Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Skinheads |
SkinheadsNoun1. A youth subculture that appeared first in England in the late 1960s as a working-class reaction to the hippies; hair was cropped close to the scalp; wore working shirts and short jeans (supported by suspenders) and heavy red boots; involved in attacks against Asians and football hooliganism. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Skinheads are members of a subculture that originated in Jamaica in the 1960s. Skinheads were closely tied to the Rude Boy culture in Jamaica, and have their origins in this culture.
History
With a large migration of immigrant workers from Jamaica to Great Britain in the 1960’s, the white working class youth began adopting the style of their Jamaican counterparts - short, cropped hair, straight-leg denim jeans with the cuffs rolled up, black military style boots, braces (suspenders) - and embraced the musical genre of ska. Among the first group to adopt skinhead style were the Mod’s, a subculture of youth noted for their affection for scooters. Early followers were mainly interested in and influenced by Jamaican Reggae and Ska music (aka, The Spirit of 69), and a dislike of those perceived as the 'ruling classes'. They had an extreme dislike for the government and many larger businesses as both appeared to misrepresent the working class and their wishes.
During the 1970’s in the UK, the skinhead movement grew and grabbed the attention of the media as a result repeated incidents of violence during football (soccer), often to the point of rioting, between skinheads and members of the so-called ruling class. The skins also gained a great deal of media attention after they were recruited by the anti-immigration political group, the National Front who used the skinhead reputation for violence to intimidate opposition. Most skinheads deny that their group was recruited to engage in racist and criminal activity by this organization, claiming that the National Front recruited street youth, shaved their heads to give them the appearance of skinheads, and paid them to bully, threaten and even enact violence upon immigrant workers.
The negative press generated concerning skinheads caused a demise in their numbers. American skinheads received the same spin as their British counterparts. Fueled by sensationalist television, skinheads were inaccurately stereotyped a mindless, violent, and racist.
The Third Wave of ska brought a resurgence in skinhead subculture in the early 1990’s, and the popularity of the group continues to grow. Today, skinheads can be found in all of North America and Europe as well as in places such as Japan and Mexico.
Sects
There are a number of different "types" of skinhead, who divide themselves and their allegiances across political and racial lines.
Traditional (or Trads) " This group closely identifies itself with the original skinhead movement, maintaining working class pride and a dislike for the “ruling class”. Non-racist and largely apolitical. This group is the largest sect of the subculture.
SHARP (Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice) " Political, and aggressively anti-racist. Considered to be the response to mass media’s racial stereotyping of skinheads.
Neo-Nazi Skins (sometimes called White Power and derogatorily referred to as "Boneheads" by Trads and SHARPs) " The most vocal and well recognized sect of the subculture. Racist and highly political.
There are a number of other sects of skin worth mentioning, the Reds (or Anarchists), Mods, white pride, and gay skins among them.
Style
Skinheads are highly visible in public to both allies and enemies, due to their style. In terms of clothing:
Tops:
Bottoms:
- Men: Ben Sherman, Fred Perry, Brutus, Jaytex or Arnold Palmer; Flight Jacket, "wife beater" shirts, and t-shirts
- Women: Same as men but also cardigan sweaters
Footwear:
- Men: Levis or Wrangler, straight leg and rolled (to show off the boots) and "properly" fitted (the oft heard skinhead cry, "Get some jeans that fit, wanker!") and combat trousers
- Women: Same as men, but also mini-skirts and fishnet stockings as well
Hats: Bowlers, pork pie, and scullies
- Men: Dr Martens (Docs) preferably "steelies" (steel-toed) with 3 to 14 holes
- Women: Docs or black penny loafers
Braces: No more than ¾ inch in width
Hair:
- Men: shaved close with no greater than a "Number 2" guard
- Women: although hair can be worn in the same fashion as men, skinhead girls commonly wear a "Chelsea" shaved on top with fringes grown out in the back and front. (Female skins are also referred to as Chelsea’s although it is unclear whether the hairstyle was named after the girl or the girl after the hair style).
