Sons of anarchy, and the Representation of Bikers
Sons of Anarchy was a television action crime drama that ran from 2008 to 2014. The
show follows an outlaw motorcycle club called the Sons of Anarchy, and takes place in the fictional town of Charming, CA. The show follows the club and all the things they do, like selling illegal guns, running drugs, and more. The shows mainly focus on Jackson “Jax” Teller, played by Charlie Hunnam, Jackson is the Vice President of the club, along with being the son of John Teller, one of the clubs’ co-founders, and step son of Clay Morrow, Ron Pearlman, who is the current President of the club. The series starts out with Jackson going through his mothers, Gemma Teller Morrow, played by Katy Sagal, to find something for his soon to be newborn baby, while he is doing this he comes across a book that his father wrote about the original idea for the club, which was non-outlaw. As this is going on, Jackson’s ex-wife Wendy, Drea de Matteo goes in to labor early, because of a drug over does, and Jackson son Abel is born early. Along with this Jackson old girlfriend Tara Knowles, Maggie Siff, is back in town, and they start off a new relationship. With all this happing Jackson is now determined to get the club
back to his father’s original idea, of non-outlaw. Now through seven seasons of the series
Jackson is trying to get the club to become non-outlaw, but every step he takes towards non- outlaw takes him four steps back to outlaw. Things get even harder for Jackson when he becomes President of the club after Clay got shot by Opie, Ryan Hurst, another member of the club, after Opie finds out that Clay killed his father Piney, William Lucking, the other co-founder of the club, and is the reason for the death of Donna, Sprague Grayden, Opie’s wife. However, Jackson wants to get the club away from selling illegal guns he needs Clay alive, because the real IRA, or Ireland Republican Army member Jimmy O’Phelan, Titus Welliver, won’t makes deals with anyone, but Clay. Though Jackson would kill both of them later in the series. While all this is taking place, Gemma is worried that Tara is making a deal with witness projection to try to get out of Charming, even though Jackson was turning himself in, and takes her Grandsons Abel and Thomas, as Jackson and Tara had another son earlier in the series, away from her. So Gemma ends up killing Tara. Now with Tara dead Jackson is out for blood, not caring if he’s an outlaw or not, and Jackson ends up going of the Chinese Mob, as Gemma said the Chinese killed Tara. Though Jackson soon finds out the truth, and knows that
the lying and the violence has to stop, and Gemma knows this too, and she needs Jackson to kill her, which he does. Than Jackson wants his friend Nero, played by Jimmy Smits, to take Abel and Thomas away to his uncle’s farm and out of Charming. Jackson also wants Nero to tell Abel and Thomas that their father is not a good man, and wants them to grow up even hating the thought of their father. Then Jackson goes out to take out, and down everyone that has hurt the club in the past few years, and he does. Then Jackson is running from the cops, as he is being chased by the police Jackson sees a semi-truck on the road, so Jackson drives in to it head on killing himself, just as his father did years ago, and that is the Sons of Anarchy television series.
That is how the Sons of Anarchy television series went, and was an exciting ride for the
audience, but was it a good representation of outlaw bikers? Most people would probably say “Yes”, but those people most likely have little, to no knowledge about real life outlaw bikers, or everything they know about real outlaw bikers is from Sons of Anarchy. If we were to take a look at real life outlaw bikers, we will definitely some differences, but we will also see similarities too. Now of course real life outlaw bikers would be like the Sons of Anarchy characters in some ways, so let’s start there, and take a look at Whatculture.com’s “Top Ten Things Sons of Anarchy got Right”. First “They live by their own rules and laws”, the Sons of Anarchy club is supposed to an outlaw motorcycle club, or a one percenter club, meaning they don’t live their lives; by the laws and rules that everyday people follow, they make their own rules and laws. That is something real life outlaw bikers do, they most likely know what they are
doing is illegal, but they still do it, because they live by their own rules.
Second is “The Bikes”, of course, a show about an outlaw motorcycle club would have
motorcycles in it, and they bikes on Sons of Anarchy are all Harley Davidson motorcycle. Most clubs outlaw, or non-outlaw ride motorcycles from Harley Davidson, so this was just art coping life. Next is “The Brotherhood”, part of a reason that people join a motorcycle club, outlaw or non-outlaw, is because they fell that they don’t belong anywhere. So they want to belong somewhere, and they club gives them a family, a place they belong. This was show a lot on the show, these men were willing to die for each other, also Jackson and Opie where also close in the show, they consider each other brothers, not friends, also another character called Juice had talk about how he isn’t close to anyone in his real life family, and how the club is the only family he had life. So Sons of Anarchy seems to know how bikers fell about the fellow club members.
