Subcultures Puns

The decline of the Boston accent, and the community that underpinned it, really breaks my heart. Boston is a city almost entirely of transplants now. There is very little originality or identity to the city now because of the resurgence of the state on a national level.

A lot of good things came out of Massachusetts’ ascendant rise. Our schools became fantastic after the 1993 Mass Ed Reform act. Companies like Genzyme became national players and turned the area into a life-sciences world capital. The Big Dig made driving not as hellish as it once was. Northeastern, BU, Tufts, and BC rose from middling local safety schools to premier, top notch universities. All the while, Boston lost its sense of community, especially its working class community. These people have been priced out to Quincy at best and have up and left the state at worst.

It got me thinking—Massachusetts can’t be the only place where economic forces, good or bad, have totally upended cultures and identities in a way that the place is unrecognizable to past residents. What are some places/cultures you’ve seen the decline of?

I recently heard from a friend that Oklahoma City had a great culture unique among American cities. It got me thinking, what other American cities have their own culture, that I am missing out on due to not being as prominent in American media?

I am also curious about unique geography, or perhaps where the two tie in together.

So, I'm kind of a baby-bat (just got into goth music a few months ago,) and I want to start building up my style so that I can express my music taste on the outside as well. I know that you can absolutely be goth without dressing/looking goth because it's a music-based subculture, but for me personally, I really dig the fashion along with the bands.

So anyways, what would you guys consider "staples" or "essentials" to your own wardrobe? I'm asking because I feel like that might point me in the direction of what pieces to focus on getting first. (For reference, I quite like the "trad goth" look as well as kind of a "romantic goth" or Victorian inspired style. Also, please keep in mind: I am sixteen, so I would like to steer clear of anything too sexualized or revealing for now.) What "staples" are feasible to DIY when you have fairly nonexistent sewing skills and which ones should you actually invest in getting ready-made?

In terms of wardrobe, I do have a bit of a base to build on because I used to dress vaguely "alternative" (at that point my music taste was really shit though, with the exception of the fact that I listened to some grunge and classic rock n' roll, so I cringe at a lot of the band tees that I own from that time.) But the good thing is that because of that, I do already have a darker color scheme in my closet as well as some nice pieces to work with. I also got to go to thrifting a couple weeks ago as my Christmas present, and I bought some beautiful second-hand clothing (mainly tops,) a lovely, shiny, black under bust corset, and some jewelry.

One thing I still have trouble with though is putting together an entire look that actually "works." Like, even if I have some cool individual pieces, sometimes the look as a whole will fall flat or doesn't look like what I'm going for (e.g., I tried wearing fishnet sleeves recently, and it gave off very 2014 emo vibes which is NOT what I'm going for in the least bit!!) So, any advice on how to actually create the effect I'm going for (which is, like I mentioned above, a "trad" or slightly more "romantic" goth ensemble)?

I am looking to make documentary-based youtube videos on New Zealand subcultures and communities. In particular, groups that don't really get much media coverage and might be really niche. So, I was wondering if there were any subcultures/groups/communities that anyone would recommend checking out. Cheers.

I have never once seen a single person express actual support and enthusiasm for the fucking monkey NFTs (you know the ones). But I HAVE seen a billion and one memes admonishing those members of the aforementioned monkey NFT cult. Youtube memes, tweets, reddit, I'm seeing NFTs shit on all over the place... but I never actually see the target of the contempt. I never see the NFT bros. I do not believe anyone is actually upset about people screenshotting Monkey pictures. It has to be trolls, if it even happens at all.

This post was prompted by this recent AITA: https://old.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/rt5ftd/aita_for_my_reaction_to_my_fiance_christmas_gift/

Like, this has to be fake, it hits all the desired AITA chords. Nobody is actually that retarded to buy his GF a picture of a monkey for 8k. It's just fake, man. Add in the gender/racial dynamics and people are eating this up.

Anyone out here experience monkey NFT supporters?

Like the title says, how many of you peeps consider yourselves to be for example punk or goth, or maybe pastel? or something similar? I mean in terms of clothing, interests, music taste, attitude, ANYTHING! :)

I would personally say that I am some kind of grunge person. I dress in a way that mainly just reflects my taste in music, so in my case, it just devolves into grunge. I guess there is emo and goth overlap, and I generally consider being a femboy to be some kind of aftermath of punk, or at least similar in philosophy, so I guess we're kinda all punks? But I would call myself grunge, maybe punk, and the way I dress just looks like goth and emo stuff, so I just use grunge as some kind of umbrella term because I feel that it most accurately reflects me.

