After World War II the social classes had less emphasis but did not disappear. Instead the way in which the classes where lived changed.
The changes included; The advent of Mass Media, the evolution of technology aiding media to defy space and time the news was no longer linear. Changes in the constitution of the family, families originally lived as clusters in large buildings of flats, families moved out to urban areas splitting into smaller, more intimate families. The organization of schools and work, laws changed, quality changed. The relative status of work and leisure also changed, the idea of the protestant work ethic, that one is defined by their job i.e the harder you work the better the person you are.
During this period, subcultures also emerged. Subcultures are defined as “a cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture.” In class this week we looked at a youtube video British Style Genius – The Street Look. I found this video really interesting as it looked through different subcultures from Teddy Boys to Skin heads. The insight given into these subcultures has opened my eyes in relation to modern subcultures of today.
As mentioned in a previous post in relation to important cultural elements I briefly discussed the subculture of ‘Emos’. In my opinion, people who may be considered to be apart of a subculture are often tarred with the same brush. ‘Emos’ from when I was in second level education where considered as self harming, emotional, black wearing cheap imitations of a goth. When I was younger and went through a stage of considering myself as an ‘Emo’ I do not feel this described me at all. Even now when the subject crops up people deny that I could have even possibly been an ‘Emo’ because I am too happy and bubbly, a girl who skips down the hallway. (Their words, not mine) And maybe this is true, maybe I didn’t fit the stereotype of being and ‘Emo’ but then you have to think who determines these stereotypes? The media? People who sit outside of the actual subculture. That was a very happy time in my teenage years, quite the opposite to what people believe ‘Emos’ to be. I would dress in colourful eccentric clothes, my hair would be backcombed to resemble a birds nest and I would wear converse. I would always have a back pack on my back and would run around Dundalk and Dublin thinking I was the bees knees. I enjoyed music from bands like Paramore, Fall Out Boy, 30 Seconds to Mars, Panic at the Disco etc and I still do today. All of these aspects of my life made me apart of the ‘Emo’ crowd yet I never self harmed or threatened my life in any way, shape or form. In secondary school I remember boys making fun of me and would gesture self harm on their wrists but it never bothered me, I knew what I who was, who I am and I’m not a stereotype.
Rebecca Smiles 