as represented in Cycle Canada magazine .................. 83 The owner/governor habitus as represented in Cycle Canada magazine ............................... 92 Change and continuity .......................................................................................................... 101 Chapter 5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 111 Appendix A Article Index ............................................................................................................ 133 iv Chapter 1 Introduction There has been a longstanding fascination with motorcycling culture in popular mainstream North American media as radio broadcasts, newspaper articles, television shows and films have created a popularized image of motorcyclists. Yet motorcycle culture has only recently become the focus of rigorous, contextualized academic research. While smaller research projects and highly detailed ethnographies have studied specific political movements, lifestyles and subcultures in motorcycling culture (Joans, 2001; McDonald-Walker, 2000; Sato, 1991; Wolf, 1991), few researchers have investigated the exclusionary discourses that underpin motorcycling culture and none have done so in a methodical manner. To expand upon this existent body of research, this thesis provides a historical sociological analysis of motorcycling culture through a feminist lens which is inspired by the works of Judith Butler, R.W. Connell, and other proponents of 'Queer Theory' (Butler, 1993; Connell, 1995; McNay, 2000), and which views gender as a relation that must constantly be (re)negotiated amongst socially constituted subjects. I am also influenced by feminist 'technoscience' literature, which constitutes technology as a social subject and examines how technological discourse is made socially durable and sustainable by the interface of material (motorcycles) and organic (human) beings (Braidotti, 1994; Grosz, 1994; Haraway, 1991; Latour, 1987). While the technoscience approach links the social exclusion of disadvantaged groups in the virtual realm to the denial of alternate forms of knowledge, I draw on the sociology of sport literature to illustrate how these gendered social relations translate into the physical world in the idolization of particular forms of human and machinic bodies (Burstyn, 1999; Giulianotti, 2005). Finally, I turn to the literature on media studies to help provide a methodological approach that is 1 best suited to conducting a discourse