Some people say stereotypes exist for a reason and that there's a truth in all of them. Well, there is some truth to the biker stereotype, or at least there was. The idea that all bikers are big, tough guys who wear a lot of leather and have a lot of facial hair might have been true in the 1940s and 50s, but it's no longer true today. Bikers are the bad boy outlaws as portrayed in the movie The Wild One. In fact, many are normal men (and women, of course) who ride for fun or use their motorcycles as their main form of transportation.
The biker stereotype seems to have come from two main places. The first was the character of Johnny Strabler, played by Marlon Brando, in The Wild One. He and his motorcycle club cause trouble in a small California town, and while he does have a heart of gold and redeems himself in the end, the image of bikers as rebels is shown throughout the film. The other thing that cemented the biker stereotype was an article in Life Magazine about the Hollister riot. This riot followed a rally by the American Motorcyclist Association in July of 1947. While the actual riot was fairly small, there were a number of drunken brawls, and about 50 people were arrested on small charges. There were very few injuries, and the town wasn't really damaged at all, but Life Magazine blew it out of proportion and created staged photos making the bikers appear to be dangerous, drunken town invaders.
However, when Honda started running ads that proclaimed motorcycles were for everyone, the stereotype begin to change. Since these ads appeared in the 1960s, people have slowly started to see bikers as everyday people, law-abiding citizens, and safe drivers. Of course, there are still a few bad boy bikers around, but overall the stereotype, which seems to have been fabricated in the first place, has mostly vanished.
