Culture and Society - Subcultures

My understanding of a subculture is a group of people coming together through common interests. It can also be a group of people who want to be different from everyone else or anything mainstream. After studying subcultures in a bit more detail then before I think I was part of the teeny bopper subculture. At the time I just thought it was what every young girl did - had posters on their wall, listened to all the mainstream pop music and boy bands and had friends over for sleepovers where you do each others hair and nails. Now that I'm older and in a position to look into this further I can now see that I was part of a subculture. I feel like I know a good bit about this subculture so I want to leave this for now and examine other types of subculture.

Two subcultures that have aroused my interest straight away upon looking this up are:
1. Bodybuilding - this subculture is something that I have never understood and I can't see why people put themselves through the rigorous diet and exercise regimes to get these bodies. I actually know some people from the gym who do this and enter competitions so I would like to understand it a bit more.

2. Nazi punk - I have heard of the punk subculture before but I have never heard of the term nazi punk so this caught my attention straight away and is an area I would like to look into further to see what it's all about.

Bodybuilding

So before I do any research into this, what I think of when I think of bodybuilders is huge muscles, tight or very little clothes, fake tan, eating raw eggs and steroids. So lets see what it's really all about. 


Professional body builders display their physiques with a variety of poses for a panel of judges. Oils and tan combined with the right lighting make the muscles come across as more defined and they are then given points on their appearance. So that explains why they wear fake tan. They are not judged on their physical strength but on condition, size and symmetry.

Bodybuilders use three main strategies- strength training, specialised nutrition and rest between workouts.

There are 8 main muscle building foods that bodybuilders should be consuming - egg whites, chicken/turkey, fish, beans, lean red meat, slow burning carbs, water and whey protein. Food can make or break bodybuilders muscle growth. 

I have come across the website http://www.bodybuilding.com/ and the first thing you see is it's offering supplements such as protein and creatine. These are very important in creating muscle and loosing fat. It is even offering you ways to stay in control over valentines day. It seems like when you go down the path of body building you make a promise to yourself and maybe your trainer to stick to the regime no matter what. It doesn't seem like something you can decide to do one week and then get bored of the next. This is a lifestyle change and theres no room for people who are not serious about it. People who do this are expected to completely transform their bodies permanently and in return gain confidence, improve their appearance, attitude and quality of life. 


There is a stereotype around bodybuilding and the use of steroids. As I said at the beginning steroids are something I would associate with bodybuilders. But on researching further I have found out that there are regular drug tests carried out for this and if anyone is caught having taken these they are banned from any future bodybuilding competitions. So not all bodybuilders take steroids and they achieve their muscular physiques through hard work and dedication. The stereotype probably comes from the media because they only report on it if someone is caught using them, they don't report on the achievements of people who have got to where they are without the help of steroids. 


It is certainly still an area of interest to me and now I understand it a bit more. A lot of what I would have associated with bodybuilders at the start has now been explained and the reasons for doing so are clear to me. It's not an area I would want to get involved in as I would not have the discipline but I admire the people who do and can dedicate their lives to bodybuilding! 


Nazi Punk

Before researching this I would think it is similar to the punk culture but maybe for people who share another interest also, which is racism.

Nazi punk music is similar to punk rock but has lyrics of hatred towards jews, homosexuals and people who are not white. The punk movement can be traced back to 1977 with the racialist punk movement following in 1978 known at the "Punk Front". These people were sick of always having to be politically correct so decided to rebel against it with nazi punk. In the 1980's it became a youth based underground movement as the amount of openly racist punks started to decline.

They believe that certain races are intellectually and physically superior to other races and look up to people such as hitler and mussolini and incorporated imagery of swastikas. I came across this website, http://www.nazipunk.8k.com/index.html where they express their beliefs and encourage people to buy their type of music and join their revoltion. They are hoping for a reemergence and revival of the racialist punk movement.