Skinheads by and large get a bad rap. Like most sub cultures, the media LOVES playing up the images of football hooligans and neo-nazi groups. These people are not skinheads, they stole the skinhead look. Why? - Because their original look confused them with gays - and they couldnt stand it.
Thats right people, these guys didnt like being called fags so they stole the hard, razor edge, working class look that was the means of self identification for the working class of Britain.
Remember - the Aryan look is muscled, coiffed, clean shaven and "pretty". Um... remind anyone of anything????
Look at Muscle Mary here......!!!!!!
I am a SHARP - SkinHead Against Racial Predjudice.
I like hard music with an edge - industrial hardcore like Rammstein is awesome. I like my working class upbringing - it taught me good manners, respect, integrity and self dependence.
Many Neo-Nazis also play on their working class status. But they use it as a rallying cry for racism and homophobia. Eg. The Pakistanis stole my job. The faggot can afford better clothes than me and thats why he got the promotion over me - Couldnt POSSIBLY be because you're a neanderthalic, low neuron misogynistic homophobe now could it Cletis !!
(Apologies to nice people everywhere named Cletis)
Posted below are two excerpts from a Wikipedia article that I think gives an accurate and fair description.
History
In the late 1950s, the United Kingdom's entrenched class system limited most working class people's educational, housing, and economic opportunities. However, Britain's post-war economic boom led to an increase in disposable income among many young people. Some of those youths spent that income on new fashions popularised by American soul groups, British R&B bands, certain movie actors, and Carnaby Street clothing merchants.[3][4]
These youths became known as the mods, a youth subculture noted for its consumerism—and devotion to fashion, music, and scooters.[5] Mods of lesser means made do with practical styles that suited their lifestyle and employment circumstances: steel-toe boots, straight-leg jeans or Sta-Prest trousers, button-down shirts, and braces (called suspenders in the USA). When possible, these working-class mods spent their money on suits and other sharp outfits to wear at dancehalls, where they enjoyed soul, ska, bluebeat and rocksteady music.[1][6]
Around 1965, a schism developed between the peacock mods (also known as smooth mods), who were less violent and always wore the latest expensive clothes, and the hard mods (also known as gang mods), who were identified by their shorter hair and more working-class image.[7] Also known as lemonheads and peanuts, these hard mods became commonly known as skinheads by about 1968.[8] Their shorter hair may have come about for practical reasons, since long hair can be a liability in industrial jobs and a disadvantage in streetfights. Skinheads may also have cut their hair short in defiance of the more bourgeois hippie culture popular at the time.[9]
In addition to retaining many mod influences, early skinheads were very interested in Jamaican rude boy styles and culture, especially the music: ska, rocksteady, and early reggae (before the tempo slowed down and lyrics became focused on topics like black nationalism and the Rastafari movement).[10][11][1] Skinhead culture became so popular by 1969 that even the rock band Slade temporarily adopted the look, as a marketing strategy.[12][13][14] The subculture gained wider notice because of a series of violent and sexually explicit novels by Richard Allen, notably Skinhead and Skinhead Escapes.[15] [16] Due to largescale British migration to Perth, Western Australia, many British youths in that city joined skinhead/sharpies gangs in the 1960s and formed their own Australian style.[17][18]
By the 1970s, the skinhead subculture started to fade from popular culture, and some of the original skins dropped into new categories, such as the suedeheads (defined by the ability to manipulate one's hair with a comb), smoothies (often with shoulder-length hairstyles), and bootboys (with mod-length hair; associated with gangs and football hooliganism).[9][19][8][20] Some fashion trends returned to mod roots, reintroducing brogues, loafers, suits, and the slacks-and-sweater look.
In 1977, the skinhead subculture was revived to a notable extent after the introduction of punk rock. Most of these revival skinheads were a reaction to the commercialism of punk and adopted a sharp, smart look in line with the original look of the 1969 skinheads and included Gary Hodges and Hoxton Tom McCourt (both later of the band the 4-Skins) and Suggs, later of the band Madness.
