Rant regarding punks

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2006-01-12 06:02pm

One of the "mainstream culture" concepts that punks tend to avoid is professional employment. Why shouldn't I be contemptuous of that?

Julhelm · Post by **Julhelm** » 2006-01-13 01:27am

This merrily reminds me of this thread on the Hostile Intent forums. The poster there also had little understanding for why people reacted the way they did based on his appearance.

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2006-01-13 02:16am

Hmmm, as far as punk goes, I do like the Sex Pistols music and from watching Buffy & Angel I really like the Spike character for his coat, boots and his insufferable attitude. Ofcourse those where qualities I saw in myself, fashion wise I got a pre-existing interest in leather coats and boots, right now I wear very grease-esque clothing.

I am my own subculture.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2006-01-13 04:00pm

Darth Wong wrote:One of the "mainstream culture" concepts that punks tend to avoid is professional employment. Why shouldn't I be contemptuous of that?

I'm a little confused as to what you mean, are you saying that punks avoid careers like doctors, engineers, dentists, architects, etc. Or just employment in general?

I just realised that not only have I ever met a punk but that I know absolutely nothing about punk culture.

Big Phil · Post by **Big Phil** » 2006-01-13 05:14pm

Blackjack Simmons wrote:Oi, there are a lot of posts. I don't have the time at the moment to go through them all, so I will address the comment that stood out.

Personally I have contempt for subcultures because the people in those groups try way too hard to define themselves through these subcultures. Gangsta, punk, goth, skater, preppy, etc., - if you really feel the need to define yourself so rigidly I tend to view you with nothing but contempt.
I understand that, but my personal experience is that the majority of people do not define themselves through a subculture so rigidly. Yes, some people do, but those people are fuckasses and in the minority.

Well... my personal experience is that people in subcultures tend to define themselves extremely rigidly - anarchists only hang out with anarchists, goths with goths, punks with punks, hippies with hippies, christers with christers etc. Obviously not everybody does it, but what's the point of calling yourself something if you don't want to be defined by that? If you identify yourself as punk you are self-identifying and limiting others ability to determine who you really are. You also tend to limit who you are, since you defined yourself as "punk."