punk and gothic punk: the
continued existence of a sub-culture
Compiled and written by Tobias Feltus
printed at FeltusFecit.com
All material © Tobias Feltus and FeltusFecit.com 2002
unless otherwise stated.
preamble.
‘Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become
what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his
own personality.’ – Erich Fromm1
The world is full of people who live in different places and countries.
Some countries impose their culture with the threat of death and damnation,
others by maintaining a level of public ignorance that keeps their populace
unaware of the possibility of individuality. More socially evolved countries
have a mixed population where the concept of nation becomes blurred, and
subcultures have been born and live alongside popular culture.
A subculture is ‘a social group within a national culture that has
distinctive patterns of behaviour and beliefs’2. First World countries
are dominated by a mainstream culture with stereotypical goals, lifestyles
and fashions, which are seasoned by a rich array of smaller groups of
people who resemble each other with different values. Though I am a strong
believer in Fromm’s statement above, I find the intellection of
modern subcultures very intriguing. The part of the subject that has most
titillated me, after understanding some theories such as those developed
by the psychologists Jung and Fromm, is the fact that a person in the
search for individuality and diversity from mainstream culture, will often
adhere to a subculture that has many of the same attributes as the parent
culture which, in turn, supersede the individuality originally sought.
Similarly to the way Jung found analogies between alchemy and the human
psyche, I have found literature on various topics, such as psychology,
to be far more pertinent to the understanding of a subculture than books
actually written on subcultures. Though often hard to apprehend, Jung’s
theories have been extremely helpful in understanding how to rationalize
the advent of personal identity. I find it justifiable to use Jungian
theories to analyse the structure of a subculture by assuming that subcultures
are groups of people who, compared to popular culture, are defective,
or psychotic. ‘Freud and his fellow workers became increasingly
aware of the fact that any symptom was embedded in a person's character;
hence that in order to understand and to cure a symptom one has to understand
the total character structure.’3
Jung divides the human psyche into several parts, two of the most apparent
being the Persona and the Ego4. The Ego is the I, the self, whereas the
Persona is often compared to a mask. It is the way we present ourselves
to others. One person generally has several variations of Persona: for
example the difference in the way one presents oneself to a lover or one's
parents. In main-stream culture the Persona is something that is largely
imposed, yet one is encouraged to have a personal identity. The social
canons are such that individuality is often forced into the closet. Peer
pressure and the need for social acceptance often dictate a homogenisation
of the Ego, to make things easier, more similar, and safer. Ideally a
subculture should allow for there to be more individuality, contact and
harmony between the Ego and the Persona, however people seem to curdle
into groups in which they feel accepted. One explanation for this is that
aligning with an existing group of similars one acquires an (im)personal
history and form of respect5.
Assuming that being an individual is of extreme importance, and that ‘everything
that is not collective is individual, everything in fact that pertains
only to one individual and not to a larger group of individuals’6,
then the search for a personal identity is equally important. In the book
Jung Lexicon (1991), analyst Daryl Sharp paraphrases Jung by writing that
‘Whoever embarks on the personal path becomes to some extent estranged
from collective values, but does not thereby lose those aspects of the
psyche which are inherently collective.’7 In self-exploration and
development, one does not necessarily lose those collective qualities
that potentially make a person ‘cultured’, yet ideally gains
qualities that individualize oneself from the mainstream. Jung, writing
in a pre youth-subculture era, describes how being anti-conformist and
breaking away from the Hero8 gives one a level of social superiority that
is comparable to that of the gods in Greek mythology.9 This is reinforced
by the fact that, discussing culture creation, he believes that a culture,
of any magnitude, that puts religion and beliefs in front of ‘biological
duties’ is immoral10. Unfortunately many contemporary, yet not so
modern, cultures do put their beliefs before fundamental needs, desires
and duties, which most certainly diminishes the opportunity for people
to develop individuality.
socio-historical context.
The return of veterans from the Second World War left the world with
a ‘freak occurrence caused by the conjunction of youthful optimism,
material affluence, victory in one war and fear of losing another’11:
the Baby Boomers. This is a generation born between 1943 and 1960 that,
in the United States alone, resulted in seventeen million more babies
than would have been statistically expected in normal times. The Baby
Boomers were born into an optimistic world that had just made it through
the horrors of the Second World War, with parents that believed in collective
community values, and who were working towards the establishment of security
through a solid family environment. The resulting number of adolescent
Baby Boomers found themselves in a time when technology and society were
evolving so fast that they seemed to be powerless. It did not take them
long to realise how to gain recognition through rebellion; due to their
numbers, the Baby Boomer subcultures were stronger and bigger than any
that had emerged during the '50s and early '60s, such as the Hipsters,
Beats and Teddy Boys.
