2: Patterns and Trends: Gender, Social Class and Ethniciity

Messerschmidt on Youth Subcultures linked to masculinity

Young men:

5x more likely to be arrested by the police and 3x more likely to be excluded from school than young women

Messerschmidt suggests this may be associated with stereotypical masculine identity

Hegemonic Masculinity ‘real man’ - material success, being the breadwinner, risk taking, leaders

Some men may struggle to move from childhood to adulthood because these hegemonic values are difficult to achieve and show

These men may use deviant / criminal behaviour eg Fighting to show toughness, stealing to get material wealth, sexual assault to show dominance over women

Class element - middle class men can demonstrate these values through educational success or a high status job - mostly young men living on margins of society

Haenfler on Online Subcultures

Links online subcultures to new types of masculinity emerging

Multiplayer online games - men pursuing status and reward through competition and effort

‘Nerd masculinity’ - Men no longer have to excel in sports, sexual activity, aggression to be successful

Young people today have unprecedented choice on how to create an identity

Control Theory

Young women carry out less deviance because they are more monitored than young men

Parents are more controlling and enforce stricter curfews and tighter social controls on their daughters than sons

Safia Mirza (1992) girls as less rebellious

Studied young black women in two comprehensive schools in South London

Did not rebel against the system despite being marginalised by some racist and sexist attitudes - more concerned w/ academic success

Pro-school subculture

Otto Pollak

Women may be involved in deviant behaviour that we are not aware of

‘Chivalry Thesis’ police are more lenient towards women

Girls/women more likely to just be ‘told off’ and not cautioned or charged

Cieslik and Pollok

Very secretive online female subculture which was focussed on ‘Pro-Ana’ websites

Used by young women suffering from anorexia - posting photos of themselves and encouraging other sufferers to eat less

Shared tips on how to avoid eating to doctors/parents

Lack of control elsewhere → control their bodies

Pussy Riot in Russia

Demonstration of highly organised women who are mobilised in political subcultures

Raising awareness through acts of deviant behaviour

Spectacular clothing, using their bodies to draw attention to state oppression, misogyny, erosion of civil liberties in Putin’s Russia in the 2010s

Further Examples of Political movements involving women

‘Slut Walks’ in late 2010s: women and teenage girls took to the streets in several major cities against comments of a Canadian police chief who suggested that women who experience SA have themselves to blame if they dress like ‘sluts’

#MeToo movement of 2017/18

Hebdige (Marxist) - WC join YSCs to resist Capitalism

Says punks were making a symbolic statement against consumerism and capitalism - deliberately shock society by adopting a style

Deviant: re-used household objects like bin-liners, safety pins, symbols like the swastika and sexual bondage gear

Resist dominant cultural values of British society of the time

‘Speak for the neglected youth’ and ‘act out’ in a time of industrial decline

Politically motivated subculture

Willis - WC join YSCs to resist Capitalism

Studied boys who seemed to become rebellious when they learned the futility of the school system

Subculture formed to resist oppression from teachers, fight against being dominated and controlled

Semi-class conscious, politically motivated

WC do NOT join YSCs to resist Capitalism

(Davis and Moore, Feminists)

Postmodernists - YSC today are more based on individualism, choice, style, shared meaning, not rebellion against capitalism or the ‘system’

Some YSCs actually support the concept of capitalism and a free market economy rather than rebel against it

YSCs help young persons find an identity through role allocation (e.g starting w/ a low paid job, testing boundaries in terms of styles, clothing identity)

Feminists - Rebellion against patriarchy is main reason for female deviant YSCs

Cicourel - WC YSCs are more likely to be labelled as deviant

Carried out observations w/ police and criminal justice services in California

3 stages of dealing w/ potential deviants, relies on series of INTERACTIONS + LABELLING:

1. The police stop, interrogate, search an individual, based on interpretations of what behaviour is ‘suspicious’ or ‘unusual’

2. Police arrest individual, depending on appearance, attitude, manner and replies

3. Probation officer has picture of ‘typical delinquent’ (broken home, school problems, foul language, restricted code, bad attitude) assesses subject to see if they fit profile

Label of being deviant may or may not be applied

If individual Middle Class - may be more polite so no further action would be taken, MC parents more likely to come to station

Justice can be ‘negotiated’ depending on social class + status

Alexander - WC YSCs are more likely to be labelled as deviant (The Myth of the Asian Gang, 2002)

Supports labelling theory

Showed how WC British Asian men were more likely to be labelled as deviant gang despite being just a group of friends

Focused on the 2001 Oldham riots, where young Asian men confronted the police and National Front demonstrators to protest racism but quickly labelled as criminals

Even the word ‘gang’ comes pre-loaded with racial stereotypes

Reay - Lower social classes join YSCs to gain status

“Poverty of aspiration” in the UK today, this largely stems from school

Removal of trips, drama, creative classes, additional support + free extra curricular activities: WC boys not given the ambition / opportunity to succeed or aim high

Focus on academic study: potentially disadvantaging some WC boys who prefer to follow vocational education from earlier than 16

Contributes to status frustration and resentment

Katz (postmodernist) - Structural membership is not class based

Social class no longer relevant driving factor

Youth are interested in the pleasure of transgression, thrill of misbehaviour and break with routine

More focused on style, consumer choice, individuality and fashion that YSCs being politically + socially driven

2021 ONS Survey - Gang membership and youth deviance is higher for Ethnic minorities

Proportion of children cautioned / sentenced who are black has been increasing over the last 10 years

Now 5% higher than it was in March 2011

Children of mixed race background account for 10% of those receiving a caution/ sentence in the latest year

Scraton (Neo-Marxist) - Ethnic minorities join subcultures to resist racism and oppression

Policing, media coverage and political debates all centre round the issue of ‘race’ being a problem

If young members of an ethnic minority do commit a crime, they are doing so as a political act

Minorities have been on receiving end of discrimination since first migrants arrived in the 1950s: significantly worse socio-economic position with far fewer opportunities

‘Cultures of resistance’ have emerged: crime as organised resistance

Sivanadan - Ethnic minorities join subcultures to resist racism and oppression

Rastafarianism emerged among second generation immigrants of Afro-Caribbean descent due to racism and high unemployment levels in 1970s/80s

Socially and economically marginalised youths turned to Jamaican culture of Rastas and Rude Boys - identity that was distinctive from whites + mainstream society

Embraced Rasta ideologies - dreadlocks, reggae music, cannabis use: their struggle against racism mirrored Rasta political struggle against the white slave owner of colonial times

Hutnyk - Youth subcultures are increasingly Hybrid + diverse

Hybrid subcultures becoming norm - Hutnyk says this is not positive

‘Cultural Appropriation’ more common

“Dreadlocks are a symbol of resistance to white oppression. They cannot be worn by whites with anything other than superficial intent”