Subcultural Identities

There was a stage in my high school life where I had a long dark fringe that covered one eye that constantly had to be pushed back to one side in order for me to see. I wore leather cuffs on my wrists, black clothes and wore dark eyeliner. I was (and this is rather embarrassing for me to say) or liked to think that I was an… Emo.

Someone so emotionally unravelled, wallowing around in my bedroom listening to pop-punk bands that expressed everything in my head that I couldn’t articulate myself.

WHY

DID

I DO

THAT?

I’m dying of embarrassment as I remember those days right now.

But I did what every teenager does. I was after a physical representation of my identity; I wanted people to know that I belonged to something, and that I was accepted somewhere amongst all the (sub) cultures out there in the world. I did pick the most talked about subculture there is to try and weasel my way into, the one where everyone loved to stereotype and make fun of. Let’s face it, these Emo-kids still get picked on today, and it’s been 6 years since I left high school…

Subcultures play an important role in youth identity within education, and can impact how a student approaches education and their participation/interaction. Luckily for me, my experience did not negatively mark my education and my participation (it was a superficial identity in retrospect). But this is not true for all students whose cultural environment can impact greatly on their understanding of their world. Morgan and Warren (2010) identified that Hip Hop was a field of cultural expression that Indigenous students related to as it allowed them to express their sense of Aboriginality and their experiences with society in a medium in which could be understood by those outside the culture. The article outlined how many boys turned to Hip Hop as it was a release of frustration. What I found most interesting was the taking of a highly popular African American subculture and its application to Indigenous Australians and how Indigenous boys in particular are using it as a voice to explore Indigenous traditions and transition to modernity in a local context (Morgan and Warren, 2010:927).

Teenagers just want to belong, and subcultures allow them to position themselves in opposition to the mainstream culture (Shaw, 2013:334). Subcultures enables the youth to engage in symbolic forms of resistance and alternative politics (Shaw, 2013:334) and provides them a form of expression in which they are able to articulate themselves, even if the hegemonic culture doesn’t fully grasp their stance. This is why Hip Hop appeals to the Indigenous youth as it represents resistance to larger forces of oppressive authority (Morgan and Warren, 2010:944), many of which have been trying to find a way to the surface since the British arrived.

I was drawn to the idea of being able to express myself in a way that opposed and resisted what I thought were conforming measures of schools and my gendered identity. I didn’t want to wear dresses; I was in love with my Converse sneakers! Being a wannabe Emo really didn’t allow me to push any boundaries of power that I couldn’t have done in another subculture. All it did was form a stereotype that I was moody, full of angst and sadness and possibly a cutter. I was in all truthfulness, the exact opposite. I can’t help that I like black clothes…

Morgan, G. and Warren, A. (2010), “Aboriginal Youth, Hip Hop and the Politics of Identification” in Ethnic and Racial Studies, 34(6), pp.925-947

Shaw, K. (2013), “Independent creative subcultures and why they matter” in International Journal of Cultural Policy, 19(3), pp.333-352