Apart from socio-political reasons, I believe that other fundamental motivation
for youth rebellion include any lack of understanding of their personal
problems by older generations and the intrinsic lack of esteem that younger
people experience. These problems are accentuated by an almost complete
inability to provide any rational explanation for either of these issues,
or the political and social chaos that younger generations feel surrounded
by, on the part of the older generations. Any lack of support in the growth
of a child can scar, as well as stimulate in different ways, development
of the personality of a child. Jung gave an example of this in discussing
how the mother, lacking the understanding of certain male problems, could
push her son to look for help from a male figure; in her mind she was
suggesting that he look for help from a fathering figure, but this initial
refusal and redirection towards someone of the same sex often lead to
homosexual tendencies in later adolescence and adulthood.12
Baby Boomers’ parents (the Silent Generation) had suffered a return
to traditional values, feeling the need for normality and security in
the form of a Hollywoodian traditional or ideal family (three children,
a dog and a car) after the disruption of the war. The 1929 Wall Street
Crash caused a retrogression in fashion at the same time as the popular
birth of the cinema.13 Men’s dress had stayed much the same as it
had been in the Victorian period and women’s hadn't changed much
either, other than the introduction of the trouser to their wardrobe which
was a liberty provided by Chanel with her ‘borrowed from the boys’
look in the ‘20s.14 Hollywood actors became icons and arbiters of
style; they had the most powerful medium to influence people over the
movie screen, and still now most of popular culture is broadcast through
the television and motion pictures. Performers like Elvis had changed
the way music was presented on stage and performed more than the music
itself, which remained nearly unaltered. So these millions of young people
grew up in rather traditional and rigid families, with parents who had
learned how to hide their feelings and memories as far down as possible
so as to be able to forget the horrors and fears they may have gone through
during the war, and were still living in a state of sexual frustration,
because sexual intercourse was still a taboo, contraceptives were not
readily available, and those that were available were not very reliable
or easy to use. Since the Silent Generation had suffered this cultural
relapse, society could not cope with the idea of change, therefore the
period between the beginning of WWII and the ‘60s appears to have
been relatively stagnant in fashion and popular music.
During the '50s working class adolescents who underachieved at school
joined gangs to obtain alternative sources of self-esteem. Though a collective
form of self esteem, joining a gang begat a form of respect reinforced
by the history of the existing gang, and the multiplied power of a group
of insecure kids. Already at this stage such gangs adopted opposite values
to those accepted by mainstream culture; qualities like sobriety, conformity
and ambition were replaced by hedonism, defiance and the quest for ‘kicks’.15
Writing about Malcolm Mclaren, the painter Philip Core discusses some
differences in the way peoples’ prejudice manifests in the U.S.A.
and Britain: ‘Prejudice in America, stylistically speaking, has
usually been sexual or financial in its bias; [...]. In England, prejudice
has always been based on the class system, supported by language and dress
habits, as well as by neighbourhood and education.’16 All youth
subcultures seem to play with people’s prejudicial inclinations.
The post World War II subcultural movements all seem to have had a strong
socio-political statement that was hidden and publicized by playing with
people’s intolerance and fears, which in many cases involved toying
with the issues that Core mentioned. Several of the earlier British movements
like the Beats and the Hipsters did this by adopting the music and some
of the dress codes of other racial or class groups, whereas later the
Hippies put great emphasis on their lack of style and preaching of free
love, which was particularly rebellious as Britain was still very reserved
and traditional, and women’s right and acknowledged capability to
orgasm had only been declared in 1918 with the publication of Marie Stopes'
book, Married Love.17 The Hippies’ practicing free love was not
only controversial, but had only just become possible with the FDA (U.S.A.
Food and Drug Administration) approval for distribution of the first reliable
oral contraceptive, the Enovid contraceptive pill, in 1960.18
The Hippies were the first subculture to adopt an anti-fashion dress code
that consisted of torn jeans, colourful baggy shirts, shaggy hair and
bandanas. Apart from making themselves visible, their fashion obtained
the near elimination of gender distinction judged by dress code. ‘...To
be a hippie you must believe in Peace as the way to resolve differences
among peoples, ideologies and religions. The way to peace is through love
and tolerance. Loving means accepting others as they are, giving them
freedom to express themselves and not judging them based on their appearance.’19
Hippies had a strong anti-materialistic ideology, which was again reflected
by their dress code.20 While they were rebelling against fashion in their
way, fashion itself was going against its canonic past. In 1957 Pierre
Cardin launched his draped-back coat, the beginning of the ‘sack’
style, which marked the first big change in fashion, which he followed
with his futuristic sci-fi Cosmocorps range of clothing in 1963. In 1960
Yves Saint Laurent elevated Beatnik and Biker styles from the street to
the catwalk, and later he used printed fabrics inspired by artists like
Mondrian and Warhol to fashion clothes that made a connection between
the world of art and the commercial realm of fashion, that previously
had been unimaginable.21 This fascinating and exciting period in fashion
provided additional grounds for subcultures such as the Hippies to rebel
against with the intention of irritating popular ideals.
The Hippies were most certainly the Baby Boomer’s biggest and most
famous movement. Their approach to fashion was fresh, though very recycled
at the same time, and their approach to drugs was an interest in exploring
a different self, by ‘opening’ their eyes with mind enhancing
drugs such as LSD (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide), and mind dulling drugs
such as derivatives of the Cannabis Indica plant. They were big throughout
the '60s, and started off the '70s, before growing up and moving on in
life. However the supply of fresh Baby Boomers continued to flow, which
meant that new youth movements were to be formed, with the memory of the
grandeur of the Hippies as an image to be excelled. Rock and Glam Rock
were a direct evolution of what had happened over the previous twenty
years. Rock was, and still is, a musical genre that came out of Elvis,
Soul and the early stages of Britpop (for example the Beatles), but was
slightly more powerful, both in sound and messages conveyed, and has always
been accompanied by a tabloid loving hedonistic backstage lifestyle. Rock
seems to have evolved fluidly from the '60s to the present, featuring
some of the same bands that started it off, such as the Rolling Stones
(formed in 1962, UK), and spawning many new bands and subcategories of
the genre such as Death Metal (Black Sabbath, 1969, UK), Metal (Metallica,
1982, USA), Hop-Rock (Limp Bizkit, 1994, USA) and nu-Metal (Linkin Park,
1996, USA).
