After today…
• You should be able to tell the difference
between subcultures & countercultures
• You should be able to identify the purpose of
subcultures within dominant society
• You should be able to identify the qualities of
sub/countercultures
What is a subculture?
• Any group that exists within dominant,
mainstream culture…a world within a world
– Shared ideology…values, norms, beliefs
– Shared aesthetic…dress, pastimes, music,
zines/blogs, etc
– Shared vernacular…specialized language
Types of Subcultures
• Vocational subcultures
• Recreational subcultures
• Ethnic subcultures
Job Jargon: Truck Driving
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"Reefer" ... refrigerated trailer
"Big Road" .... Highway
"Flip Flop" ... return trip
"Chicken Coup" ... truck scales
"Bear" ... Police
Youth Subcultures
• In your groups make a list of 5 youth subcultures we
have here at the high school:
– Identify what shared values/ideology the group embraces
– Identify what shared aesthetic the group embraces (music,
dress, hairstyles, body modifications, pastimes, etc.)
– Identify what shared vernacular the group uses (slang terms
or specialized language)
Purpose of both sub and countercultures
• Gives people a place where they are
empowered
• Connects likeminded people
• Makes invisible people visible
• Allows people to escape the identity
they are born into
• Gives people a place to construct
identity
Otherkin
• Subculture of people, primarily Internet-based,
who identify in some way as other than human
• Believe themselves to be mythological or
legendary creatures, explaining their beliefs
through reincarnation, having a nonhuman soul
– Angels, demons, dragons, elves, extra-terrestrials,
fairies, kitsune, lycanthropes, and vampires
Steampunk
• Based on science fiction literature blended with
Victorian Era culture…
– Think H.G. Wells and Jules Verne
– Clothing: gowns, corsets, petticoats and bustles;
suits with vests, coats and spats; or military-inspired
garments.
• Example: Panic at the Disco’s “The Ballad of Mona
Lisa”
• Music – industrial dance/synthpunk
Hipsters
LARPers
• Participants physically act out their characters'
actions as decided by the gamemaster
– May last hours or days
– May be in public or private
– Most characters dress up and have alternative
personas
– Horror, zombie, fantasy, post apocalyptic, assassin,
etc.
What is a counterculture?
• A group who’s values and norms deviate
from or are at odds with those of dominant
culture:
– Usually viewed as negative/dangerous, but not
always (e.g. women’s lib groups in the 70s or the
Civil Rights movement of the 60s)
– Hippies, KKK, early punk, Satanists, Hells
Angels/Pagans, Anarchists, Cults
Why do people join countercultures?
• Members of countercultural groups are…
– Usually outsiders
– Alienated
– Freaks, geeks, nerds and losers
– Marginalized people with little power over their
status in the world
– Don’t fit the mold of what American cultures says is
“normal”
Hippies
60’s Counterculture
• Developed first in the US and UK in the early 1960s The
movement gained momentum during the U.S. government's
extensive military intervention in Vietnam.
• Values: Anti-authority, Personal freedom: emphasized
change and experimentation, Anti-war, Anti-authority,
sexual freedom
• Politics: Supported Civil Rights movement, Anti-war
movement, Feminism, Environmentalism, Gay Liberation
movement
• Music: The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, The
Beach Boys, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan
Punk Counterculture
• Emerges in London and NYC in the 1970s
– Max’s Kansas City & CBGBs
• Backlash against the hippie counterculture
• Values: nihilistic, rejected materialism, antiestablishment
• Politics: Anarchism
• Music: Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Blondie,
Television, Talking Heads, Patti Smith