Bonds of Brotherhood in Sons of Anarchy

One of FX’s most successful original productions, Sons of Anarchy roared onto the screen in 2008 and dominated the cable network’s programming for seven seasons. Following an outlaw motorcycle club on its Shakespearean journey, the series took audiences on a wild ride powered by a high-octane brand of masculinity. This collection of new essays explores the show’s complicated presentation of masculinity and its cultural implications. Series creator and writer Kurt Sutter depicts male characters who act from a highly traditional sense of what it means to be a man. SOA both vaunts and challenges that sense of manhood as the characters face the consequences of their ride-or-die lifestyle.

Susan Fanetti is a professor of English at California State University, Sacramento, where she serves as Coordinator of the English Education program and teaches courses in teaching English Language Arts and in American literature, genre literature, composition, and popular culture. Her scholarship tends to explore the intersections of teaching and popular culture.

Edited by Susan Fanetti
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 179
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2018
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7191-8
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3235-3
Imprint: McFarland

Introduction. The Hypermasculine World of Sons of Anarchy (Susan Fanetti) 1
Part 1. Institutions of Influence: Hegemony and Identity
“Bros Before Hoes”: Violence Against Women in the Name
of “Bromosociality” (Shawna Marks) 9
Leather Is Thicker Than Blood: Institutional and Hegemonic Masculinity (Jamieson Ryan) 24
Cynical Tolerance: Gender, Race and Fraternal Fears (Christian Jimenez) 39
The Sins of the Father(s): Masculine Identity as Poisoned Inheritance
(Jamie L. Brummer) 50
Part 2. Shapes of Influence: Culture and Narrative
Incapable of His Own Distress: Genderbending Ophelia (Jessica Walker) 65
Motorcycle Monasticism: Masculine Religiosity in MC Culture (Jossalyn G. Larson) 77
Compilation Score and ­Trans-Diegetic Music: How Music Helps
Give Voice to the Voiceless (Jessica Shine) 93
Part 3. No Seat at the Table: Outliers in SAMCRO’s World
Lover, Killer, Father, Friend: The Complex Case of Nero Padilla (Andrew Howe) 107
Nero’s Frontier: Western and Latino Masculinity, Fatherhood
and Family (Monica Montelongo Flores) 119
The Performative Crisis of Otto Delaney: Destruction, ­Dematerialization and Masculine Identity (Susan Fanetti) 130
Part 4. Transgressing Brotherhood: Tig and Venus
Attempting Redemption with Tig and Venus (Laurie Norris) 145
Riding Crisscross: Venus Van Dam and the Politics
of Transgender Representation (Peter Nagy) 157
About the Contributors 167
Index 169