topic 2: patterns and trends — gender, social class and ethnicity

Question 1

evidence than males are more involved in youth subcultures than females

Answer 1

ONS: young men —

5x more likely arrested
3x more likely excluded from school

Question 2

Messerschmidt

Answer 2

HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY has key 🔑 values: difficult.
(breadwinner, brave, leadership, strong, status, emotionally detached, dominating women)

some men (espec. lower class) RESORT TO CRIME + DEVIANCE to achieve difficult key 🔑 values and be seen as a REAL MAN 💪👨

middle class men can demonstrate values via education 📖 or job

Question 3

Haenfler

Answer 3

Online 💻 subcultures
virtual world gives new types of masculinity, e.g. NERD 👾 MASCULINITY
— multiplayer online role-playing games give ALTERNATIVE PATH TO MASCULINITY that differs from hegemonic (reward through competitive and persistent effort, status)

allows men to achieve masculinity without doing crime 😌

POSTMODERNISM. Fluid, unstable and fragmented
#notallmen

Question 4

evidence to show that women are less likely to be involved in criminal youth subcultures

Answer 4

2021:
UK arrested 538,000 men and 93,000 women

Batchelor found NO girl gangs in over 800 young women

Question 5

one explanation for girls’ lesser involvement in deviant youth subcultures

Answer 5

CONTROL THEORY (Heidensohn):
— young women more controlled by parents then young men, so less opportunity for crime
— McRobbie and Garber: bedroom 🛏 culture
- cult of femininity
- close friendships
- indoor, private, inaccessible leisure space
- kept away from boys
- friendship, appearance, romance

Question 6

Safia Mirza 1992

Answer 6

less rebellious behaviour in black girls 👧🏿: PRO-SCHOOL SUBCULTURE

young black women in 2 South London comprehensive schools
didn’t revel against negative labelling + racist/sexist attitudes; more concerned with academic success 📑

Question 7

Otto Pollak

Answer 7

CHIVALRY THESIS:

women are more deviant than we think: self-report 🙋‍♀️ studies show more women committing crime than official stats

police more likely to be lenient and chivalrous to women and let them off easy, so dark figure of crime is deceiving.

Question 8

what was pussy riot 2012 and what does it show?

Answer 8

organised political protest in russia 2012 against state oppression and marginalisation of women

use of spectacular clothing and bodies

many took risks and spent time in prison

shows ability of women to form highly organised and active deviant youth subcultures

Question 9

what is the main difference between female and male youth subcultures?

Answer 9

female more secretive and less visible than male

Question 10

Cieslik and Pollock

Answer 10

secretive 🤫 online 💻 female subculture:
Pro-Ana websites
Sufferers of anorexia shared tips on and encouraged each other to lose weight: DAMAGING

Contemporary, postmodern society: future path is overwhelming, unpredictable and uncontrollable (more so than the past). 😰
—> young women respond to risk society with eating disorders? obsessed with controlling their bodies in response to lack of control over their future?

Question 11

evidence to suggest a convergence in male and female subcultural behaviour?

Answer 11

Jackson 2006: Ladettes (female anti-school culture where girls showed more boisterous behaviour)

Question 12

how does hebdige’s study demonstrate link between social class and youth subcultures? (Marxism)

Answer 12

💥🎃
used semiotics and found punks making SYMBOLIC STATEMENT AGAINST CONSUMERISM AND CAPITALISM
deliberately shocked 😯 establishment, resist dominant British cultural values, ‘speak for neglected youth’

—> shows working class youths forming politically motivated subcultures to try change society

Question 13

how does Willis’s study demonstrate link between working class and youth subcultures? (Marxism)

Answer 13

shows working class youths joining rebellious subcultures to resist 👊 ruling class oppression

SEMI-CLASS CONSCIOUS: partially aware of futility of system, so resistance of oppression from teachers was politically motivated

Question 14

Rosenthal

Answer 14

teachers 🧑‍🏫 gave class IQ test 📝 without knowing results, Rosenthal studied assumptions made based on gender, ethnicity, social class

Question 15

what would a postmodernist argue about the link between social class and youth subcultures?

