Feminism and Youth Subcultures

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  • Created by: doraga
  • Created on: 03-02-16 11:40

Feminism

Feminism is a structuralist/ conflict theory: based on gender, men and women are in conflict due to the way women are disagvantaged by patriarchy. 

Their source of unhappiness is the male dominance society/ patriarchy. 

They argue that- Marxists and Functionalists ignore the role of girls. Their studies show girls as girlfriends or bystanders instead of being known individually in a subculture. There were ALSO teddy girls, mod girls and hippie girls; but they were not known as male sociologists ignored them. 

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Malestream - Heidensohn

Malestream is sociology written BY males ABOUT males. 

Malestream has allowed girls to exert patriarchy in society by being invisible, thus the existing  dominance society is incomplete. 

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Thornton - Subcultural Capital

Argued that girls have invested more time doing well at school whereas boys have invested on music/ going out.... this leads to difference in their subcultural capital. 

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McRobbie and Garber - Bedroom Culture

They were critical on Marxists for ignoring females in subcultures.

They argued that there was a strong 'teeny bopper' subculture.
This subculture was based on: romance, fashion and the private domestic sphere of girls- bedrooms.

The key features were:

  • experimenting with hair, make up, clothes
  • gossiping with friends about boys
  • reading and discussing Jackie magazine

The codes were: 

  • code of romance
  • code of fashion and beauty
  • code of personal life
  • code of pop music 

Bedroom culture didn't get too much attention because of the placement of the culture; this explains why they were invisible as it was difficult to get access to these groups.

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Lincoln - Updated bedroom culture

He claimed girls' rooms are divided into zones"

  • new technologies play a key role
  • work zones are more likely to be hidden by more leisure-based activities such as clothes, make up and magazines
  • it shows the transition from childhood to youth through teddy bears and photos.  
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Reddington

Some of the spectacular subcultures had very active female members

e.g. Vivienne Westwood was a very influential punk. 

Punk subcultures offered resistance for those women who didnt want to get married or to go to secretarial college. 

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Changing roles of females in subcultures - Bennett

Neo-tribes are less gendered, which has enabled girls to develop their own identities. 

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Changing roles of females in subcultures- Hollands

Girl Power- made girls more visible by media - sexualised females. 

Women are just as likely to enjoy nights out in clubs. 

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