Young & restless : negotiating youthful gender identities in a "postfeminist" era

Abstract

Within contemporary 'western', industrial culture the nature and experience of femininity and masculinity is characterised by tension and contradiction. This thesis looks at how young, subcultural women and men negotiate and make sense of their own gendered identities from within this cultural context. Combining the insights and methodologies of Cultural Studies and qualitative inquiry, it examines a lived youth subculture and representations of youth in popular culture as potential sites for the development and articulation of changing modes of femininity and masculinity. Within these spaces young women and men develop various strategies and practices to resist and challenge patriarchal relations of power and to de-naturalise femininity and masculinity. This study explores but also problematises the resistances and youthful rebellions of subcultural women and men. It examines the contradictions and compromises articulated by these women and men as they simultaneously engage with and seek an escape from dominant cultural values and assumptions. This thesis discusses and analyses the nature of youthful, subcultural gender identities by looking at them in terms of processes of cultural hegemony.