Rather than liberating heterosexual sex by seeing women dress like men,
the seventies had much more transgression from a male point of view than
previous decades. In 1967 the British parliament revised the Sexual Offences
Act decriminalizing homosexual activity for people over the age of 21.22
This social development meant that homosexuality was in the public eye,
was being openly experimented with, and men also explored the opportunity
to wear women’s clothes and make-up. Previously people had seen
and admired performers like Elvis and Liberace both of whom had bizarre
effeminate and glamorous ways of dressing, but their style was not generally
followed until the Glam/Glitter period in the early '70s, when musician
and artist David Bowie, who is considered the king of Glam, launched himself
as an androgynous fantasy-rock messiah (The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
and the Spiders from Mars, 1972). Bowie considered himself an artist rather
than a musician, which gave him a reason to be more creative with his
wardrobe. The display of bisexuality in the period stimulated the use
of cross-dressing for aesthetic appeal and to shock. The decorative glitter
worn by Elvis and Liberace was added to Bowie's, and later others', stage
costumes in order to be even more extravagant. The Glamers were dressed
to shock, or at least to attract attention, however unlike the Hippies
they put much effort into a refined beauty, taking inspiration from Edwardian
and Victorian costumes, combined with what was readily available.
Early Punks were born out of the disappointment of having missed the '60s,
the sexual transgression expressed in the '60s and early '70s and the
fact that people who dressed very differently from what was popularly
acceptable were still looked upon as freaks.
Picking up on some of the ideals that the Hippies sought, early Punks
were a lower class social group who were angry about the way the world
was run. They were anti-materialist and against the system (or establishment).
Where the Hippies preached that love and peace were the solution to all
world conflicts, Punks saw the solution in anarchy. The Punks emerged
from a mix between black ghetto style, the 60s Mods and Glam Rock. The
music they listened to ranged from early proto-Punk bands like the Ramones
('74, USA), to reggae, to veterans of Glam bands such as Iggy Pop/The
Stooges ('69, USA)23. Having mixed so many stolen qualities, such as bits
of clothing and music, from other existing cultures, they had no place
to gather, no natural habitat. Interested in the new subculture, Malcolm
Mclaren and Vivienne Westwood created a haven for Punks in their London
clothing shop (often referred to as Sex, though it changed name, several
times, to cater for their evolving clientele). There Punks could accessorize
their aesthetic and wardrobe, under the influence of Westwood’s
early fashion experiments, and also socialize and feel comfortable and
accepted. Mclaren and Westwood gave Punks the opportunity to adopt fashion
items that up to then had only existed in the private worlds of sexual
fetishes. They adorned themselves with chains, handcuffs and studded leather
straps with buckles, that previously had belonged exclusively to the realm
of bondage and sadomasochism. The Punks succeeded in outraging everyone
with their colourful hair, chains, body piercings and raucous behaviour.
This meant that the whole subculture gained a reputation for being violent
and reckless. Their lifestyle was more decadent than that of the Hippies;
they often resorted to squatting or occupying buildings to set up communes
and clubs. Their use of drugs was much less mystical and more self-destructive
than the Hippies, as they used narcotics more frequently than psychedelic
drugs, with the intention of escaping the real world that they hated so
vehemently.
Mclaren led the Punk movement by producing and promoting a band that was
to become one of the image carriers for the subculture. This was the Sex
Pistols. Between them and the shop, Mclaren secured himself as an arbiter
of a subculture, which combined with his egocentricity, provided him with
the conviction of having created the whole Punk style on his own. Due
to a combination of things such as the magnitude of the cultural crucible
that the Punks were originally born out of, and the fact that their pseudo-creator
was not specifically interested in the subculture itself but in how much
of a profit he could make out of it, the high moment of the Punks only
lasted a few years, approximately from their beginning in the summer of
'76, to the early '80s when Goths and New Romantics took over.
