Hipsterdom

[boxedjoy]

round here they do dress identical. There's no goths/emos/moshers. There's no neds/chavs. No guys with greasy haircuts or girls with bright blue eyeshadow.

This is young people at high school age by the way. Once they get past that you see a lot more diversity and a broader range of that diversity too. Which I think makes teenage uniformity even sadder to be honest.

 

[luka]

No one wears skinny track suits with pristine Nikes? And a bum bag slung around the shoulder?

 

[boxedjoy]

I work in a shopping centre in a shop that sells predominantly to kids and teenagers in summer. I had days this year where literally my job was just monitoring who came in and out of our premises. I think I maybe saw one or two the whole time who didn't code as "conventional," it ended up a talking point among us as a team of staff how homogeneous they all seemed. We've got a few staff who are part-time and doing teacher-training outside of summer and they've remarked on it too, and they're a lot younger than I am and would be much more attuned to any discernable differences.

 

[boxedjoy]

I mean also this isn't London, this is a town a few miles out of Glasgow, there's definite race and class issues at work here too

 

[Mr. Tea]

I work in a shopping centre in a shop that sells predominantly to kids and teenagers in summer. I had days this year where literally my job was just monitoring who came in and out of our premises. I think I maybe saw one or two the whole time who didn't code as "conventional," it ended up a talking point among us as a team of staff how homogeneous they all seemed. We've got a few staff who are part-time and doing teacher-training outside of summer and they've remarked on it too, and they're a lot younger than I am and would be much more attuned to any discernable differences.

That's really sad. There was a definite punks/townies dichotomy where/when I was a teenager. I mean there was a lot of stupid and pointless antagonism, but as long as kids aren't actually getting beaten shitless over it, Quadrophenia-style, then I would prefer there to be a bit of tribalism to this bland uniformity you describe.