Page 109 - Cultural Studies A Practical Introduction

Identity, Lifestyle, and Subculture 93

that of America and is evident in everything from a militarist foreign policy
when in conservative hands to the ideal of masculine toughness and group
homogeneity in high schools. Whether the dissent is with the large idea or
its small local permutation, it is dissent nevertheless. It is subculture.

Student Exercise

Go to the following website which lists Japanese subcultures:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SubculturesInJapan

Pick one of the subcultures to research further. What are its dis-
tinguishing characteristics? How is it a “ typical ” subculture? What
makes it a subculture? How would you compare it with subcultures
in your own country?

Notes

1. Cosplay.com, Home page, http://www.cosplay.com (accessed October 10, 2009).
2. Luv - emo.com, “ Luv - emo Forum, ” http://www.luv-emo.com/forum/forums.
html (accessed October 10, 2009).
3. Luv - emo.com, “ Luv - emo Forum. ”
4. Ibid.

Sources

On WASPs, see Eric Frank Russell , Wasp ( New York , 1957 ); Peter Schrag ,
The Decline of the Wasp ( New York , 1971 ); James Hunt , The Evolution of Social
Wasps ( New York , 2007 ); and Sally Clark , Wasps ( Vancouver, BC , 2007 ).
On subcultures, see Dick Hebdige , Subculture: The Meaning of Style ( London ,
1979 ); Steve Redhead , Subculture to Club Culture: An Introduction to Popular
Cultural Studies ( Oxford , 1997 ); and Ken Gelder , The Subcultures Reader ( New
York , 2005 ). On Emo, see http://www.luv-emo.com .