Next is “Outlaw Bikers are Pals with Cops”, yes that is true believe or not outlaw bikers
are friends, I know some people may find that hard, but it is true. Usually though it is a club paying off a cop to look the other way, lie on a report, and other things like that, and it is pretty much local police, sometimes though the clubs can get higher up with sheriff departments, and sometimes higher up than that. In Sons of Anarchy there was a sheriff that did work with the club, for about two seasons until he was shot and killed. Also, Chief Wayne Unser, played Dayton Callie, of the Charming PD work with the club, because he thought the club was good for Charming, keeping drugs and violence out of Charming. Also, Deputy Chief David Hale worked with the club on some level too, even though he didn’t like them, and wanted them out of Charming, but he saw what good they did, and how they helped Charming.
Next is “The Clothing”, in the world of bikers they ware certain clothes to show they are in a club, whether it is t-shirts with the club logo or name on it, or just club colors bikers will ware it all. In addition, the men in the series did just that, and costumes did a great job designing the costumes for those men to look like real outlaw bikers. “Structure” is the next part; there is a structure of leaders in clubs, President, Vice President, and so on, much like United States government, and the clubs know who is in charge and who isn’t. In the show they know it to, in the first few season of the show they knew Clay was in charged and they did what he said, and then when Jackson became President they followed him. Clubs will always listen to their President, because they know questioning them can get them kicked out, which is one thing that Sons of Anarchy had got wrong, but they pretty much always listen to their President.
Next is “The Criminal Activities” in the series the club does a lot of activities that real
life criminal would do, like selling illegal guns to other gangs, or running drugs for the Mexican Cartel, blackmail, and more, and this is something that real outlaw clubs do. Outlaw clubs do have to make money for the club to survive, so how do you make a lot of money real fast, well selling and running drugs are away, blackmailing people is away, and outlaw really do those things, because it helps them make money, and in the series that’s what the Sons of Anarchy were doing. Now we move on to “The Violence”, in the series the club and its members have been known to be violent, there was once at a funeral there was a drive by one of the guys fell out of the van and Jackson beat the guy half to death. Another time Clay was mad at people trying to take him and the club down, so he went to the guy’s store and wreck it, there was once the club got into a fight with a bunch of white supremacist, and they have even gotten into fights with each other. So the club is violent and yes it is sometimes a little over the top, but it is still true, in Waco, Texas back in 2015 a number of outlaw biker clubs got into a shootout, all over a
bar. Therefore, outlaw clubs are violent, just like the Sons of Anarchy.
Finally, “Whites Only”, most outlaw motorcycle clubs are whites only, and usually it’s an
unwritten bylaw and it seems like more white people goes towards motorcycles. However, sometimes clubs will let in Hispanics and Asian, but mostly clubs are pretty much white. Sons of Anarchy does this too, there are a few members that aren’t white like Juice who is Hispanic, and there was a prospect that was in a few episodes who was Asian. Also in the last episode of the series the club did get rid of this rule, and voted in a black member, though most clubs would not do this in real life. That is what “Top Ten Things Sons of Anarchy got Right”, by Whatculture.com.
Now that we have gone over things that Sons of Anarchy has done right lets us take a
look at what they have done wrong, because Sons of Anarchy is a T.V show after all, and while not get everything right. For this, we go to Quora.com, and take a look two different articles from real outlaw bikers. The two articles are “How Realistic is Sons of Anarchy as far as Real Motorcycle Clubs go?” and “What do Real Bikers Think of Sons of Anarchy”. Now the bikers did say that he liked Sons of Anarchy, and even thought it was a well-written and thought out show, and very exciting too, but they got some things wrong. First, the club has said no to making and dealing drugs, now later in the show they would run drugs, but at first the club hates drugs. In fact when they find out that Neo-Nazis are dealing they go out and destroy the labs that where set up, and hurt the Neo-Nazis badly too. Also in the first episode in Bobby, played by Mark Boone Jr., says, “If we wanted a drug circle in Charming, we’d have one. The truth is though most outlaw clubs make and sell drugs, because of the money, so it would make more since to have the Sons of Anarchy sell drugs, but also show creator and director said “That
I thought selling illegal guns would be better and more exciting too”, so that is why it wasn’t in the show.
