Hipsters - Death of the Last Subculture?

I was fairly amused/intrigued by the piece in The Observer* at the weekend on 'The End of the Hipster' and then quite timely I was listening to Thinking Allowed podcasts on the work commute this morning and Laurie Taylor was in conversation with Bjørn Schiermer regarding his paper 'Late Modern Hipsters: new tendencies in popular culture'. It's very interesting considering the debates within youth cultures/subcultures and links to many questions regarding the nature of contemporary subcultures (or are they neo-tribes? scenes? and so forth...) but also the notion of youth culture itself since these hipsters might not be of that specific demographic it seems. Something to watch a bit more closely perhaps in the future and I'm sure there's already an increasing academic interest in this group. *Even more amusing was perhaps The Guardian's Spot a Hipster!

Transgender in India

Was good to read yesterday that transgender people will now be able to identify themselves as such on official documents in India. Their plight is something I look at with my anthropology students in the context of the socially constructed nature of gender. Unpacking the concept of gender in anthropology, or sociology for that matter, always demonstrates just how deeply embedded particular ideas are in society and amongst my students. Generally students are quite quick to accept when I say that gender is nothing more than a constructed set of beliefs about how we expect females and males to be. But sometimes that acknowledgement is very basic and they will continue to question some suggestions of things being based on gender, rather than sex. Looking at the idea of transgender brings to light their confusions between sex and gender, but their confusion over the association between sex, gender and sexuality. Even though they might understand that some men and women are gay, they seem to not be able to apply this fluidity in sexuality to those that are transgender. They will always ask the question "but if they're trans then do they want to be with men or women?" and on knowing, in the case of Hijras specifically which we look at, that they will have relationships with men there will be a confusion, maybe even slight disgust at this idea. If anything I guess this further supports that gender and sexuality itself is complex. At the very least, I hope unpacking gender in subjects like mine helps the students in beginning to think outside our traditionally held ideas.

Death to the Diary?

I was talking to two students about research methods in sociology and trying to get them to tell me what might be used as secondary data. They'd listed government statistics, letters...I was trying to prompt them to offer diaries as a third and eventually we got there but as they both said after, "who keeps a diary?" It's interesting how diaries perhaps are becoming a thing of the past, at least for the new youth generation. I remember keeping one up until my teens but then the writing petered out (though I sporadically will keep one even now). Coincidently, that lapse emerged around the time the internet was becoming more commonplace. In fact, for the first few years of personally being able to access the online world more freely I kept a Livejournal which, as the name suggests, was basically a diary online. It was also the first thing for me which allowed an online presence in the sense of having a profile, a profile picture and presenting a virtual self. Then came the emergence of all the social networking sites we know today...Myspace, Facebook...and though not presented in the diary format like Livejournal they basically allowed for the same idea. Blogger I guess is a more closely related version of Livejournal. So is this where we see the death of the diary? Now that there is more widespread online access and platforms for doing so, have we found a new way to disclose our inner thoughts? Perhaps there is also a change to how we disclose such thoughts too. Facebook and Twitter for example tend to be characterised by short, sharp updates. Are the next generation losing that ability or desire to write lengthy diary extracts in their spare time? It's an interesting realm for exploration (though probably already tackled by various publications in some way, shape or form).

Post-Youth Punk Women

So as well as trying to be better at updating this blog, I'm now opening it up to include things related to my PhD and perhaps also my sociology teaching. Not that it's going to be that much of a divergence since gender is a prevailing issue within both. I'm in my second year of a part-time PhD in Sociology. The working title is Typical Girls? An Exploration of Post-Youth Punk Women 'Being' and 'Doing' Punk and I want to explore questions such as: How do ageing female punks maintain a punk identity? How is this punk identity expressed? How does a punk identity interact with an ageing identity and life events? What is the relationship between femininity, the body, ageing and 'being punk?' What, if any, significance does the internet/virtual communities hold for post-youth punks?

It's getting to the point now where beginning to actually do research is approaching and a main concern for me is the digital side of the research; how to go about it, whether it's going to be of any use. A second concern is actually finding post-youth punk women who are willing to talk to me! So these are issues I'm thinking about right now. Get in touch with anything you think might be of interest to me.

Call for Papers: Presenting Research on Women Differently

On behalf of Julia Carter and Rosemary Hill - Centre for Women’s Studies, University of York.

Call for Papers: Not PowerPoint Again! Presenting research on women in popular culture differently.

University of York, 23rd April 2010

Are you bored of the traditional conference paper? Tired of watching a presenter stand and read off a script while pointing to an ill thought-out PowerPoint display? Nervous of presenting in a way that feels alien or doesn’t support your research?

Then come along to our Day School where we are experimenting with different and alternative ways of presenting research.

Our aim for the day is to encourage participants from all disciplines to deliver research in inspiring ways. By thinking of different ways to present our research we can spark new perspectives, imagining different angles and approaches that we may never have considered before. We hope to attract presenters from a range of disciplines and thus intend to question the rigid lines of disciplinary thought that we so often become constrained by. The day school will facilitate this interdisciplinary integration by providing an atmosphere of experimentation and questioning.

We want to encompass presentations from as many disciplines as possible; the topics may include, but are not limited to:

* Music
* Sporting women
* Representations of weddings, marriage and divorce
* Women on film and TV
* Magazine culture
* Books
* Gardening
* Representations of religion
* The Internet

We hope to encourage discussions around how presenting differently may lead to thinking differently about research in academia; how presenting differently helps the researcher and the audience to engage with ‘papers’; and whether experimental presentations really can have a place in traditional academic circles.

As the day is geared to presenting in innovative and engaging ways you may wish to present your paper using, for example: performance art, workshops, short films, live experiments, music, dance or other interactive methods. The design is entirely up to you.

To take part in this Day School please submit a summary of your presentation or a Storyboard (both of which must outline your proposed topic, the mode of your presentation, how long it will take, and what equipment you will need) to: notpowerpointagain@yahoo.co.uk by 14th February 2010.

For more information see http://notpowerpointagain.blogspot.com/

Fay Weldon - The F Word

The July issue of Easy Living Magazine features The F Word: an introduction by Fay Weldon. Whilst Weldon acknowledges a New Feminism which isn't anti-man or anti-sex; the fact our feminist actions need not focus merely on our experiences as Western women and the persisting negative connotation of the term 'feminism', there is one thing which troubled me very early in the piece:

"But then feminists committed the worst sin of all - they became boring. They will go on being seen as boring, I fear, until they acknowledge what everyone accepts except them - that men and women are different, physiologically and psychologically, and that sex is important. It's a Freud thing".

Coming from a sociology, rather than psychology, background I just can't get my head around this assertion. I also cannot envision that this is the key issue 'holding back feminism' or that it is what has made us "boring" (though I can't even imagine us being accused of being boring!). Why is sex important? What if sex itself is a construction? (and there are those who would argue just that!) How can we completely disregard the differences society creates of us in favor of such apparent innate ones*?

Aside from this niggling bit for me, the article was an enjoyable read; particularly Fay Weldon's brief charting of the feminist movement with tidbits from her own life. Has anyone else had the chance to see this? Or does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

*strangely enough I picked up a book from Waterstones today about gender and schooling/careers which actually speaks from a psychological, rather than sociological, perspective. Expect thoughts also on that to follow!

(x-posted at Subtext)