Subculture Skinhead
Skinhead Subculture
A subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong. Many youths tend to join certain subcultures and are identified by which group they are from with distinct styles, behaviours, and interests. Subcultures offer participants an identity outside of that ascribed by social institutions such as family, work, home and school. Many youths join subcultures in order to be accepted by people who share the same interests also some may want to rebel against society.
The subculture I am going to describe and analyse is a group called the Skinheads. This is a group of working class youths who rejected politics and labels. This subculture developed in the 1960’s and the youths were greatly influenced by West Indian specifically Jamaican rude boys and British mods, in terms of fashion, music and lifestyle. Traditionally skinheads were a group formed in order to fight for the working class rights.
Phil Cohen (1972) also did research on skinheads. Cohen mentions that the skinhead’s way of dressing represented both a ‘caricature and reassertion of solid male, working-class toughness’. This was due to many factors linked to decline in working-class communities. One example was that large scale immigration into these areas by poorer Asians who were perceived as destroying their communities and taking their jobs. In order to deal with this the skinheads was involved in reclaiming territory; this was often played through football violence, which allowed groups to claim ownership of a club and the area around it. Skinhead subculture was therefore wrapped in racism.
Many skinheads felt undermined by the middle class and decided to rebel against them in a bid to feel accepted. However within the Skinhead culture a new type of subculture formed which were the White Power/National Socialist skinheads. The identity of skinheads in the 1960s was neither based on white power nor neo-Nazism, but
A subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong. Many youths tend to join certain subcultures and are identified by which group they are from with distinct styles, behaviours, and interests. Subcultures offer participants an identity outside of that ascribed by social institutions such as family, work, home and school. Many youths join subcultures in order to be accepted by people who share the same interests also some may want to rebel against society.
The subculture I am going to describe and analyse is a group called the Skinheads. This is a group of working class youths who rejected politics and labels. This subculture developed in the 1960’s and the youths were greatly influenced by West Indian specifically Jamaican rude boys and British mods, in terms of fashion, music and lifestyle. Traditionally skinheads were a group formed in order to fight for the working class rights.
Phil Cohen (1972) also did research on skinheads. Cohen mentions that the skinhead’s way of dressing represented both a ‘caricature and reassertion of solid male, working-class toughness’. This was due to many factors linked to decline in working-class communities. One example was that large scale immigration into these areas by poorer Asians who were perceived as destroying their communities and taking their jobs. In order to deal with this the skinheads was involved in reclaiming territory; this was often played through football violence, which allowed groups to claim ownership of a club and the area around it. Skinhead subculture was therefore wrapped in racism.
Many skinheads felt undermined by the middle class and decided to rebel against them in a bid to feel accepted. However within the Skinhead culture a new type of subculture formed which were the White Power/National Socialist skinheads. The identity of skinheads in the 1960s was neither based on white power nor neo-Nazism, but