By 1979 sufficient numbers of people and bands had moved away from the
Sex Pistols and their ideals that the media identified the beginning of
another new culture. Because of their less belligerent music, early Goths
were referred to as Positive Punk or later ‘Posi-Punk’24,
however the media picked up quickly on the opportunity to give the new
branch of Punks a proper, independent name. On a BBC Radio One documentary,
talking about Bernard Sumner (Joy Division / New Order) Tony Wilson, the
founder of Factory Records (24/01/1978), Joy Division’s record company,
recounted that ‘Bernard said, “it (punk) only allowed the
expression of a simple emotion. Sooner or later, someone is going to take
the simplicity of the instrumentation, the power of its simplicity, its
attitude, and express more complex emotions.” Punk would just say
fuck you! Someone had to use punk and say we are lost - that happened
to be Joy Division.’25
The exact moment in which the term Goth was first used to describe the
arising group of post-Punks seems to be in doubt. Accordingly in 1974,
Bowie described the band Diamond Dogs as being Gothic; he may well have
been the first person to use the term; considering how much he influenced
the fashion worn by early Goths, there is a good chance that the term
derived from his usage. Presumably his use of the word was referring to
the following definition of gothic: ‘of or relating to a style of
fiction that emphasizes the grotesque, mysterious, and desolate’26,
a title that would have been applied in light of the Goths, a Germanic
culture who lived in the early Christian era. Apparently the first dateable
use of the term gothic to distinguish the musical genre was by Tony Wilson,
who described the band Joy Division as being gothic compared to mainstream
pop music when interviewed by Mary Hannon on the BBC 2 TV program Something
Else (15/09/1979)27. Even though the term was officially coined in 1979,
it didn't become commonly used until around 1983, at which point it was
used as a name rather than an adjective: it became Goth as opposed to
Gothic. Filtering through and emerging out of the Punks, the Goths and
New Romantics were more tame and less colourful. Though later in the Eighties
the New Romantics seem to have merged with the Goths, they were a crossover
between the sort of Victorian retro that the Glam period had experimented
with, bonded to neo-glam music such as Ultravox ('74, UK), Duran Duran
('78, UK) and Spandau Ballet ('79, UK). They saw the future as being retro,
not space-age futuristic, hence picked out theatrical costumes and re-proposed
them as modern attire. The Goths were just Punks with more taste. Where
the Punks dressed to shock at the cost of aesthetic harmony, Goths tried
to dress in as harmonious a way as was possible. Their main trademark
was the consistent use of black, from hair to shoes, as opposed to the
Punks who had a habit of mixing green hair with red tartan and maroon
boots.
a comparison of archetypes.
Jung identified five archetypes that describe how various aspects of
our psyche work. ‘Archetypes are, by definition, factors and motifs
that arrange the psychic elements into certain images, characterized as
archetypal, but in such a way that they can be recognized only from the
effects they produce.’28 He saw that our psyche was characterized
by five main archetypes: the Persona, the Ego, the Shadow, the Anima/Animus,
and the Self. The reason why I bring these aspects of the human psyche
up is that I believe them to be an extremely interesting way of analysing
the structure of a subculture, as if it were made up of only one person.
Since subcultures and generations are defined by common ideologies, period,
music, dress code, etc., it is rather easy to relate each quality to a
psychical archetype.
The Persona.
The first thing an average person notices about someone in the street,
who belongs to a subculture that uses a distinctive dress code, is the
way they present themselves to the public, their street-worthy Persona.
The Persona is a mask; it is the exterior person that we project towards
others. Though Jung wrote about it in the singular, most people have several
variations on their Persona. For example, when addressing people of a
different status, people will speak in different ways, of different things
to different people, in different situations.
From a historical point of view, the Punk subculture seems to count mostly
on its social statement: politics and Persona. The whole culture is based
around a deep anger towards the way the world is governed and looks, hence
Punks felt the need to be as insulting as they felt insulted. Believing
that people gave too much importance to insignificant symbols, they wore
the swastika as a statement of their indifference towards its connotations.
Other symbols that were used and misused by Punks were the safety pin:
a symbol they used to ridicule other symbols as it had no meaning whatsoever,
and the Queen of England, who is a contemporary symbol of the past with
little modern relevance. The height of their lack of respect towards the
Queen was the Sex Pistol’s version of the song God Save the Queen,
and the graphics that followed it.
Punks’ dress code was cacophonous. Fuelled and supplied by McLaren
and Westwood, their trade mark appearance involved Dr. Martens or military
surplus boots, tight jeans, often torn and splattered with bleach, T-shirts
painted with anarchistic symbols or writing and the collar and sleeves
cut out, a tattered, studded leather bikers’ jacket with a similar
paint job, a chain and padlock or dog collar as a necklace, multiple ear
piercings, often filled with safety pins, and big colourful hair, frequently
done up in a mohican. There was, and still is, a lot of variation in their
appearance, however the general aesthetic of mixing colours and styles,
and their general love for unattractive clothes remains. Today one can
still observe them in groups sitting, for example, on the bridge over
Camden Canal, London. The way they dress and loiter in groups in public
places gives them an apparent air of outlaw power.
My research indicates that most Goths have in common the fact that they
were taunted as kids for being weird. For example Mary Mortis (http://www.livejournal.com/users/marymortis/)
was a normal looking little blond girl, but since she was shy and had
slightly longer fingernails than other ten year olds, her peers called
her a witch. In her case it got bad enough that a group of her neighbourhood
‘friends’ attempted to burn her in a bonfire whilst chanting
'burn the witch!'.
Goths’ way of presenting themselves is more of a reflection of their
inner self than that of Punks. Goths often are rather complex people,
who are interested in many things, and yet are quite shy. Their shyness
is cloaked by the fact that they frequently overdress. Much of Goths’
attire is inspired by the search for the ultimate mysterious beauty, which
often involves following aesthetics inspired by early vampire films, Edwardian
and Victorian fashion and nineteenth century dolls. Though not always
true, stereotypically Goths are insecure people, hence they adopt the
principle that ‘Clothes Make the Man’29. An elaborated version
in David Cronenberg’s film Spider (2002), states that clothes make
the man, but if there is not much of a man, then more clothes are necessary.
