Bonds of Brotherhood in Sons of Anarchy

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.

Table of Contents


Introduction. The Hypermasculine World of Sons of Anarchy (Susan Fanetti)

Part 1. Institutions of Influence: Hegemony and Identity

“Bros Before Hoes”: Violence Against Women in the Name

of “Bromosociality” (Shawna Marks)

Leather Is Thicker Than Blood: Institutional and Hegemonic Masculinity (Jamieson Ryan)

Cynical Tolerance: Gender, Race and Fraternal Fears(Christian Jimenez)

The Sins of the Father(s): Masculine Identity as Poisoned Inheritance

(Jamie L. Brummer)

Part 2. Shapes of Influence: Culture and Narrative

Incapable of His Own Distress: Genderbending Ophelia (Jessica Walker)

Motorcycle Monasticism: Masculine Religiosity in MC Culture (Jossalyn G. Larson)

Compilation Score and ­Trans-Diegetic Music: How Music Helps

Give Voice to the Voiceless (Jessica Shine)

Part 3. No Seat at the Table: Outliers in SAMCRO’s World

Lover, Killer, Father, Friend: The Complex Case of Nero Padilla (Andrew Howe)

Nero’s Frontier: Western and Latino Masculinity, Fatherhood

and Family (Monica Montelongo Flores)

The Performative Crisis of Otto Delaney: Destruction, ­Dematerialization and Masculine Identity (Susan Fanetti)

Part 4. Transgressing Brotherhood: Tig and Venus

Attempting Redemption with Tig and Venus (Laurie Norris)

Riding Crisscross: Venus Van Dam and the Politics

of Transgender Representation (Peter Nagy)

About the Contributors

Index