From 1979 onwards, skinheads with even shorter hair and less emphasis on traditional styles grew in numbers and grabbed media attention, mostly as a result of their involvement with football hooliganism. These skinheads wore punk-influenced styles, like higher boots than before (14-20 eyelets) and tighter jeans (sometimes splattered with bleach). However, there was still a group of skinheads who preferred the original mod-inspired styles. Eventually different interpretations of the skinhead subculture expanded beyond the UK and Europe. One major example is that in the United States, certain segments of the hardcore punk scene embraced skinhead style and developed their own version of the subculture.[21]
Racism, anti-racism and politics
In the late 1960s, some skinheads (including black skinheads) had engaged in violence against random Pakistanis and other South Asian immigrants (an act known as Paki bashing in common slang).[44][45][9] Although these early skinheads were not part of an organized racist movement, by the early 1970s there were skinheads who aligned themselves with the white nationalist National Front.[citation needed] However, there had also been anti-racist and leftist skinheads from the beginning, especially in areas such as Scotland and northern England.[46][47]
As the 1970s progressed, the racially-motivated skinhead violence in the UK became more partisan, and groups such as the National Front and the British Movement saw a rise in skinheads among their ranks. Although many skinheads rejected political labels being applied to their subculture, some working class skinheads blamed non-white immigrants for economic and social problems, and agreed with far right organizations' positions against blacks and Asians. By the late 1970s, some openly neo-Nazi groups were largely composed of skinheads, and by this point, the mass media, and subsequently the general public, had largely come to view skinheads exclusively as a subculture promoting white power.[citation needed] Two groups associated with white power skinheads are Hammerskins and Blood and Honour. The mainstream media started using the term skinhead in reports of racist violence (regardless of whether the perpetrator was actually a skinhead), and has played a large role in skewing public perceptions about the subculture.[48]
However, during the late 1970s and early 1980s, many skinheads, suedeheads, ex-skinheads and football casuals in the UK rejected the dogma of both the left and right. This anti-extremist attitude was musically typified by Oi! bands such as Cockney Rejects, The 4-Skins and The Business. Two notable groups of skinheads who spoke out against neo-Nazism and political extremism, and in support of traditional skinhead culture were the Glasgow Spy Kids in Scotland (who coined the phrase Spirit of 69), and the publishers of the Hard As Nails zine in England.[49]
Other skinheads countered the neo-Nazi stereotype by forming anti-racist organizations, such as The Minneapolis Baldies, who started in 1986; Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice (SHARP), which was founded in New York City in 1987 and spread to several other countries; and Anti-Racist Action (ARA), which was founded in the late 1980s by members of the Minneapolis Baldies and other activists.[50][51][52] SHARPS are aggressively opposed to neo-Nazism and racism, although they are not always political in terms of other issues.[50] The label SHARP is sometimes used to describe all anti-racist skinheads, even if they aren't members of a SHARP organization.
Redskins and anarchist skinheads are left wing skinheads who take a militant anti-fascist and pro-working class stance.[53] The most well-known skinhead organization in this category is Red and Anarchist Skinheads.[54] In the UK, some anti-fascist skinheads have been involved with Anti-Fascist Action or Red Action.
A number groups of conservative, right wing skinheads enjoyed some popularity in the United States music industry during the second term of George W. Bush, with songs promoting nationalistic violence.
That's my 2 Cents Worth - some borrowed from Wikipedia - and I just spent it..... OI!!!
And if you have a problem with that.... you can kiss my fat hairy jew sharpy arse :)
2 comments:
wow this actually really interesting.... I never understood the skinhead bias of gays in that sociological context..... it's all about appearance and aesthetics? I think those skinheads have a gay undertone in their prejudice......:)
The interesting thing Tom is that the traditional neo-nazi image was almost twinkish - hence why they actually faced their own homophobia - so they stole the skin look.
There are definitely racist skins out there but they are NOT the majority - but try telling the media that.
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