Subcultures of resistance case study: Willis' lads

Those dickheads from gcse business? Yep, they have their own group name.

Who were “the lads”

a group of 12 w/c boys from Birmingham who were in their last 18 months of secondary school and had formed a distinctive “counter-school sub-cultural grouping”

What were the unique characteristics of the lads subculture?

Feelings of superiority towards “ear-oles” (conformist pupils)

Showing little interest in academic work, instead choosing to “have a laff” as the goal of each lesson

Trying to identify with the non school adult world (or at least their idea of it)

Smoking and drinking

racism and sexism

Wanting to get “real jobs for real men”

what does Willis say caused the formation of this subculture?

He argues that it formed as a result of the w/c subculture that they had been socialised into by their older male family members and brought with them to school.

How can Willis’ study be evaluated from no specific perspective? (2)

Too small of a sample size (12 midlands boys)

Outdated (was conducted in the 70s)

How can Willis’ study be evaluated from a feminist perspective?

They would argue that Willis’ study romanticises a group of very bigoted young men and that they do not speak for all subcultures with their racist and sexist values.

How can Willis’ study be evaluated from a Marxist perspective? (2)

Neo Marxist Mike Brake (1980) argues that no subculture can truly be one of resistance under late stage capitalism as eventually they will grow up and become wage slaves like everyone else.

Furthermore, thanks to integration (when resistive elements of a subculture are commodified and sold to dampen their threat to the system) subcultures often lose their bite of resistance.