“It's Not a Fashion Statement, It's a Death Wish
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“IT’S NOT A FASHION STATEMENT, IT’S A DEATH WISH”: SUBCULTURAL POWER DYNAMICS, NICHE-MEDIA KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION, AND THE ‘EMO KID’ FOLK-DEVIL A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate Studies and Research in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters of Philosophy in the Department of Sociology University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By Mitch Douglas Daschuk © Copyright M. Douglas Daschuk, June 2009. All rights reserved. PERMISSION TO USE In presenting this thesis/dissertation in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Postgraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis/dissertation in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis/dissertation work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department or the Dean of the College in which my thesis work was done. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis/dissertation or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis/dissertation. DISCLAIMER The [name of company/corporation/brand name and website] were exclusively created to meet the thesis and/or exhibition requirements for the degree of [title of degree] at the University of Saskatchewan. Reference in this thesis/dissertation to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the University of Saskatchewan. The views and opinions of the author expressed herein do not state or reflect those of the University of Saskatchewan, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. Requests for permission to copy or to make other uses of materials in this thesis/dissertation in whole or part should be addressed to: Head of the Department of Sociology University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A5 Canada OR Dean College of Graduate Studies and Research University of Saskatchewan 107 Administration Place Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A2 Canada i ABSTRACT This thesis examines the genesis of the derogative ‘emo kid’ representation and considers the latent functions it initially served in being applied to visible categories of adolescent subculturalists on the behalf of participants within the wider punk subculture. Pulling from the work of Stanley Cohen in arguing that the ‘emo kid’ representation be conceptualized as a subcultural ‘folk-devil’, this thesis argues for the applicability of a Bourdieuian theoretical framework in understanding the means in which subcultural ‘authenticity’ is not only distributed throughout ‘fields’ of subcultural participation, but within those spheres of communicative entertainment media in which subcultural knowledge is created, legitimized and disseminated. In offering a Foucaultian genealogy of the niche-mediated ‘emo’ pseudo-genre, and highlighting its correlation with concurrent movements perceived as facilitating the mainstream colonization of the punk subculture, this thesis argues that the ‘emo kid’ folk-devil was constructed and reified by virtue of an array of discursive measures – based largely in online, ‘micro-mediated’ forums - through which punk subculturalists vied to marginalize those ‘emo kids’ so perceived as threatening the exclusivity of the punk subculture and the long-established ‘symbolic economies’ contained therein. Finally, this thesis demonstrates the process through which this subcultural folk-devil was annexed into a wider socio-discourse concerning dangerous youth populations and, thus, came to be utilized in collusion with mass-mediated campaigns meant to perpetuate the political disempowerment of adolescent populations through the endorsement of ‘representational politics’. ii Acknowledgements The compilation of this thesis would not have been such a pleasure without the considerable guidance and support of my supervisor, Terry Wotherspoon, who truly went above and beyond the call of duty. My gratitude to him is sincere, eternal and difficult to vocalize. My committee members, Despina Iliopoulou and Jennifer Poudrier, have also proven instrumental and my gratitude for their support and assistance knows no bounds. It was a pleasure, also, to have Marie Lovrod as a gracious External examiner. Finally, sincere thanks to Ryan Jackson for permission to use his wonderful photography; much more of which can be found at the website www.punkoryan.com. I wish to recognize and express my appreciation for the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship as provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (grant number 766-2008-0179); I do sincerely hope that the council retains the ability to continue to fund research initiatives of a similar nature to my own well into the foreseeable future. Dedication I wish to dedicate this work to my ever-expanding family – especially my Parents, Monica and Gerald, for their unconditional love and support, my brother Murray and my sister-in-law Melissa; my nephew Blake and my niece Meadow. Above all else, I dedicate this work to the memory of my Grandfather, Douglas Alfred Whenham, and the enduring strength of my Grandmother, Lily Joan Whenham – an exemplary human being in the context of her kindness and undying support. Were there more of her kind, humankind might not be doomed. iii Table of Contents Permission to use........................................................................................................................... i Abstract......................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements...................................................................................................................... iii Dedication..................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents......................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures............................................................................................................................. vii Chapter One: An Introduction 1.1: The ‘Emo Reports’ and the Inventory.................................................................................... 1 1.2: In Keeping with Tradition: Media Problematization and Youth Subculture.......................... 6 1.3: In Breaking with Tradition: The Problematized Population (publicly) Reacts...................... 8 1.4: Representational Politics and Adolescent Disempowerment............................................... 10 1.5 : Emo: Toward a Genealogical Analysis................................................................................ 12 Chapter Two: Toward Conceptualizing the Subcultural Folk-Devil 2.1: Current Debates Regarding Subculture and the Utility of a Bourdieuian Framework.......... 17 2.2: The CCCS on Subculture: Collective Reactions to Social Conditions.................................. 19 2.3: ‘Post-Subcultural’ Theories: Postmodern Societies and the Fluidity of Identity.................. 23 2.4: Identity in Difference, Distinction in Capital: The Theory of Pierre Bourdieu.................... 27 2.4.1: Positions, Position-taking, and Habitus............................................................................ 28 2.4.2: Capital and the concept of the Field................................................................................. 29 2.4.3: Subcultural Capital and the Function of Authenticity Claims.......................................... 31 2.5: The ‘Generalized Other’ as a Subcultural ‘Folk-Devil’....................................................... 34 Chapter Three: On the Foucaultian Genealogy, the Mediated Constitution of Subculture, and the Field of Subcultural Production 3.1: Introductory Notes................................................................................................................. 37 3.2: Section One - Foucault and Genealogy: Power, Discipline and Normalization...................38 3.2.1: Truth and Knowledge, Scientific Discourse, and the Construction of the Subject........... 39 3.2.2: The Genealogical Method: Using Discourse and Content Analysis in Uncovering a History of Struggles....................................................................................................................... 41 3.3: Section Two - The Dissemination of Cultural Knowledge, the Mediated Constitution of the Subcultural Subject, and the Field of Cultural Production........................................................... 43 3.3.1: Regarding the Three Orders of Media.............................................................................. 44 3.3.2: Bourdieu on the field of cultural production..................................................................... 46 3.3.3: The Struggle for Hierarchization and the Legitimation of Capital................................... 48 3.3.4: Producing Discourse and Disseminating Legitimacy: The Processes of Consecration... 50 iv 3.4: Section Three - On the Multiplicity