I'm wondering because I see a lot of pictures of femboys who don't seem to have any kind of specific style or direction in how they dress, and then I also see a lot of pastel femboys. I feel like I don't see a lot of punk or grunge online, but EVERY TIME I see any kind of gender non-conforming individual in real life, they dress goth, or punk (or I guess just the umbrella term "alt" or something?)

Again, I personally would say that since I'm into grunge music and culture, and I supposedly (according to my bf) have the attitude of goths or punks, that's where I land on the spectrum. What do you people think?

Like I’m not a prude or even conservative. I’m 100% against slut shaming and I believe there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a woman to have as much casual sex as she wants if both parties consent.

That said, I think the current culture among teens is sexualized in a way that rubs me the wrong way. Aheago hoodies everywhere, memes like Ankha zone being super popular on TikTok even among younger users, jokes like “submissive and breedable” and a lot of people referring to tits and busty women as “mommy milkers” and “Mommy gf”. I don’t know - it’s just a bit weird for me.

I get that both teenaged boys and girls are horny as hell. Teens have sex, and teens watch porn too. Still, I think that the everyday subculture of teenagers being so sexualized isn’t that good for the psychosexual development of people and may lead to long term intimacy issues.

Though it’s again possible that what I see here is an extremely niche subset of teens and they are considered weirdos among their own groups as well.

Disclaimer: respectful discourse only please, I don't want to fight about politics, I just want to know if this is a thing

So perusing through tiktok (my first mistake), there seems to be a huge argument going on about how it is "impossible" to be goth and "anything except left-wing", claiming that since goth stemmed from punk then this scene is also inherently political in nature, thereby excluding anyone who doesn't follow the same political ideologies/opinions.

Do you consider the goth subculture political in nature? I'm not American so this both fascinated and baffled me. I would say that the majority of us have similar beliefs but it is not inherent to the subculture or a necessary requirement as long as everyone is respectful of each other. But I'm also old and maybe the scene has evolved in this way?

Saw the Hollow switched their menu from advertising B&W’s vegan food, now claiming it’s from Halo. They have a sign in-house stating the same.

Halo is registered at 227 Lark, the same address as Subculture.

They still use him, and are trying to hide it to deflect criticism. Just a heads up to others like me who may have seen the change and thought they were actually taking positive action.

Just trying to learn more about the interesting niches in this city! Any thoughts?

Something I always loved about the OG L word was its mini dives into different subcultures in queer communities and Los Angeles. Small town gay bars, kink dungeons, lesbian 50s housewives, nuns who have sex with each other, gay men in rural autoshops, conversion therapy camps, etc. I understand some of these were really poorly and offensively represented (ie the whole arc with Papi), but in general I thought they brought a lot of joy and interest to the show. Does anyone have any favorites that come to mind?

https://www.reddit.com/r/AntiLolitary/comments/rmmhxm/what_region_of_the_world_are_you_from/

Based on the previous poll, it seems that majority of you guys here are North American, second most are Europeans and 3rd most are Asians (reddit poll only allowed 6 options so I can't subdivide to East Asian, South East Asians, South Asians and Middle East).

One thing I noticed recently about America as an South East Asian, is that there seems to be a weird trend of infantilization of teenagers and young adults. So most discussions assume there are only "children" and "adults" in this world, rather than "children", "young adults" and "adults".

So from an outside perspective, American beauty standards doesn't have the "young adult" look and goes straight into "mature" look.

Compared to my region of the world where, among other looks, there is a subculture to look as young as possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN3Y68cTEak

xmm roughly translate to "little girl" or "little sister".

So its not really uncommon to find someone who look younger than they really are.

So I am assuming because America does not have a "young look" subculture, it is assumed that liking young looking girls is equivalent to pedophilia? Am I wrong in this?

Sort of a vent and an honest question. Do these people like, drag race on the highway together on weekends? Why in such a small city are there so many purposelym made noisy vehicles??

Just wnat to mention ahead of time, I know about the Noise Project and see how valuable it is.

Note: This was originally on scuffles. I added MORE JUICY DRAMA SCREENCAPS so if you read it before, you can search for “NEW:” and check out the new drama such as ‘Harriet Tubman animated icon defending Harry Potter shipping’ and ‘an icon commissioner doesn’t fulfill an order for five months, with public mudslinging from both sides.’