Answer 15

— youth subcultures today more based on INDIVIDUALISM, STYLE and SHARED MEANING,
not rebellion against capitalism ❌
— some youth subcultures SUPPORT concept of capitalism and provide functions that shape future capitalist regimes

Question 16

Cicourel

Answer 16

official police stats not always accurate of true crime…

3 stages of dealing w delinquents:

1. Stop/interrogate 🛑, based on behaviour interpreted as SUSPICIOUS 🤨
2. Arrest 👮‍♀️, based on suspect’s appearance/manner/replies 🗣
3. Probation officer 👮‍♂️ assesses suspect based on picture of ‘typical delinquent’ (‘broken home’, bad attitude, low grades etc)

Behaviour of individual has huge effect of label 🏷 placed upon them.
WORKING CLASS MORE LIKELY TO BE NEGATIVELY LABELLED!
middle class: polite, apologetic 😊, parents more likely to convince po it won’t happen again

JUSTICE CAN BE NEGOTIATED

Question 17

Alexander

Answer 17

The Myth of the Asian Gang:
working class British Asian men more likely to be wrongly ❌ labelled 🏷 as gangs 🔪
2001 Oldham riots: young Asian men confronted police to protest 🪧 racism
—> media 📰 labelled them as violent criminal GANGS

Question 18

Cloward and Ohlin

Answer 18

functionalists
working class youth blocked 🛑 from middle class LEGITIMATE OPPORTUNITY STRUCTURES
forced to take ILLEGITIMATE OPPORTUNITY STRUCTURES (drugs, theft)
—> the LABEL 🏷 attached to working class youths may be a TRUE REFLECTION

Question 19

Cohen

Answer 19

functionalist
working class boys fail to achieve middle class aspirations so INVERT VALUE SYSTEM and create anti-school subculture with new definition of status
🐓😖

Question 20

Reay

Answer 20

poverty of aspiration
stems from school (mainly state school) 🏫

Question 21

Archer 🏹

Answer 21

idea of “the street” more exciting and accessible to working class boys than school
(links to 🐓😖)

Question 22

King 👑 and Smith

Answer 22

JACK WILLS CROWD
brand associated with upper class
(tweed, skiing, sailing, private schools, Oxbridge sporting events)
🐎⛵️👞🎓

as top unis include more working class people, INCREASED PRESSURE TO MAINTAIN UPPER CLASS SOCIAL STATUS —> INCREASED DESIRE TO EMBRACE JACK WILLS CULTURE

Question 23

Katz (postmodernism)

Answer 23

social class + political motives NO LONGER 🚫 driving factor of subcultures
postmodernist choice and consumerism 🛍: style, fashion 👗, pleasure of transgression, break with routine

Question 24

Scraton 1987

Answer 24

neo-Marxist
ethnic minorities commit crime as POLITICAL ACT not CRIMINAL ACT
organised CULTURES OF RESISTANCE 💪 in response to institutional discrimination
origins in ANTI-COLONIAL STRUGGLES

Question 25

Sivanandan 1981

Answer 25

RASTAFARIANISM
2nd gen Afro-Caribbean immigrants

racism + high unemployment ➡️ socially + economically marginalised ➡️ found culture of resistance and strong 💪 distinctive identity in Jamaican culture of Rastas

dreadlocks, reggae music 🎶, ritualising cannabis 🍃
fighting capitalism + racism was continuation of POLITICAL STRUGGLE AGAINST WHITE SLAVE OWNER

Question 26

Murray (New Right)

Answer 26

higher crime rates in ethnic minorities bc of INADEQUATE SOCIALISATION

Black British families 2x more likely to be single-parent.
90% of single-parent families female-headed.
Mothers supposedly worse at discipline.

Greater numbers of Black British children join criminal youth subcultures

Question 27

Hutnyk

Answer 27

hybrid cultures 😟 have CULTURAL APPROPRIATION?!

individuals shouldn’t 🚫 appropriate symbols from other cultures as it often has SUPERFICIAL INTENT and ignores the deep history and culture behind it
e.g. dreadlocks = symbol of resistance to white oppression, slavery, colonialism, genocide

Question 28

Vale and Juno

Answer 28

modern primitives
young people feel drawn towards tattoos and scarification (non-tribal people adopting these traditions show cultural hybridity)