Skinhead Homologies

The term homology is used to describe all the aspects of a subculture brought together to create a certain style.

A subculture is homologous when various elements (language, music, fashion, hairstyle, ideology, life style) combine to form the identity of a group.

Like any other group, the Skinheads had their own homologies that contributed to the development of a rigorous structure.

The Skinhead subculture is a combination between two previous subcultures: the Mod and the Rude boys

History

The original Skinhead movement began in the late 1960sAround 1965 a split between the mods occurred: the two groups created were the peacock mods (less violent and interested in fashion) and the hard mods ( with shorter hair and with a more working class look)The hard mods became known as skinheads by 1968The early skinheads became interested in Jamaican rude boy music such as ska, reggae and rocksteady

IdeologyThe skinheads were known as violent. In the late 1960s they used violence to fight against South Asian immigrants. The skinheads were discontent with the fact that the Pakis occupied the working places.Some of the skinheads joined the political movement of the National Front. They used St. Georges flag as a symbol for their cause.

This racial violence led to the belief that the skinheads were racist and the view that the public had for this subculture was one that promoted neo-Nazism.

The white power and neo-Nazi skinhead subculture spread to other parts of Europe, North America and other areas of the world.

Skinhead styleThe skinheads cut their hair short, but they were not bald; the women had feathercuts (short on the crown, with fringes at the front, back and sides)Another skinhead homology is concerned with clothing items. The skinheads wore long-sleeve or short-sleeve button-up shirts, polo shirts or T-shirts (with images or texts related to their subculture)They wore jeans (Levis, Lee, Wrangler) with rolled cuffs and usually splattered with bleach

Jeans had their cuffs rolled in order to show off the boots and the socksWomen also wore skirts and fishnet stockingsThe skinhead footwear consisted in army boots (Dr Martens), brogues or loafersOther distinctive marks were: the braces clipped to the trousers, the badges and the scarves with texts or images related to the skinhead subculture, the tattoos and the hats (trilby hats, pork pie hats, flat caps, winter woolen hats)The last clothing items that complete the skinhead style were the flight jackets and the Crombie-style overcoats (in the breast pocket of an overcoat the skinheads wore silk handkerchiefs)

Music Initially the music that the skinheads listened to was influenced by the Jamaican style.The genres they listened to were: ska, rocksteady, soul and reggae. Subsequently the connection between the two cultures led to the formation of skinhead reggae performed by Desmond Decker, Symarip or The Pioneers.At the beginning of the 1970s the reggae genre featured messages of black nationalism thus creating tension between the white and the black

The skinheads adopted another music style called 2 Tone

2 Tone was a fusion of ska, rocksteady, reggae, pop and punk rock.

Also, because of the new punk subculture in the late 1970s many skinheads started to listen to the Oi! music

Language

The skinheads belonged to the working class so their level of education was not very high.The skinheads mostly used slang when speaking and they used to swear very much.

The way they spoke was rude and harsh. They also used codes or acronyms. For example, skin is skinhead for short, AN is aryan nation, FTW is forever truly white.

In conclusion, the homologies presented above contribute all together to create the skinhead identity

Bibliographyhttp://www.strhatetalk.com/Codes___Slang.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinheadhttp://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2005/is_1_38/ai_n6234788/?tag=content;col1:Subcultures, pop music and politics: skinheads and "Nazi rock" in England and Germany, Journal of Social History, Fall, 2004 by Timothy S. Brown Dick Hebdige, Subculture The meaning of style, p. 137