Gender

Question 1

What did Mac and Ghail identify?

Answer 1

• A male subculture called ‘macho lads’
• Values the 3F’s most: fighting, football, and f****
• Showed extreme forms of macho behaviour (hegemonic masculinity) as a form of resistance to the threat of their masculinity.
• Found they bullied academic achievers and had ‘clear anti-school subculture’.

Question 2

How did Archer and Yamashita support Mac and Ghail?

Answer 2

• Studied boys in inner-city London, who were attached to a ‘bad boy’ image, and saw reading and academic achievement as ‘soft’.
• Saw local area as ‘unsafe’ and recognised you had to be tough to survive.
• Their subculture was their ‘backup’ and being a member was a key part of ‘doing masculinity’ within the male peer group.

Question 3

What does feminist Heidensohn state?

Answer 3

• Girls are controlled more in terms of behaviour with their peers and by their family in terms of how much and how long they are allowed out the house for.
• Women are also controlled by the idea that their place is in the domestic sphere and controlled by the fear of being out alone after dark.
• Control can help prevent girls from joining deviant subcultures.
• Girls will be seen as ‘double deviant’ as they are going against not only the laws in society, but going against femininity too.

Question 4

What does Klein/ Pearce and Pitts state?

Answer 4

• Female gang members commit equally violent acts as their male counterparts.
• Although there is less evidence of gangs in the UK, Pearce and Pitts estimated that 12,500 young women and girls are involved in gangs, showing gender is no longer important when it comes to deviant subcultures in a postmodern world, as many girls are now taking part in criminal and deviant behaviour just like boys.

Question 5

What does Nightingale study?

Answer 5

• Studied young black males in Philadelphia and argued that they consumed the media, same as everyone else, sharing values like materialism and money.
• However, they were excluded both racially and economically from achieving those values and goals, so they turn to illegitimate means such as violence and crime to achieve them.
• Known as ‘Paradox of inclusion’, which is the desire to be included, by being successful and have designer things (harder for those experiencing racism), therefore turn to deviant subcultures and criminal behaviour.

Question 6

What do Marxists focus on?

Answer 6

• Social class and the economic situation faced by young people.
• Believe subcultures can be seen as a form of resistance against the ruling class and the poor economic situation they find themselves in.
• ‘spectacular skinheads’ wore extreme forms of manual workers’ clothes like rolled up jeans, braces, and big boots.
• Argued these youths felt their working-class identity was under threat due to the poor economic conditions.

Question 7

What did McRobbie and Garber study?

Answer 7

• Focused on how girls were ignored and the focus was only on working-class boys.
• Found ‘bedroom culture’ through their own studies amongst girls who were in tight-knit friendships and subcultures were created as a form of resistance, suggesting that gender influences youth subcultures.