Goths’ Persona is often a reserved, intellectual character dressed
in an aura of melodramatic flamboyancy.
Much more vain than Punks, some Goths will go out of their way to make
themselves as pristinely beautiful as possible. Often this involves the
use of corsets to contain and re-shape unwanted body mass, dyeing hair
black, careful manicure and extravagant make-up. Unlike Punks, where femininity
seems to be laid back even by women, Goths give much more importance to
their feminine side. Most women try to accentuate their womanly features
with the help of corsets, make-up, and skimpy or low cut clothes; at the
same time men are not afraid to wear eyeliner and nail polish, and sometimes
even skirts. Being post-Punk, Goths have chosen to take on an image that
is much less intimidating and more refined. One would never see a group
of Goths hanging about a public place with the apparent intention to intimidate
others; Goths are already shy, so would have no natural intention to intimidate,
though some people do find large amounts of black, leather and vampiresque
fangs frightening.
A stereotypical image of a male Goth would involve winklepicker (pointy
toed) boots, tight black jeans, a baggy black shirt, pale foundation,
black eyeliner and backcombed or crimped long black hair. The stereotypical
female would wear platform heeled shoes, fishnet stockings, a long black
velvet skirt, a leather or PVC corset, similar makeup and long flowing
black hair. In the past decade many subcategories of Goth have added themselves
to the general subculture, none of which are to be confused with the Goth-like
nu-metal subgroup referred to as Spooky Kids who are constantly criticised
in newspaper articles for their behaviour as Goths. To help classify the
subcategories of Goth, I have chosen to aid myself with the use of Latin
names for a comic academic appeal. Some of the more prominent subclasses
of the Goth proper (gothus gothus) are:
The original Gothic Punk (gothus gobbus), who looks much like a Punk,
though wearing only black and white.
The Geeky Goth or Role-Playing Goth (gothus geek), characterized usually
by a more sloppy appearance and physique. They often wear Dr. Martens
boots, tight black jeans and a black t-shirt portraying the image of a
dragon or a band name.
The Vampire/Witchy Goth (gothus paganus), often gender separated, has
an aesthetic inspired by the Victorian image of vampires and witches.
She wearing a jellyfish like skirt with purple and red satin inserts and
black lace, him wearing a velvet cape, a shirt with giant cuffs, and fangs,
and will possibly be found drinking a red beverage out of a goblet, which
is actually just cider and blackcurrant.
The Cybergoth (gothus cyber) is the most modernized group of Goths. Taking
inspiration from Japanese Manga and other comics such as Jamie Hewlett
and Alan Martin’s Tank Girl, the Cybergoth wears more colours, often
UV reactive, brightly coloured hair extensions, high platforms and other
UV reactive jewellery. They listen to more modern gothic-techno and techno
music, such as the bands Apoptygma Berzerk ('86, NO) and VNV Nation ('90,
UK).
The Ego.
Jung stated that the ideal person would have all five components of the
psyche in perfect balance and harmony with each other. Unfortunately,
he also said that this goal is very rarely reached before death. On the
other hand it is the series of imbalances that makes the world so interesting.
If everyone were to be perfectly in balance, then the world would look
like a scene from George Orwell’s 1984 (1949).
The Ego is the centre of consciousness. It is the I. It is the most central
and intimate part of the psyche. As Jung describes it, ‘The Ego,
the subject of consciousness, comes into existence as a complex quantity
which is constituted partly by the inherited disposition (character constituents)
and partly by unconsciously acquired impressions and their attendant phenomena.’30
Many qualities in Punks’ behaviour indicate that their whole psyche
was Persona dominated. It seems that their prime point of interest was
to exist by the reaction they got from people, which was primarily influenced
by the way they looked and behaved. Because of this I can say that Punks
live in a condition where the Ego is dominated by the Persona.
Though still very interesting to look at, Goths’ shyness and reflection
of their Ego in their Persona indicate very clearly that Goths' Persona
is driven by their Ego. This seems potentially more healthy as it is the
inner conflict that influences the aesthetic, as opposed to the aesthetic
providing and supporting an Ego.
The Shadow.
The Shadow is possibly the most interesting part of the subcultural being.
The most obscure and intimate part of an individual is the part of the
subconscious that contains the qualities that one represses and hides.
The Shadow can be described as the thing that a person has no desire to
be. ’A man who is possessed by his Shadow is always standing in
his own light and falling into his own traps. Whenever possible, he prefers
to make an unfavourable impression on others.’31
The Shadow is the dark area of our mind that contains images, feelings
and experiences that have been repressed or not recognized by our Ego.
It is made up of hidden or unconscious aspects of ourselves that are neither
good nor bad. It is the wastebasket for bad memories and unopened gifts.
‘The Shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality,
for no one can become conscious of the Shadow without considerable moral
effort.’32
Punks’ Shadow contains all of the things they hate and fear the
most. Therefore, it contains symbols of organized power and homogenized
culture. Combined with the fact that a person is particularly vulnerable
to being possessed or driven by their Shadow when under the influence
of mob psychology, drugs and alcohol,33 one can establish that the Shadow
is responsible for a lot of subcultural behaviour.
