Culture and Style:
This is England Through Hebdige and Hall
by Jesse Berberich
In his book, Subculture: the Meaning of Style, Dick Hebdige theorizes that “subcultures represent ‘noise’” and that they are “interference in the orderly sequence which leads from real events and phenomena to their representation in the media” (90). Subculture deviates from ‘normal’ society, and the ways in which people within these groups accomplish this deviation, by way of lifestyle and behavioral choices, ultimately informs how they are portrayed in the media. This idea is very successfully expressed and represented in the 2006 film, This is England, which portrays and studies the skinhead subculture.
The film presents skinheads in a realistic manner that successfully conveys the qualities of the subculture and deviations within, factions with racist beliefs and ideals specifically. This is accomplished through an examination of the lives of several characters who identify themselves as a part of this specific subculture and the dissension caused within a particular group, as well as the character arc of the film’s main character, Shaun.
Dick Hebdige’s Subculture: the Meaning of Style is an in-depth look at the origins and functions of subcultures. He devotes a great deal of this text to how and why a subculture, like the skinheads (profiled in the book) is formed and how and why it is adopted by people, specifically youth. He also discusses the roles which race, age, music, and identity play in these groups. Identity, specifically cultural identity, is also the primary focus of Stuart Hall’s article, “Cultural Identity and Diaspora.” What Hall does here is explore two ways of thinking about cultural identity that can easily be applied to theory on subcultures. Much of the theory in these two texts is present in This is England, it’s plot, characters, imagery, and soundtrack.
In his introduction to Subculture, Hebdige presents several points that must be made when discussing subcultures. These include the “status and meaning of revolt” and the “idea of style as a form of Refusal” (2). He also discusses the book’s preoccupation of examining the ways in members of subcultures express their identity as a part of a given group and how they often appropriate aspects from not only other subcultures, but from ‘normal’ society as well. Hebdige writes of “mundane objects” (2), which become symbols in a subculture that members identify with and use to make the statements that their group is ultimately attempting to make. Also explored, specifically of interest when discussing This is England, is the origin of skinheads; the social and political climate in England that gave birth the subculture.
Hebdige theorizes that subculture is born out of alienation and disillusionment. This includes the skinheads, which were born out of said feelings over the Mods, which are described as being compulsively neat, clean-cut and “obsessed with the small details of dress” (Hebdige, 52). In the 1960s, Mods had splintered into two groups: one that ventured into extravagance and another that turned to less ‘fancy’ fashions in favor of “heavy boots, jeans with braces, short hair” (Hebdige, 55). The skinheads grew out of this, exploring “the lumpen” (55), or the ‘downward’ option of social mobility, as Hebdige writes, through appropriation of a working class style and the culture, specifically the music, of West Indian immigrants.
This is England’s main character, Shaun, possess many of the aforementioned qualities of conditions that created the skinheads. Especially the alienation, as he is seen in the film’s beginning to be bullied and ostracized for his dress (which appears quite ‘working class’ compared to classmates), by a particularly well dressed young man. Following an altercation and corporal punishment, Shaun runs into the character Woody and his group of skinheads and is inviting to become one of their ranks. In this, we can make a correlation between Shaun and the skinhead subculture. His character is placed in the opening minutes of the film as a stand-in or metaphor for the English youth’s disillusionment, and the same can be said of his acceptance into Woody’s group and the birth of the actual subculture.
