Subculture Participants

So far we've studied some very interesting subcultures that I had previously only heard of. The most interesting aspect for me has been the socio-economic status of the participants. I think it's fascinating that the majority of the cultures we've studied were started by/ targeted at/ primarily supported by lower class blue collar workers. In my inquiry assignment, I tried to focus on this side of it and found some very interesting ties between lower class workers and violence, which is also a big component of a lot of the cultures we've studied. I don't know how important this correlation is, but it's so interesting to me that the majority of the subcultures we've studied appeal to such a narrow audience. Aside from virginity pledgers and LGBTs of course, the skinhead, metal, punk and hip hop cultures share fairly comparable groups of participants: lower class blue collar young males.

It makes me wonder what aspect of a person makes them most susceptible to deviating from the mainstream and joining a subculture. That question becomes even more complicated when you add in cultures like virginity pledgers. To me, virginity pledging is one of the most interesting subcultures because, like John and I were discussing in class, their deviance from the mainstream is questionable. Given our society's two vastly differing views of sex, it's hard to know where the dominant culture lies and therefor it is very hard to judge where virginity pledgers fall. On one hand, they are very much in line with the dominating Christian views of the wealthy, able-bodied, straight, white men. On the other hand, they deviate significantly from the dominant youth views that worship promiscuity. Also, the youth that become virginity pledgers do not fit the demographic of the subculture participants we've studied thus far, so I think their position in the world of youth subcultures is most interesting.