Deviance Management
Deviance Management
Insiders, Outsiders, Hiders, and Drifters
Christopher D. Bader and Joseph O. Baker
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.
University of California Press
Oakland, California
2019 by Joseph O. Baker and Christopher D. Bader
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bader, Christopher, 1969- author. | Baker, Joseph O., author.
Title: Deviance management : insiders, outsiders, hiders, and drifters / Christopher D. Bader and Joseph O. Baker.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2019005363 (print) | LCCN 2019015521 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520973121 (e-book) | ISBN 9780520304482 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780520304499 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH : Deviant behaviorUnited States.
Classification: LCC HM 811 (ebook) | LCC HM 811 . B 33 2019 (print) | DDC 302.5/42dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019005363
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Contents
Illustrations
IMAGES
FIGURES
TABLES
A.1.
A.2.
A.3.
A.4.
Acknowledgments
Deviance Management was a long-running and complicated project, and we have many people to thank for their help and support now that it is complete. Thanks to Roger Finke and Steven Pfaff for taking the time to read and comment on early drafts, and Pete Simi for informing us about research directly relevant to the project. Thanks to Jessie Arnold for providing insightful feedback on the chapter about gender and sexuality. Special thanks are due to Chris Scheitle. In early iterations of the project, Chris helped us better understand the connections between deviance management and social movements. Although we ultimately took the book in a different direction, we still benefitted from Chriss insights and knowledge.
To the many colleagues who were forced to listen to us drone on about this project, including but not limited to Paul Froese, Melissa Schrift, Andrew Whitehead, Ed Day, and Scott Desmond, we owe you all a drink. Thanks also to the students in our classes for their interesting questions and discussions about the ideas and research in the book. The feedback of our peers and students improved the final product in innumerable ways. Research for the book was also generously supported by a non-instructional assignment from the College of Arts and Sciences at ETSU in the spring of 2017. Thanks to Bill Duncan, Gordon Anderson, and Bert Bach for their support of this research.
Our chapter on the Bigfoot subculture would not have been possible without the help of many people. It was the North American Wood Ape Conservancy that introduced us to the world of Bigfoot research. Thank you to Brian Brown, Daryl Colyer, Michael Mayes, and other members of the NAWAC for your willingness to hang out with sociologists. Visiting the Patterson-Gimlin film site would not have been possible without the hard work of the Bluff Creek Project, including Steven Streufert, Rowdy Kelly, Jamie Wayne and Robert Leiterman. Our thanks to the BCP.
Our research on Westboro Baptist Church would not have been possible without the cooperation and openness of the members, particularly Shirley Phelps-Roper, who agreed to let us visit on multiple occasions and interview members of the group. While we obviously do not support the hurtful public actions of WBC, they were nonetheless gracious hosts and thoughtful interviewees. Our thanks to Shirley and other members (and former members) of WBC for their time and willingness to talk about their experiences and beliefs.
We are especially grateful to Maura Roesnner at University of California Press for her enthusiasm about the project and valuable advice throughout. We must also thank six anonymous reviewers solicited by UCP for their detailed feedback. We have admittedly created a strange concoction in the world of academia: a book that combines original theory with mixed-methods research, and aims to be plainspoken rather than prolix. While some reviewers were more enthusiastic than others about our willful deviance from academic conventions, all gave constructive feedback that improved the book.
Finally, we are grateful for the steadfast support of our families while we worked on this project for over a decade. To Sara and Amy: We couldnt have done it without you. And now you never have to hear us talk about working on this again! To John, Max, Hazel, and Eleanor: Thanks for always reminding us what is really important.
Introduction
Insiders, Outsiders, Hiders, and Drifters
One crisp fall Sunday afternoon, we stepped into the sanctuary of a small Baptist church in Kansas to attend worship. Given the prevalence of Protestantism in the Midwestern United States, this in and of itself was not particularly noteworthy. Likewise, the service was unremarkable, at first. We sang a hymn. An elder led the congregation in prayer. But then the grizzled, fiery pastor started preaching. His message was anything but ordinary.
The sermon covered a host of topics: sin, hell, the American military, the Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas, Antichrist Obama, hordes of Sodomites, Satanic miracles, and, for good measure, a Komodo dragon. Further, the preacher intoned, just as leaven secretly, quietly, mysteriously, works its way throughout every particle of the bread dough, making it rise, we are told that the sinister forces of evil work, permeating society until the whole is fatally and irreversibly corrupt.
The man beseeching his followers to wage an apocalyptic battle against homosexuality and mainstream culture on that afternoon was none other than the infamous As patriarch of the WBC, Phelps led his band of true believers to protest the perceived sexual sinfulness of America in ways that shocked and outraged the public. Their general strategy was to carry extremely offensive signs around in public places. Young children in the group often participated in these protests.
IMAGE 1 . Members of the Westboro Baptist Church, Luke Phelps-Roper, 8, left, and Seth Phelps, 9, both from Topeka, Kansas, picket outside the White House in Washington, Tuesday, October 5, 2010. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster. Associated Press; Photo ID: 101005151168)
WBC first gained wider media attention when its members protested the funeral of Matthew Shepard, who was murdered in a hate crime, with signs declaring Shepard was in hell because God hates fags. Although these shocking antics drew some scorn, it was not until WBC started to protest outside the funerals of American service members killed in combat that they became truly infamous.