Take a journey back in time with me. Back to the days of dial-up and ADSL, before Tumblrs and Tweets and Tik-Toks, when most of fandom was congregated in one location and your precious online self-representation came in the form of 3 little images, sized 100x100 if you knew what was good for you. No one here would ever be some sort of … 98x97 pixel peasant. You wouldn’t do that, would you? Have an unaesthetic, imperfectly balanced icon? Of course not! Everyone would judge you if you had 3 uneven pixels!

That’s right, I’m here to talk about LIVEJOURNAL ICON DRAMA. Unfrost your 90s tips, take off that black lace choker and join me in the early 2000 internet culture. And yes, I found some old drama with images for you youngins to experience.

(Side-note: I’m not censoring out names here because all accounts are dead, and most of them died 15-20 years ago.

… Oh god I’m so old.)

ICON AESTHETICS:

A brief overview of some icon trends over the years: https://i.imgur.com/ULKVuSy.png

Around 2004, many icons included tiny, intentionally unreadable text. This was the fashion of the day. Borders came and went out of fashion. For a while, only a pariah would go without a delicate one pixel border around your icon. Then, the fanciest of borders. Finally, borders became gauche, and you would let your icon hang borderless. Depending on the community, you might be the height of fashion or rocking white after Labour Day with your use of borders. Hypersaturation was the key to the early look. Take that anime and crank up those values!

Note: these are just SOME of the trends. There was a time 45x45 pixels was the ‘in’ thing. Animated blingee text. Everyone had an opinion, a style, a look.

“But did anyone care about this, seriously? There wasn’t actual drama about this sort of thing--” Oh they cared. A lot. There were flame wars and anonymous hate posts. There were elite icon maker communities you had to apply to enter. There were communities for hating on the elite communities. And that’s before we bring in the commissions!

For your entree, a rant about the use of tiny fonts in icons: https://imgur.com/by1T2KV and a sarcastic g

I just rewatched the Weird Subcultures: Looners and iDollators episode and now I want the guys to dive deep into the Furries and Bronies, it's been a long time coming.

When I lived in the US I remember the Takuache subculture in Mexican American communities they were truly something else

I just finished “Hells Angels” by Hunter S. Thompson, which is why it’s top of mind. These male bikers greet each other by making out, “run trains,” etc.

Similarly there’s frat boy hazing rituals, the buff oily bodies of professional wrestling, butt slapping in sports celebrations, etc.

I’ve noticed since Covid a huge influx of seemingly young people with unexpected worldviews. From a cursory glance, it’s easy to associate all younger generations by their similarities, but it seems there’s a sense of entitlement befitting of the “me” generation.

It feels like a social experiment; while millennials are constantly accosted and gaslit for their most trivial choices, like what they eat for lunch… Gen Z is given the exact opposite message from the media - they are the bright shining future and the oh so progressive next generation that save the world from the conservative boomers and lazy millennials.

But as an aging millennial coming from the perspective of market research, there’s more similarities between the two than on the surface.

Tell me this doesn’t sound like the boomer’s mentality - maybe with some new toys - rather than the depressed plight of those who graduated into the Great Recession.

Gen Z:

• is statistically less likely than Millennials to believe evidence that humans contribute to global warming (pew research poll, 4% difference)

• have inherited an economy of unprecedented wealth, though distributed in an unprecedented inequitable way…in the aftermath of a universally recognized unjust war which the generation before them (millennials) fought in, no less.

• skews far more conservative than the media reports, with as high as half of polled Gen Z-ers saying that too many people are "easily offended these days over the language that others use (https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-changes-political-divides-2019-7)

• Are one of the most consumerist generations in American history, making up about 40% of all consumer spending in the country. (https://thoughts.rrd.com/blog/marketing-to-generation-z-how-reaching-gen-z-with-your-brand-message-is-different-than-engaging-millennials)

…And purely from anecdotal experience, Gen Z-ers are far more likely to support Trump and similar politics for the “disruption” factor. They’re more likely to blame people for their own misfortune in ways I’ve come only to expect from Boomers. They’re falling into higher paying jobs than the millennials they’re entering the workforce with, and emulating 80s American psycho/Gordon Gecko personas, a lá r/superstonk or r/FIRE. The world is burning, but as long as they get “theirs.”

Like Boomers, they’re buying into the social media culture in ways us MySpace/Friendster folk still see as a bit odd. When I think of people constantly on their phon

Whether its hippies, punks, bikers, ravers, hackers, skinheads, or whatever, the specific community isn't necessarily the most important thing, I'm just looking for something written well and really engaging.

I want to learn about important figures in their community, what were some defining events, what are some words/ symbols they use, common practices/ rituals, etc.