I have spent most of the last 2 months watching and re-watching American
Chopper to ensure that I really understand the psyche of masters in the
field of bike customisation.
Obviously I was immediately drawn in to the combative relationship between
Junior & Senior. But I found myself wondering why a show featuring such a
blue collar environment show is so popular in a mostly post industrial
west? Susan Faludi has claimed that “the decline in traditional ‘masculine’
jobs has led to a rise in insecurity in the male psyche. Increasingly
marginalized in the postindustrial service economy of contemporary
neo-liberal capitalism, men are suffering a crisis of masculinity”. Perhaps
this is true and American Chopper is an escape into a place where men are
men and might is right?
Alternately Carl Marx believed that the working class (blue-collar jobs)
played a role in creating the wealth for society. Maybe American Chopper
helps to justify some of the excesses that are present in contemporary
society reassuring us that somewhere there are people doing the real work,
physically producing something tangible and of substance that will
ultimately, even if indirectly, benefit us all?
Actually I'm not sure I saw them building any bikes?
Oh and also my frame now has an extra bit on the top (see photos).
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