Skinheads Essay examples -- Gang London Skinhead Gangs

When thinking ab tabu skinhead gangs in capital of the United Kingdom, it is impossible not to conjure up images of s codd heads and heavy Doc Martin boots accompanying a particularly racist kind of violence with no respect for sureness structures of the state. However, did these gangs begin with such a clear idea of their purpose? Were they sure that their daily activities would become a subculture along with the Mods and Rockers? In his taste titled The Skinheads and the supernatural Recovery of Community, John Clarke argues that skinheadism is about the retrieval of a community in working class neighborhoods where this feeling had been unconnected due to various changes in socio-economic conditions. He says that their feeling of exclusion produced a return to an intensified Us-Them consciousness (Clarke, 99). Though the realization of this distinction plays a major part in the formation of any subculture, the Us-Them discourse turns out to be much more complicated in the cas e of skinhead gangs, and the billet that these groups occupy in relation to the outside world does not have such clear boundaries. Looking at three different representations of Skinhead culture the novel A Clockwork Orange (1962) by Anthony Burgess, the non-fiction work The Paint tolerate (1972) by the Collinwood gang, and the film Scum (1979) directed by Alan Clarke, the evolution of this blank shell over time becomes clear. This change happens both in the way the gangs settle and view themselves, as well as in the way mainstream night club deals with the problem of violence in Modern Youth (Burgess, 41). Ironically, the skinhead style began as a way for these working class youths to feel dignified and was in direct opposition to the tendency of other young people, such as hippies, ... ...ys, The people who read it depart be these Marxist students and such who will contact us to join them in their fight against the establishment (110). there is certainly an ambivalen ce about giving mainstream society literary entre to the space the skinheads occupy. This is yet another way that the boundary betwixt Us and Them gets breached. Perhaps the sheer violence, language, and overall controversial nature of these whole works are in themselves a kind of boundary maintenance, only allow in those who feel some affinity to their world. Works Cited Clarke, John. The Skinheads & The Magical Recovery of Community. In Resistance through Rituals. Ed. by Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson. 99-105. London Hutchinson, 1976.Doyle, Pat and others. The Paint House Words from and East End Gang. Middlesex, Eng. Penguin, 1972. Scum. Dir. Alan Clarke. G.T.O, 1979.