A few posts ago, I mentioned that a lot of the Hell’s Angels were actually surprisingly normal and had normal wives and families. This is true for some but, as Thompson reveals, not for others. According to Thompson, most women who had relationships with the Angels were either “Old Ladies” or “Mamas”. There is a very important distinction between these two types of women. Old Ladies are women in serious relationships with an Angel—either a wife or a girlfriend. Mamas are considered common property amongst the Angels. They entirely committed to serving the sexual needs of any male Angel whenever the mood strikes him. The gang is, unsurprisingly, a group in which the men dominate their women. The men sometimes have their Mamas tattooed, or “branded” to show that they are the “property” of a certain gang. This is a practice which the Angels claim, “gives the girls a sense of security and belonging,” (162). However, the actual reason likely has more to do with the Angels’ need for power and control over the women.
The gang members certainly never concern themselves with being chivalrous with women. Mamas never have much choice when it comes to sex. Old Ladies are generally respected, but only to avoid a fight with the Angel to whom she is committed. Women outside the gang have a stranger relationship. The Hells Angels were infamous at the time for raping women. However, Thompson points out, the majority of rape charges filed against the Angels are dropped for two reasons: first, many women who accuse the Angels of rape receive threats from the Mamas and Old Ladies and second, some of the cases are not actually rapes. On the subject of rape, on Angle commented that he had, “…never yet heard a girl yell rape until it was all over and she got to thinking about it,”(182). The truthfulness of this is in some doubt, but it is likely true to an extent. Many of the women found themselves drawn to the rebellious, tough-guy image of the Angels soon found that they were not prepared for what sex with an Angel entailed. What may begin as a drunken consensual experience with one Angel in an empty room at a party could suddenly balloon into a full on orgy, one which the girl had not expected or wanted. But once a girl has willful sex with one Angel, there’s really not much hope in stopping the others from joining in. What started as consensual sex can become rape. This is what gave the Angels their bad reputation on rape—their concept of consensual sex is radically different from society’s conception of it. If a strange woman makes an advance with one Angel, the Angels take it to mean that she is making an advance towards all of them. It is a mob mentality. When the Angels are drunk and partying, there is really no concept of compassion.
1 comment:
Funny how the angels give woman 2 types of names “Old Ladies” or “Mamas”. This sill goes on today because some guys have girlfriends and their “ chick on the side”. What really got to me was how the Hell Angles had their woman “branded”. To me it shows that the “ Mamas had no thought at all because they let the men control their life. I also found it interesting that the Angels would say, ““gives the girls a sense of security and belonging,” because they assume that all woman are weak. The Hell Angels seen to have a very close bond meaning that they share everything and that’s why they have such a hard-core reputation.
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