Sub-Versions: Feminist Perspectives on Youth Subcultures (From Youth Subcultures: Theory, History and the Australian Experience, P 19-26, 1993, Rob White, ed. -- See NCJ-162536)

• NCJ Number: 162540
• Author(s): S Taylor
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 8 pages
• Sale Source: National Clearinghouse for Youth Studies
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

Major feminist challenges to youth subculture theory from the late 1970's to more recent theoretical developments are reviewed, including selected Australian research studies.

Abstract

The review of feminist approaches to youth subcultures reveals a varied history, with changes in theoretical emphasis reflecting developments in both cultural studies and feminist theory. Both of these interdisciplinary areas share a focus on power relationships and forms of oppression and on the production of knowledge and meaning. Although feminism has influenced cultural studies, gender issues are still not adequately theorized, largely because cultural studies have their origin in Marxist cultural theory and its focus on class. While early feminist critiques of subculture theory merely added gender and sexuality to class-based frameworks of classic subcultural studies, later feminist theory and research have increasingly attempted to take into account ways in which class, ethnicity, and gender structure the lives of women and girls. More research is needed to conceptualize youth subcultures based on differences among groups. 30 references and 1 photograph