A Goth’s Shadow contains an infinite list of events experienced
or fears of the unknown. From abuse received as a child, to the fear of
becoming like one’s boring neighbour, to being given verbal abuse
on the street for being different. In the case of the Goth, I believe
that the Shadow, rather than possessing, gets projected into the Persona
in such a way that it is visible to outsiders and attracts more attention
than one would see in a Punk, or member of a popular culture.
The Anima/Animus.
According to Jung, the Anima/Animus archetypes are meant to operate as
moderators in our psyche, to keep us within reason on opinions, by being
an archetype or subconscious representative of the opposite sex. Again,
these are ideally meant to be in balance, though I find it much more interesting
when the Anima/Animus plays a larger role than it ought. ‘Turned
towards the world, the Anima is fickle, capricious, moody, uncontrolled
and emotional, sometimes gifted with daemonic intuitions, ruthless, malicious,
untruthful, bitchy, double-faced, and mystical. The Animus is obstinate,
harping on principles, laying down the law, dogmatic, world-reforming,
theoretic, word-mongering, argumentative, and domineering. Both alike
have bad taste: the anima surrounds herself with inferior people, and
the animus lets himself be taken in by second-rate thinking.’34
The Anima/Animus is the archetype of the opposite gender that plagues
our conscience. The Anima is the female archetype and complex in the male
Psyche, the Animus that of the female psyche. The Anima/Animus plays an
important role in balancing emotions, ‘the Anima . . . Intensifies,
exaggerates, falsifies, and mythologizes all emotional relations with
his work and with other people of both sexes.’35
Punks’ Anima/Animus seems to play a very small role in men; the
Animus possibly has a stronger role in Punk women, as they are rather
masculine in behaviour and attire. Punks’ Persona and Ego have a
macho anger and violence about them that indicates that these archetypes
have very little control over the Ego and Persona. This is another point
that reinforces the fact that Punks’ Ego is overruled by the Persona
and the Shadow, almost as if the archetypes were in a stack and the further
down the stack the less influence the archetypes have on the outside of
the person.
Where Punks seem to be driven by their Animus, regardless of gender, it
would almost seem that Goths are run by their Anima, regardless of gender.
Of course these are gross generalizations, however most Goth men are in
good touch with their Anima, which manifests in a lot of cross gender
friendship, cross dressing and promiscuity. In the Goth culture the role
of the Anima/Animus creates a harmony that is both visually and environmentally
perceptible as there is a friendly compatibility that is unnoticeable
amongst Punks. Being in a Punk club is almost like being in an empty room
full of people, whereas being in a Goth club is quite a warm and welcoming
experience where both masculinity and femininity are acceptable. From
the above one could say that Goth and Punk each represent the Anima and
Animus of a hypothetical larger culture.
The Self.
The Self is the folder in which all of the archetypes are kept, it is
the whole person, as a close friend may perceive you, the self is the
last point of discussion that wraps up all of the previous observations.
It is the most important archetype of the human psyche, though it carries
no particular definition. The Self is the part of our subconscious that
it is hardest to develop as it contains all of the other influencing archetypes,
and its development depends on the balance of all the other elements.
On the whole Punks come across as a malfunctioning or dysfunctional social
prototype where each and every archetype is slightly out of place. They
were a very strong culture in their short lived prime time, however their
brief reign may have well been due to their psychological imbalances,
as well as the fact that they were such a cacophonous mix of other cultures
and genres.36 I assume that the reason many Punks evolved out of the Punk
style and into other subcultures like Goths and New Romantics, had to
do with the fact that they grew up, and hence gained a psychological maturity
which simply led them on to a different lifestyle in which they were more
harmonious with themselves.
Having evolved out of Punk, and already being more Ego conscious, Goths
are more harmonious within themselves and their culture, which must be
a great contributor to their longevity. Having started out by rebuilding
an existing subculture, rather than stealing bits from many different
cultures, also influenced the integrity and long existence of the subculture.
I cannot say that Goths’ psyche is in perfect balance, far from
it, however their imbalance is reflected directly in their lifestyle and
dress code. This is also mimicked by the Goth scene itself, as if it were
a living organism. The entire Goth scene seems to encapsulate the whole
decorated shyness obsessed with aesthetic trivia and personal insecurities,
which I believe to be the main reason for which people find themselves
part of the subculture in the first place. The same way gang members feel
comfortable in their gang, sharing their social difficulties and needs,
and Punks felt comfortable in their little world of social anger and need
to irritate, Goths feel at home in their little cradle of darkness surrounded
by others who have similar perceptions of the way popular culture despises
their irresponsible public exposure of their internal issues.
inference.
It is hard to make any judgment on why certain subcultures have lasted
longer than others. However, in my study of the topic, I can make certain
observations as to why the Gothic subculture has prevailed over others
to date.
