Stereotyping Bikers: The Media’s Portray Vs. Reality
Many motorcycle riders both male and female have been portrayed as deviants in American society since the first bicycle was motorized in the early 1900’s (Dulaney, 2005). The media has played a large role in the publics’ perception the biker persona. The reality is most of the clubs and riders do it for the camaraderie and feeling of being on the open road. They also ride for charities and many other positive activities. Less than one percent of bikers and the clubs engage in miscreant behavior. The media has failed to expose all of the good things that a majority of bikers do for the community and continue to render an immoral public view.
Biker Club Beginnings
Most people have learned the little they know about motorcycle clubs from mass media (Harper & Moore, 1983). Pop-culture has depicted bikers and their clubs as vigilantes, loners, and rebels, giving the non-biker world an extremely distorted view of what being a biker is all about. A majority of these clubs are considered to be conventional and were brought together simply by brotherhood and for the love and pleasure of riding