Wannabes, Goths, and Christians
The Boundaries of Sex, Style, and Status
9780226898438
9780226898421
9780226898483
Wannabes, Goths, and Christians
The Boundaries of Sex, Style, and Status
On college campuses and in high school halls, being white means being boring. Since whiteness is the mainstream, white kids lack a cultural identity that’s exotic or worth flaunting. To remedy this, countless white youths across the country are now joining more outré subcultures like the Black- and Puerto Rican–dominated hip-hop scene, the glamorously morose goth community, or an evangelical Christian organization whose members reject campus partying.
Amy C. Wilkins’s intimate ethnography of these three subcultures reveals a complex tug-of-war between the demands of race, class, and gender in which transgressing in one realm often means conforming to expectations in another. Subcultures help young people, especially women, navigate these connecting territories by offering them different sexual strategies: wannabes cross racial lines, goths break taboos by becoming involved with multiple partners, and Christians forego romance to develop their bond with God. Avoiding sanctimonious hysteria over youth gone astray, Wilkins meets these kids on their own terms, and the result is a perceptive and provocative portrait of the structure of young lives.
Amy C. Wilkins’s intimate ethnography of these three subcultures reveals a complex tug-of-war between the demands of race, class, and gender in which transgressing in one realm often means conforming to expectations in another. Subcultures help young people, especially women, navigate these connecting territories by offering them different sexual strategies: wannabes cross racial lines, goths break taboos by becoming involved with multiple partners, and Christians forego romance to develop their bond with God. Avoiding sanctimonious hysteria over youth gone astray, Wilkins meets these kids on their own terms, and the result is a perceptive and provocative portrait of the structure of young lives.
294 pages | 6 x 9 | © 2008
Anthropology: Cultural and Social Anthropology
Sociology: Collective Behavior, Mass Communication, Social Psychology--Small Groups, Sociology of Arts--Leisure, Sports
Reviews
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Introduction: Gender, Race, Class, and Cultural Projects
Chapter 2. From Geek to Freak
Chapter 3. So Full of Myself as a Chick
Chapter 4. Just Good People
Chapter 5. Abstinence
Chapter 1. Introduction: Gender, Race, Class, and Cultural Projects
Chapter 2. From Geek to Freak
Chapter 3. So Full of Myself as a Chick
Chapter 4. Just Good People
Chapter 5. Abstinence
Peurto Rican Wannabes
Chapter 6. Why Don’t They Act Like Who They Really Are?
Chapter 7. The Gendered Limits of Racial Crossover
Chapter 8. Conclusions, Contradictions, and Collisions
Works Cited
Index
Awards
ASA Section on Race, Gender and Class: Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Book Award
Won
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