Next is racial tolerance, was stated earlier in this paper the club is mostly whites only,
though some Hispanics and Asian are in too. Then in the final episode, the club gets rid of the whites’ only rule and lets in a black member. In addition, the club works very well with another club called the “Grim Bastards”, which is a black motorcycle that folds and where the Sons of Anarchy get their first black member. This is very unlikely, and something that no outlaw club would do, and not because they are racist, it is because these rules where set up a long time ago, and the clubs follow them no matter what. Even if they did want to change it, it would just happen like that, it would take time, and a number of meetings, between Presidents of all chapter across the country, and overseas as well. So the Sons of Anarchy would not work so nicely with other races.
Third is that women get treated very well by the club member of the Sons of Anarchy,
which is a little strange, because while members of clubs love their women, or old ladies as the call them; they don’t get treated very well, in real outlaw clubs. Now here’s what I mean, to a real outlaw biker women are nothing more than property, like a car or a house, but not in Sons of Anarchy. In fact, if a real outlaw biker wanted his old lady to sell herself on the street should would sell herself on the street, also not all but some bikers have been known to beat the old ladies. Basically if a woman is in a relationship with an outlaw biker he says jump, she jumps, and knows how high too. In Sons of Anarchy, the women treated very well throughout the show, though in season four Clay does beat Gemma to a bloody mess. In addition, Tara is a doctor in the show, and no biker would let their old lay be a doctor, and make more money than them, that is crazy.
Next, in the show the Sons of Anarchy interact with a lot of criminal groups, which is
real, but these other groups are violent they’re noble almost, and dealing with other outlaw biker clubs, street gangs, the Russian Mob, the Chinese Mob, and the Cartel, that is a little odd. These groups wouldn’t be very noble, yes since the benefit from each other they wouldn’t want to hurt each other, but there were times when one would screw the other, and they kind of let it go. Sure at first they would want to get back at them, or kill them, but after the first attempt fails, they just kind of leave it alone.
The show is very violent, now earlier in this paper I said the violence was correct, but it is way over the top sometimes. If you were to count up all of Jackson kills through the whole series it would be a kill count of 45 people, if it were real life you know he would be in prison for life. Now sure Jackson is smart, and is friends with most of the cops in Charming, but in season four the sheriff department takes over, and Jackson would then be in prison. In fact all the members have pretty high kill counts, so these guys would be locked up, not walking around on the streets.
Finally, Gemma’s position in the club is a very high position, almost as if she’s a club
member, but she is just a member’s old lady, and another member’s mother. Yes, she is the wife of President Clay Morrow, the mother of Jackson Teller, the Vice President, and son of one of the co-founder of the club, and before John Teller’s death Gemma was married to him, but that doesn’t mean anything. Now most of the club would show her respect, but to think club members would just do whatever she wanted to do unrealistic, maybe if they were prospects, but not full members. To think that any woman would have a high up position is just so unbelievable, but for some reason she does, even though that would never happen in any real life outlaw biker club.
So the question was does Sons of Anarchy represent outlaw bikers correctly, and the
answer is yes. Sure sometimes the show can be over the top, but remember it is a show trying to entertain you more than anything. Still much of what the club and its members do is what real outlaw bikers do, and the things that they do that real outlaw bikers wouldn’t do in real life, are there for entertainment purposes only, just to make the show more interesting, and to make you keep coming back. Therefore, Sons of Anarchy is good representation of outlaw bikers, and outlaw biker club.
Works Cited
FX’s Sons of Anarchy Sep. 3, 2008- Dec. 9, 2014.
“How Realistic is Sons of Anarchy as Far as Real Motorcycle Clubs Go?” from http://www.Quora.com Sep. 22, 2013, by Jon Mixon.
“Top ten Things Sons of Anarchy gets Right about Bikers” from http://www.Whatculture.com Jan. 12 2015.
“What do Real Bikers Think of Sons of Anarchy” from http://www.Quora.com Oct. 29, 2015, by George Paczolt.
samperkinssoa.com 