Most of the numerous subcultures and youth groups that have sprung up
over the last fifty odd years have been constructed around social and
political beliefs. In the case of the Hippies some of the circumstances
that they rebelled against were the repressed and standardized lifestyle
of their parents’ generation, the Vietnam War, popular fashion and
the recent availability of the contraceptive pill. All of these were circumstances
that were not going to be current indefinitely. The pill became a standard
form of contraception, the Vietnam War came to an end, and so forth. Most
of the founding elements that made the Hippies feel like a group became
irrelevant, or other personal issues became more important in peoples’
lives, so the subculture got diluted and burnt out leaving space for other
forms of social experimentation.
Punks based most of their ideology on socio-political issues that, once
again, were not permanent conditions. To create their rebellion they stole
attributes from numerous other existing cultures and jumbled them together
creating an unstable foundation on which to live. They did break many
rules and conventions, made it hard for any other group to live up to
their reputation, and revolutionized the palette of aesthetics for future
generations. However, the people and political situations that supported
and fed them changed. Many of their bands and image carriers fell apart
and out of the public eye. For example the Sex Pistols came to an end
on the second of February 1979, when Sid Vicious, bassist, died of a drug
overdose, and Mclaren and Westwood lost interest in them seeing new financial
opportunities by supporting other emerging subcultures.
In the early ‘80s groups of post-Punks started to change their attitude
and give more importance to their personal needs, problems and fantasies,
rather than trying to change the world. By doing this, the early Goths
got themselves into a situation where they were creating a social group
that based their common ground on themselves, rather than worldly variables.
By creating a group of people who had similar musical interests and social
desires, that based their association with each other on their Persona,
that reflected their personal Ego issues, the Goths created a subculture
that, unlike most others, was based on values that would never go out
of date.
In the same way that the Fetish culture revolves around peoples fantasies,
some of us live on the perimeter of the Goth culture, and frequent Goth
clubs because of the fact that we have a distorted sense of reality where
we long to see materialized fantasies. The Goth club scene is one environment
in which fantasy is externalised in the way that people dress and behave
as I have tried to show by giving the example of the Manga image and the
Cybergoth. Therefore one could suggest that one is more inclined to keep
a subculture alive because it looks good, and fulfills one's fantasies,
though I still believe that the psychological aspect of the subculture’s
constituents is most likely to be the most influential factor in its longevity.
footnotes.
1. Erich Fromm, taken from http://www.quoteworld.org/browse.php?thetext=effort&page=3
no proper bibliography available.
2. http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=subculture
3. Erich Fromm, Psychoanalytic Characterology and its Application to the
Understanding of Culture, 1949, http://www.erichfromm.de/lib_1/1949c-e.html
4. http://www.wynja.com/personality/jungarchf.html
5. http://www.springpub.com/ifv_ch2.htm
6. C.G. Jung, The Collected Works Vol.6, Routledge, 1977, p.448 par. 756
7. Daryl Sharp, Jung Lexicon, 1991, http://www.cgjungpage.org/jplexicon.html
8. ‘The hero symbolizes a man’s unconscious self, and this
manifests itself empirically as the sum total of all archetypes and therefore
includes the archetypes of the father and of the wise old man. To that
extent the hero is his own father and his own begetter.’
C. G. Jung, The Collected Works Vol. 5, Routledge, 1981, p. 333 par. 516
9. C.G. Jung, The Collected Works Vol.17, Routledge, 1977, p. 174 par.
298,299,300
10. C.G. Jung, The Collected Works Vol.17, Routledge, 1977, p. 85 par.
159
11. Howard Smead, www.howardsmead.com/BOOMIN~1.HTM; he has the generation
running 1945-65, whereas the following confirm the 1943-60 range: www.lcourse.com/generations.html,
www.millennials.com/ltm/sevengens.html, www.geocities.com/manuelmed/fivegens.html
12. C.G. Jung, The Collected Works Vol.17, Routledge, 1977, p. 159 par.
272
13. Harriet Worseley, Decades of Fashion, Konemann, 2000, p. 234
14. Harriet Worseley, Decades of Fashion, Konemann, 2000, p. 122
15. Dick Hebdige, Subculture, the Meaning of Style, Routledge, 1979-2001,
p. 76
16. Philip Core, The Original Eye: arbiters of 20th century taste, Quartet,
1984, p. 170
17. http://www.neo-tech.com/history/
18. http://www.plannedparenthood.org/library/birthcontrol/020709_bchistory.html
19. Skip Stone, The Way of the Hippy, from Hippies from A to Z, www.hippy.com/hippyway.htm
20. Jim Harris, http://www.jimbobsjournal.com/volume%201/times1.html#anchor18345194
21. Harriet Worseley, Decades of Fashion, Konemann, 2000, p. 290, 513
22. http://www.tatchell.freeserve.co.uk/criminalisation%20of%20gays/still%20criminal.htm
23. Dick Hebdige, Subculture, the Meaning of Style, Routledge, 1979-2001,
p. 25
24. Richard North, Positive Punk, NME February 1983, http://www.scathe.demon.co.uk/histgoth.htm
25. Tony Wilson, 2002, http://www.manchester.com/ad/html/interviews/tonyw0.php?content=2
26. http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=gothic
27. www.scathe.demon.co.uk/histgoth.htm, www.religioustolerance.org/goth.htm,
http://www.btc.co.za/youth/y1m30.htm
28. C.G. Jung, The Collected Works Vol.11, Routledge, 1977, par. 222,
note 2, p. 149
29. William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene III
30. C.G. Jung, The Collected Works Vol.17, Routledge, 1977, p. 91 par.
169
31. C.G. Jung, The Collected Works Vol.9i, Routledge, 1975, p. 123 par.
222
32. C.G. Jung, The Collected Works Vol.9ii, Routledge, 1978, p. 8 par.
14
33. Barbara McManus, 1999, http://cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/shadow.html
34. C.G. Jung, The Collected Works Vol.9i, Routledge, 1975, p. 124 par.
223
35. C.G. Jung, The Collected Works Vol.9i, Routledge, 1975, p. 70 par.
144
36. Dick Hebdige, Subculture, the Meaning of Style, Routledge, 1979-2001,
p. 25
bibliography.
