SKIN : Diversity and resistance in Swedish skinhead culture

This historic study is expanded with a contemporary view. It has interdisciplinary connections to fashion--‐, gender--‐ and postcolonial studies. The analysis is based on interwievs with Swedish skinheads with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. One of the questions answered is which factors creates inclusion versus alienation in relation to the skinhead culture. The sources tell stories about a romanticisation of the workingclass, a homosocial expectation based on gender and a distinct heteronormativity. They also show how some non--‐normative functionalities pass, while others are seen as deviant which creates an alienation from the community. Are there any connections between skinhead culture, violence, nationalism and Nazism and if so, how does this show? The image of the skinhead in mass media is heavily coded with Nazism though many of the sources have experienced their subculture as highly diverse. The skinhead get’s to play the role of The Other in the Swedish debate on nationalism and nazism. To depict skinheads as the ”true” nazis becomes an effective way to make both everyday racism as well as dressy Nazism invisible. Also institutionalized violence, racial profiling and white violence is made invisible by this making of The Other. How come typical skinhead features have become popular in mainstream culture right now and what does this popularisation do to the subculture? The present political situation creates an aesthetic discussion which does not limit itself to the subcultural domains. At a time when skinhead features become mainstream it might take a more extreme expression to continue as sub--‐culture. The heavily charged aesthetics can be used as a subversive tool for shifting power perspectives, this is especially flagrant within the gayskin culture which uses the aesthetics as a camp play with stereotypes