There's a lot of debate to this day about what it means to be punk. I mean, I know what it means to me personally, but since I wasn't alive when punk was just beginning, I'm hazy as to how it actually originated and how it manifested at that time.
Honestly, I really admire and utilize a lot of punk values, and wear some punk items. But I'm not sure I'd call myself 'A Punk', which is a label that has a lot of outdated and nasty sterotypes attached to it. Personally, I think one of the most un-punk things you can do is label yourself in any way. I mean, isn't that what punk is against? So although I really like the punk spirit, I hesitate to label myself as such, because I personally hate being pigeonholed into a certain category. Do any of you feel that way as well?
2007-03-16 08:49:31 · 3 answers · asked by theamazingbartman01 1 in Social Science ➔ Sociology
Originally punk was about being pissed off about poverty (or about the bad public policy that leads to it) and about the people who despise the poor for being poor (who used the term "punk" to indicate a segment of society they considered worthless -- the term was co-opted). Johnny Rotten's green teeth, a Mohawk hairdo, or safety pinned clothing, for example, were a statement about how hopeless people were that they'd ever get a job -- conformity to a prescribed standard of appearance and behavior was seen as kissing up to an establishment that punks felt did not give a damn for their humanity anyway. So they were saying with their appearance, "**** you" to the inhumanity of exploitive policy and mass culture.
So some of the values of punk are - human dignity, anti-economic exploitation, anti-mass-market-culture that creates a [cleancut, mindlessly obedient, unthinking] image we're supposed to conform to in order to have economic success.
Since then, a lot of other ideas have been crammed into the punk pigeonhole, but real punk is about freedom and respect.... and some frustration. The statement of punk is just very cynically, cleverly expressed.
2007-03-16 15:32:40 · answer #1 · answered by zilmag 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
being a punk means having no values and hating those who do have them.
2007-03-16 09:06:36 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
my definition is of three words - menace to society.
2007-03-16 09:58:30 · answer #3 · answered by tripppah 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