Behind the tag

which allows the creation of youth subcultures (Hebdige, 1979). Adolescents tend to drift to delinquency as they search for a thrill or an adrenaline rush. This ‘rush’ they seek is the result of the fact that a certain behaviour is not accepted, therefore it is not easily accomplished through lawabiding means (Matza, 1961). Moreover, illegal behaviours tend to provide higher economical rewards than legal means (ibid.). According to Downes (1966) adolescents’ illegal behaviour due to a process of dissociation from middle class dominated context of school, work and recreation. This disenchantment provoked an over-emphasis on purely ‘leisure’ goals sedulously fostered by commercial ‘teenage’ cultures rather than on other non-work areas (Downes, 1966:257). David Matza in ‘Subterranean traditions of youth’ (1961), introduces the notion of bohemianism (in opposition to delinquency) as one of the solutions to the general dissatisfaction experienced by working and middle class adolescents. According to Matza (1961) youth is a time of rebelliousness where adolescents have the tendency to drift to three particular forms of revolt: delinquency, or delinquent youth; radicalism, or political militant youth; and bohemianism, or cultural rebels. Cultural rebels seek expressive goals, concerned with immediate gratification, hedonism, creativity and spontaneity. They are mainly middle class students unsatisfied by the rewards of higher education, since they are less fulfilling than they were led to believe. They become disillusioned and start getting interested in other more satisfying things. They value expressivity through non violent aesthetic pursuits of hedonism, through a cool mode of enjoyment, rather than a furious pursuit of pleasure (Young, 1971). Brake (1985) stresses the importance of masculinity in subcultures. Subcultures are seen as forms of exploration of masculinity, while young girls: escape into romance and marriage, or drift into sexual misbehaviour, such as prostitution. ‘If subcultures are solutions to collectively experienced problems, 23