Skinheads culture in This is England

British Cultural Studies II year

One of the characteristics of young people has always been the constant need of affirmation and innovation. This has not always happened in a calm, peaceful way: the oppressions and the barriers they thought they have to break have not always been 'destroyed' in a peaceful manner or have not always been understood by older people. Among the most controversial and still disputed youth subcultures remains that of the skinheads. Emerged from the working class in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, the skinhead culture is a mix of British mods and West Indian (Jamaican, especially) cultures in what regards life style, fashion and music. Always trying to reinvent themselves, the youths adopted a trend that began as mix of styles, passing on to a more punkish and even hardcore punkish fashion. In addition, the subculture began to be seen as a political and racist affirmation of the white power, although it was not initially meant like that. In the film This is England from 2006, the director Shane Meadows tries to portray this subculture of the skinheads in relation to the socio-economic changes that Britain had to face round the 1980s. What is to appreciate at Meadows is the fact that he tries, through his film, to shatter the idea that the skinheads were only a group of hooligans and reckless young people; he attempts to depict the skinheads as a family to which almost everyone could take part in a time when real families were no longer united due to war. In such a fatherless age, the film focuses on a 12 year-old boy, Shaun whose father died as a soldier in the Falklands War. As an orphan, Shun feels alienated by the rest of the young children who always mock him and the way he dresses. However, this all changes in the moment he meets Woody and his gang of skinheads who offer him support and a new family. But this group is soon threatened by the return of Combo, an older skinhead who was imprisoned and adopts a more active political and racist position in the group. This is England will depict the way the skinheads lived their lives at that moment, their ideology and beliefs, as well as the process of gaining a new identity that Shaun suffers. For a better understanding of the context, one should first take a look at Britain after the World War II. The two wars left the UK weak from all points of view: the economy was in decline, there was a lot of material loss during the wars, and the Empire was in danger of extinction due to the recent gained independencies as India did in 1947. The British economy shifted to a service sector, leaving some regions in economic depression. During the 19791990, the Thatcher era would come and impose new strategies in order to revive the economy and strengthen the national spirit of the British people. However, the result was not always positive: the Falklands War was considered by some as useless and expensive and the new economic strategies rose unemployment in the 1980s above 9 millions. This is the context in

which the takes place, in a Britain with a weak economy and in time of war: it begins with some of the most memorable events of the that time, like the strikes, the army, princess Dianas marriage, the encounter between Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. The group lead by Woody is more like a traditionalist skinhead group, with punkish influence - the Oi! skinheads, named like this after their way of speaking. The boys wear short hair, not necessarily bold as the name should imply and the girls have mode style or punk style haircuts, feathercuts or entirely shaved hair with bangs and fringes at the fronts. In the film, the skinheads usually wear braces (or suspenders) above a shirt or Sherman shirts - like the one Shaun receives from Woody- jeans with turn-ups and some of the girls put on short skirts. What is relevant for the skinheads fashion are the monkeyboots or the Doc Marten boots how Shaun wants to buy for himself. The ideology presented by these skinheads in the film resembles the beliefs of the first skinheads, who were apolitical and not racist. Moreover, due to the presence of Milky, the only black skinhead in the group, Meadows suggests the fact that everyone could be part of the skinheads and enforces the idea that they were originally strongly influenced by Jamaican culture and music. The group seems to have quite equal members and it was built only as a family for those who, like Shaun, needed company. The return of Combo, an older skinhead who did time in the prison, changes the perspective and the ideology of the group, because Combo represents the new neo-Nazi type of skinhead. Except Gadget, Shaun and Pukey, the rest of the initial faction does not want to get involved in the socio-political activities of Combo. The new-formed group takes part at a meeting of the Nationalistic Front and, as a consequence, they start to be engaged in violent acts against the Pakistani immigrants from England. Combos ideology reflects the situation in the 1960s, where white and black skinheads revolted against these South Asian people who came to England and took away their jobs and opportunities, offering instead cheap and easy labour. What Combo tries to highlight is the fact that it does not matter from where you come or what colour you are if you consider yourself an Englishman and act likewise. This is suggested in the confrontation he initially has with Milky, when he asks the younger skinhead if he is an Englishman or a Jamaican. Combo represents an active political skinhead, sickened by what happens with his country, with the policies implied by Thatcher and the useless war in which parents, like Shauns, have died. A memorable moment in the movie is when Pukey doubts the ideas presented at the National Front meeting and Combo reacts violently and abandons Pukey. A similar type of ideology will be adopted by the main character, Shaun, who sees in the two men, Woody and Combo, a big brother and a paternal figure. Woody protects Shaun

because he feels sorry for him and immediately considers him part of the family. The process through which Shaun passes to become a skinhead is like the construction of a new identity. He buys boots and bracers, receives a shirt from Woody and gets a number one cut, gaining in this way a new identity, respect and pride. Further on, the affiliation with Combo represents the passing on a new stage, a more racist one. Combo sees himself in Shaun as he was young and tries to build him as he was. Nevertheless, Shaun does not fully accept the violent side of the ideology of Combo, because in the end he just wanted friends and make his father proud of him. It is important to notice the elements and objects subverted by the skinheads and transformed in pure, new symbols for themselves. Starting from the black music and mixture of fashion, the skinheads quickly emerged as a distinct group, taking fashion items and subverting their meanings: army boots, flight jackets, tattoos, badges and scarves. The cross is a symbol that often appears in the film, suggesting that they want their own religion and do not tolerate the foreign one, as that of the Pakis. Moreover, the cross that the skinheads have on their forehead (and which Shaun receives as well on his fist) represents the mark that they are part of a skinhead group and the tear that Combo has tattooed on his face represents the murder of a person. A very important cross-image is the St. George's flag that Combos skinheads wear with pride and which suggest the strong love they have for the British nation. Another important symbol in the film is the picture of Shaun's father: he stands not only for the lost parent, but also for the fallen soldier in a phoney war, as Combo names it. In conclusion, one can assert that This is England depicts more that the life of a schoolboy; it is the representation of England in a turbulent time with all the consequences it had on people. Through his film, Shane Meadows attempts to retrieve the initial skinhead from the dangerous, defiant image. The characters, even Combo, are presented in a sympathetic way, his actions being just an effect of the suffering and pain that the sociopolitical context implied. The skinhead culture, in the film as well as nowadays, tries to return to its origins, being not a racist group, but a trend, a family for those who want to distinguish and to make themselves heard as different.