"If You Can Read This, My Bitch Fell Off"

     I'm writing my blog in the car on the way back home from vacationing in Keystone, South Dakota.  This road trip will last ten hours, starting from the Black Hills region and ending in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

     Keystone, originated in 1883 as a mining town, but has since transformed into a summer vacation destination, which is located two miles from Mount Rushmore National Memorial and approximately twenty-five miles from Sturgis, one of the largest annual motorcycle events in the world.  Keystone has been reconstructed to resemble a sleepy, old, and dusty 1880's western town, where the main attractions are actors who stage gunfights in the street and ride horse driven wagons, cowboy inspired saloons, family restaurants, and numerous gift shops filled with fake turquoise, homemade fudge, and kitschy souvenirs.  Most of the people vacationing in this town are with their nuclear family, which consists of middle aged heterosexual parents, energetic children, and slow moving grandparents; however, an interesting sub-culture of people struck my attention as I watched the world go by, Harley Davidson Motorcycle Gangs.

     As the iron horses rumbled through the streets, each bike was louder than the next, a clear symbol of masculinity.  It was no secret that the loud pipes represented testosterone and the length of the man's penis.  These men ride "hogs" and pack their "bitch" on the back, who cling tightly to the black leather of their man.  What attracts these modern day desperadoes' to these western towns is not such a mystery for if they were born over 125 years ago, they would have been gunfighters that rode into town on a horse.

     The majority of people who drive Harley's are men.  The unwritten dress code may include:  bandanas, dark shades, sleeveless jackets, chains, heavy black boots, dusty leather chaps, and greasy jeans, but they are expected to never wear helmets.  Some have beards, most have tattoos, and as their hopped up cycle shoots off like a gun, the back of their completely degrading t-shirts say, "If you can read this, my Bitch fell off" and "It won't suck itself".  If a man can emulate the appearance of a Hell's Angel and portray a "take no shit" type of attitude, he is a life long member of this club.  In "Shame-O-Phobia", Wexler describes that men have an overwhelming fear of feeling:  incompetent, not valued, unimportant, weak, and most of all feminine; therefore, most men will try to reduce this anxiety and do whatever it takes to prove their manhood.  Riding a Harley automatically earns a man "Guy Points", by providing them with an instant hard exterior, which protects a man's masculine self-image and reduce any risk of feeling shame; however, this is often used as a cover up to hide deep seeded emotions that may be festering from either family, peer, or cultural experiences.

     I recently spoke with a man who once rode a Harley and who had experienced Sturgis first hand.  He stated that if a man trailers his bike out to Sturgis, his friends will consider him to be a "pussy", another name for a vagina that is commonly used to shame a man; however, the longer the distance a man rides his motorcycle to get to Sturgis, the more masculine he will appear to his peers.  This is similar to the ice water study mentioned in "Shame-O-Phobia" by Wexler.  When men were told that the longer they kept their hands in icy water was a measure of male sex hormones and physical fitness as opposed to female sex hormones and the ability to bond with children, they kept their hands in the freezing water much longer.

     The women who ride on the back of Harley's are less than feminine in their appearance and behaviors.  As they straddle the "hog" in a masculine fashion with a less than friendly facial expression, they are also similarly geared up in a black leather costume that represents Harley.  As their tangled hair blows in the wind and their weathered, tired skin resembles wrinkled leather, they are considered to be the "tough and owned".  It appears that these women are trying to be equal to the men in this group; however, they are oblivious to the reality that they will always be the devalued and socially dominated gender as long as they ride on the back of a Harley.

     Lorber writes in "The Social Construction of Gender", that as a process, men and women learn the norms and expectations of their gender; therefore, in a Harley gang it is clearly established that men dominate the position of authority by driving and women have less power by riding.  She continues by saying that in a gender-stratified society, men are valued more highly even if both genders are doing very similar activities.  This is interesting, because when comparing Harley men to Harley women, they are very much alike in their interests, style of clothing, and their perceived threatening public attitudes, yet unequal gender roles are present.  Lorber also states, that this stratification system places men above women of the same race and class.  Harley packs predominately contain white heterosexual members that consist of all ages; however, determining class in a Harley pack is often unrecognizable.  Even though most Harley drivers and riders may superficially appear to be of lower socio-economic status, many members lead double lives and may be doctors, lawyers, or accountants during the week, but choose to convert their identities into rebellious warriors on the weekend.

     For some Harley gangs, being a member of this exclusive club gives them the chance to be someone else for a while.  A chance to disguise themselves in different clothing, change their personality, be free from the everyday stress of inner city living, and live a life of an iron horse outlaw that they may have fantasized about since childhood.  This is understandable; however, it is surprising that Harley women, who appear to be so masculine and harsh on the outside, actually tolerate this gendered inequality sub-culture which seems almost archaic.

                                                                     References

Lorber, J. (1994).  The Social Construction of Gender.  In S.M. Shaw & J. Lee (5th Eds.),
     Womens Voices Feminist Visions (pp.126-129).  New York, NY:  McGraw-Hill.

Wexler, D. (2010).  Shame-O-Phobia.  In S.M. Shaw & J. Lee (5th Eds.), Womens Voices
     Feminist Visions (pp. 141-144).  New York, NY:  McGraw-Hill.