Core, P - The Original Eye: arbiters of 20th century taste (Quartet,
1984)
Hebdige, D - Subculture: the Meaning of Style (Routledge, 1979-2001)
Jung, C - The collected works of C J Jung: Volume 17 (Routledge, 1977)
Jung, C - The collected works of C J Jung: Volume 6 (Routledge, 1977)
Jung, C - The collected works of C J Jung: Volume 5 (Routledge, 1981)
Jung, C - The collected works of C J Jung: Volume 11 (Routledge, 1977)
Jung, C - The collected works of C J Jung: Volume 9i (Routledge, 1975)
Jung, C - The collected works of C J Jung: Volume 9ii (Routledge, 1978)
Polhemus, T - Style Surfing: What to Wear in the Third Millennium (Thames
and Hudson, 1996)
Polhemus, T - Street Style (Thames and Hudson, 1994)
Roach, M - Dr. Martens (AirWair Limited, 1999)
Rubinstein, R - Dress Codes: Meanings and Messages in American Culture
(Westview Press, 1995)
Thornton, S - Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital (Polity
press, 1995-2001)
Worsley, H - Decades of Fashion (Konemann, 2000)
web addresses:
www.gothics.org/subculture/origin.php
www.gothics.org/subculture/articles/undead.php
www.dana.ucc.nav.edu/~pmh2/history.html
www.anus.com/metal/about/history.html
www.gothic.net/~mayfair/trenchcoat/posts/michaelb.html
www.richmond.edu/~rreilly/gothic/gothlinks.html
www.policingamerica.com/skin_heads.htm
www.diy-punk.org/spitbrother/defined.html
www.cc.joensuu.fi/~vpuurone/skinhead.htm
www.geocities.com/athens/aegan/6468/subculture2.html
www.punk.usclargo.com/catalog.html
www.hem.passagen.se/hehe/what_is_dark_romanticism.htm
www.springpub.com/ivf_ch2.htm
www.geocities.com/athens/8161/gothpaper.html
www.temple.edu/isllc/newfolk/journal_index.html
www.temple.edu/isllc/newfolk/goth1.html
www.bebbideki.co.uk/bebbideki/links.php
www.howardsmead.com/BOOMIN~1.HTM#
www.lcourse.com/generations.html
www.millennials.com/ltm/sevengens.html
www.geocities.com/manuelmed/fivegens.html
www.edinburghnews.com/capitalcity.cfm?id=958442002
www.btc.co.za/youth/y1m12.htm
www.btc.co.za/youth/y1m30.htm
www.daylyaztec.com/archive/1997/09/29/file005.html
www.alli.fi/nuoristutkimus/hoikkala/boomerssuunnit.htm
www.alli.fi/nuoristutkimus/hoikkala/babyboomersdraft.htm
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/02/19/national/main329903.shtml
www.plynlymon.com/bubblebaby.html
www.religioustollerance.org/goth.htm
www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/jung.html
www.wynja.com/personality/jungarche.html
www.sonoma.edu/people/daniels/jungsum.html
www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/a473924
www.members.core.com/~ascensus/docs/jung3.html
www.gothics.org/subculture/
www.scathe.demon.co.uk/histgoth.htm
www.vamp.org/gothic/clublist.html
www.misterridiculous.com/columns/chrisbickel/chrisbickel.1.html
www.waningmoon.com/gothica/
www.angelfire.com/goth/gothmercy/resources/dic/dic_goth_s.html
www.grimoire.8k.com/about/whatisgoth.html
www.cgjungpage.org/jplexicon.html
www.quoteland.com/topic.asp?category_id=108
www.fourthcoming.com/html/boom_generation.html
www.neo-tech.com/history
www.jimbobsjournal.com/volume%201/times1.html#anchor18345194
www.albany.net/~lauralee/what.htm
www.manchester.com/ad/html/interviews/tony0.php?content=2
www.lwtua.free-online.co.uk/shadowplay/joyd_history1.html
www.uta.edu/huma/illuminations/kell22.htm
www.planningparenthood.org/library/birthcontrol/020709_bchistory.html
www.colby.edu/par/spring%2099/emrald.htm
www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/shadow.html
www.sc.essortment.com/fashioncybergo_rfdx.htm
www.erichfromm.de/lib_2/marlin01.html
www.erichfromm.de/lib_1/1949c-e.html
www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0051.html
www.mital-u.ch/punkwave/punkwave.html
www.sex-pistols.net
note:
All websites were consulted around and prior to November 2002. All quotations
were rechecked on 11/12/02. |