Laces & Braces
Much emphasis has been placed upon the color of boot laces and braces as part of the skinhead culture as a means of identifying yourself to other skinheads. These identifiers were largely regional and could mean different things in different areas. The list below should be considered "generic". While there was significance placed upon this once upon a time, the "braces and laces game" has fallen largely into disuse ("laces and braces don’t make you racist").
White " White power, white pride, neo-Nazi
Red " White power, white pride, neo-Nazi, National Front, communist
Yellow/black/blue " SHARP
Blue " cop killer
Yellow " Asian basher
Pink " gay basher
Green " gay skin
Black " you just bought new boots
Music
Music plays an important roll in any subculture and skinheads are no exception. Originally, the group was closely associated with the ska and reggae music of Desmond Dekker and Laurel Aiken before forming their own flavors of the style with bands like Simaryp, Joe the Boss, and Judge Dread.
Glossary of Terms
External links
- Cathal Smythe of the band Madness on Ska and Skinhead culture (Source: about.com)
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Skinhead."
Synonym: SkinheadsSynonym: bootboys (n). (additional references) |
| Synonym by domain: skinhead (social sciences). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Skinheads (1989) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Minorities | Czech Republic | An estimated 5,000 skinheads were active in the country. (references) |
Czech Republic | Police arrested and detained several skinheads and Roma for hooliganism. (references) | |
Czech Republic | On April 20, a group of skinheads and Roma clashed in the town of Novy Bor. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Skinheads" is generally used as a noun (plural) -- approximately 93.98% of the time. "Skinheads" is used about 133 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (plural) | 93.98% | 125 | 28,650 |
| Noun (proper) | 6.02% | 8 | 124,375 |
| Total | 100.00% | 133 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Language | Translations for "skinheads"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Japanese Kanji | スキャンロン方式 (child-rearing with frequent physical contact, door-to-door condom sales-lady, reskilling, Scanlon plan, school, school bus, school color, school zone, schooling, schoolmate, schooner, scoop, scooter, scramble, scramble race, scrambled eggs, scrap, scrap and build, scrapbook, scratch, scratch hit, scratch match, scratch noise, scratch player, scratch race, scrub, scrum, scrum half, scrummage, scuba, scuba diving, self-contained under-water breathing apparatus, skill, skillful, skills inventory system, skin, skin care, skin cream, skin diver, skin diving, skin food, square, square dance, square neckline, square stance, squeeze, squeeze bunt, squeeze play, squid). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | スキンヘッズ . (various references) | |
Pig Latin | inheadsskay.(various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Skinheads" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: shitheads. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "skinheads" (pronounced ski"nhe'dz) |
| 4 | -h e' d z | arrowheads, copperheads, beachheads, bulkheads, Bullheads, deadheads, flatheads, foreheads, loggerheads, overheads, warheads. |
| 3 | -e' d z | coeds, hotbeds, newlyweds, waterbeds, watersheds. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-d-e-h-i-k-n-s-s" | |
-1 letter: shandies, skinhead. | |
-2 letters: hankies, hessian, kinases, knishes, sandhis, shanked. | |
-3 letters: anises, asides, daises, danish, dashes, dashis, dassie, dishes, hanked, hankie, hanses, hissed, khadis, khedas, kinase, kissed, kneads, sadhes, sained, sandhi, sanies, sansei, sashed, sedans, shades, shaken, shakes, shanks, sheiks, shends, shiksa, shikse, shined, shines, skeans, skeins, snaked, snakes, sneaks. | |
-4 letters: aides, anise, ankhs, ashed. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-d-e-h-i-k-n-s-s" | |
+1 letter: handspikes. | |
+3 letters: stickhandles. | |
+4 letters: headshrinkers, stickhandlers. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Non-fiction 6. Usage Frequency 7. Translations: Modern 8. Derivations | 9. Rhymes 10. Anagrams 11. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
