Youth Culture Studies

Question 1

Hall and Jefferson

Answer 1

Jefferson argues that the Teddy Boys felt excluded from society because they had done badly in school and had only dead end futures to look forward to. They symbolised the middle class through their clothing choices despite being working class

Question 2

Cohen and Clarke

Answer 2

Cohen and Clarke both pointed out that the Skinheads felt threatened due to the decline in the working class industry and exaggerated the image of masculinity through their style as a way of symbolically claiming what it meant to be working class.

Question 3

Hebdige’s punk research

Answer 3

Hebdige coined the term ‘Bricolage’ to describe the dress style of the Punks, taking old clothing ripping it apart and fitting it back together in a new way using safety pins. This attracted working class youths who wanted to make a statement about the political situation at the time

Question 4

Thornton

Answer 4

Thornton points out that youth cultures are mainly dominated by males, and associated masculinity, as girls often married early and had less disposable income. Girl’s spent more time focusing on school while boys listened to music and earnt money to spend. This is supported by most work done by the CCCs

Question 5

A Cohen

Answer 5

A Cohen’s study of delinquent boys found they behaviour was driven by the need to achieve a higher status on the social hierarchy

Question 6

Harding

Answer 6

Harding suggested that girls use their social skills to carve a more important and active role in gang cultures, buy patriarchal stereotypes still exist so sexual violence is often used against them so they ‘stay in line’

Question 7

Reddington’s POV

Answer 7

Reddington argues that were active female members of spectacular subcultures, also pointing out that the Punk subculture in particular involved women from the start

Question 8

McRobbie and Garber

Answer 8

McRobbie and Garber were very critical of the CCCs for ignoring girls, and found in their own studies women were present in spectacular subcultures such as the Mods who had a female counterpart the Mod Girl as the group was not overly masculine these girls were more visible

Question 9

Bennett’s research

Answer 9

Bennett has argued that modern neo-tribes are the new form of subcultures and they do not contain any gender biases as both genders are equally encouraged to discover their own identities

Question 10

Hetherington’s research

Answer 10

Hetherington argued neo-tribes are the new youth cultures, he found that new age travellers were all from a variety of social backgrounds and it was their values which united them

Question 11

Brake

Answer 11

Brake pointed out that youth subcultures offered magical solutions rather than practical ones

Question 12

Fuller

Answer 12

Fuller studied a group of black girls who channeled anger from racism in schools into educational success

Question 13

Becker

Answer 13

Becker argued that the youths are labelled, which causes them to become deviants

Question 14

Hedbidge and Rastafarianism

Answer 14

Hebdige saw that Rastas were associated with caribbean culture and forms as resistance to racism and safety from oppression