Changing Aligning Actions: Stigma Management and Deviance Perception in Rodeo and Motorcycle Subcultures

• In Event: Masculinities at the Forefront

Abstract

As part of two extensive field studies, this research effort explores deviance perception and stigma management techniques within rodeo and motorcycle subcultures. Rapid change within these subcultures will also be considered, in terms of gender negotiations, challenges and changes. Connell's theory of masculinity is employed to understand ways in which rigidly-defined subcultures withstand challenges to their core hegemonic values, adapt, and endure.
Symbolic interactionists have long recognized the importance of examining the processes through which individuals and groups align potentially conflicting or problematic activities and values in joint acts and socially constructed meanings. This effort further seeks to enhance that literature by exploring the dialectic of subcultural identity construction and aligning actions invoked by members of these two hyper-masculine recreational subcultures.

Author

• Jim D. Taylor, Ohio University – Zanesville