Main content

Motorbikes

Motorbikes: Laurie Taylor explores their social and cultural history.

Motorbikes: Born to be wild. Randy McBee, Professor of Labor and Social History at the Texas Tech University, considers the rise of the American Motorcyclist from its largely working-class roots to the growth in "outlaw" motorcycle culture in the 1950s through to the development of the motorcycle rights movement of the 1960s and the emergence of the rich urban biker more recently. What impact has the 'biker' had on American culture and politics?
He's joined by Esperanza Miyake, Lecturer in Digital Media and Communications at Manchester Metropolitan University, and author of a new study of the 'gendered motorcycle' in film, advertising and TV. She asks why biker culture is often seen as essentially masculine and what happens to gender at 120mph.

Producer: Jayne Egerton

Available now

28 minutes

Last on

Mon 11 Feb 2019 00:15

RELATED LINKS




READING LIST

Randy D. McBee, Born to be Wild - The Rise of the American Motorcyclist, (The University of North Carolina Press, 2015)


Esperanza Miyake, The Gendered Motorcycle - Representations in Society, Media and Popular Culture, (I.B. Tauris, 2015)

Broadcasts

  • Wed 6 Feb 2019 16:00
  • Mon 11 Feb 2019 00:15

Explore further with The Open University

91热爆 Thinking Allowed is produced in partnership with The Open University

Download this programme

Subscribe to this programme or download individual episodes.

Podcast