Dear Answerwebs:

[ewt]

Do you consider yourself part of a subculture? Geek culture? Goth culture? Weird culture?

How would you explain your culture to an extremely intelligent and open-minded but rather sheltered person, of a generation older than you are? What would you say? What would you show them, what music would you play to them, what would you tell them to read, if they wanted to understand your culture better?

Just curious...

Comments

[arkady.livejournal.com]

I think I've gotten to the point where I've outgrown being a goth - or the "need" to self-identify as part of any subculture, really.

[reddragdiva]

Ignore the fact she was nursing in a Wasp Factory T-shirt this morning.

[lineoutrecords.livejournal.com]

Nope. I actually get the minor arse on with people who assume I am. TBH the scraggly Robert Smith-ish hair and many piercings probably don't help me much. I went through a short (relative to the rest of my life) goth phase, but was frankly crap at it. 10 years on I still get referred to as 'Bob the Goth' by too many people for comfort.

I appreciate this is probably of no use to you but I guess it might be slightly relevant. I guess many people try to associate with a specific culture, I actively try not to :)

[juggzy.livejournal.com]

I suspect that the older person would be well aware of similar cults within their age group, and I'd point them at some music/writing/websites.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Geek, I guess, or hacker. I don't know of a single label that really covers it all. Maker, maybe, but that hasn't really caught on.

If they were really curious, I'd have them read Cryptonomicon.

[403.livejournal.com]

I like the label "maker".

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

I've never really thought I'd 'stop' being a goth, as it's aligned with some fairly fundamental personal aesthetic inclinations. Because of that, I'm not sure whether I could easily 'explain' - it's just a matter of taste, and people differ. I'd be interested in showing someone things I liked, but I'm not sure they could reasonably encompass a 'culture' that, to me, is so very much about the individual experience.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

Basically, no. I'm me. Various labels that other people also use can usefully be used to describe some aspects of me, but I'm too much of an odd shape to fit into any given box.

[devvie.livejournal.com]

An excellent way to describe how I think most of us feel.

[damncutekitty.livejournal.com]

I don't really consider myself a part of any particular counterculture. But I do like to participate in events associated with various scenes such as sci-fi conventions, hippie music festivals, goth nights at nightclubs, etc.

[siderea]

Yes, several, actually. (Not all of which I've identified as in this online identity.)

A question: my readings in the academic study of subculture has alerted me to the fact that the mostly-British pioneers of the field associate "subculture" with "youth-culture organized around a body of music or a style of dress", pretty much to the exclusion of all else. When you ask about "what music would you play to them", are you also making that assumption? Or is it that you're just a musician, so, like me, your first question is always, "So, what do you folks listen to around here anyway?"

Not to be contrary, but generally I avoid like the plague explaining my subcultures to outsiders. Somebody has to really, really want to know, either because they're an interested academic doing formal research (why, yes, I have been a Native Informant in an anthropology thesis) or because they are acculturating to the subculture and I am helping them do that. Or other highly legitimate need-to-know.

Because the vast majority of people otherwise are completely unsympathetic, and explaining anything to them is only asking for a kick in the head. I say that from rather too much experience, I'm afraid. As it happens, my predominant subcultural identity is with a subculture which as a cultural value strongly endorses openness and being "helpful" and informative and sharing enthusiasms, and all this strongly inclines members of this subculture to answer questions happily and at great length from the press, random passers-by, etc. This has mostly resulted in 40+ years of "Look at those freaks" human interest stories in the media. Even the positive coverage is "Look at those freaks, but really, they're OK freaks."

Lately, I've just been standing on "I belong to another culture" and "My people do it differently" or whatever. And if they really want to know, they can ask, and I can explain. But most people don't want to know, don't need to know, and can't be troubled to try to understand.

So if confronted with "an extremely intelligent and open-minded but rather sheltered person", the first thing I would do wouldn't be to explain my own subculture, but to... do a little mind-fu on them to get them to reflect on their culture/subculture(s), as culture, and to help them get into a mental frame of owning their way of life as a culture, and not just the default Way People Do Things. It's only once someone understand themselves to have a culture and understands what it is that they are in any position to understand another's.

[yaqub.livejournal.com]

If anything, heathen would be it I guess. But that is such a diverse lot in itself, it's hard to call it just one subculture.

To explain? Always tricky. I usually start with the polytheism bit, at which point most people go 'Aaaah....' and switch off. Somebody who'd definitely wanted to know more, I would explain the reverence for the natural world, as well as some heathen ethics (again, comes in various shades but there are a few things we all agree upon). Also, if I feel it suitable, explain something about the various wights. I probably wouldn't go into the full mystical explanation, since that is something only very few people are actually interested in. I might tell a little of how I relate to my gods and godesses.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Several sub-cultures here, too.

[pplfichi.livejournal.com]

Geek subculture if I have to label myself. Possibly other things too, but it's not somewhere my thoughts tend to wander.