ROLE OF GENDER IN MOD STYLE
When we consider about the main characteristics of mod style, we can say that the mod subculture of 1960s was associated with many things. The mod subculture was primarily associated with fashion, clubs, music, dancing, amphetamines and scooters. These are the significant elements of mod subculture. Besides this, one of the main characteristics or elements is also the role of gender in mod style during 1960s. In the following article we will precisely bring out the gender role in mod style of those days in 1960s.
According to the study on youth subcultures in post-war Britain by Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson, they came up with a view that comparing other youth cultures, the mod style or subculture gave young women high visibility as well as relative autonomy. According to them, this status may have been associated with both to the attitudes of young male mods. They accepted the idea that young women did not have to attach to men. They even expected the idea to the development of new occupation for young women which can give them an opportunity to earn money and made them more independent. This clearly defines the role of gender in mod style and its development during mid-1960s.
Taking into consideration of gender and mod style, Hall and Jefferson make a note in the growing or raising number of jobs in boutiques & women’s clothing stores. They were poorly paid and lack opportunities for advancement. But it gave young women expendable income, status and a glamorous sense of dressing up and going downtown to work. The female mods presentable image made them easier to integrate with the non-subculture aspects of their lives in comparison to members of other subcultures. However, the emphasis on clothing and a stylized look for women demonstrated the “same petulance for detail in clothes” as their male mod counterparts.
According to Bensstock and Suzanne Ferriss the attention in the mod subculture on consumerism & shopping was generally the ‘ultimate affront of male working-class traditions’ in UK. In fact in the working class tradition, women were usually involved in shopping. They claim or have the view that the mods of those days were “worshipping leisure and money, scorning the masculine world of hard work and honest labour” by spending their time listening to music, collecting records, socializing, and dancing at all-night clubs. To very precise the role of gender in mod style and its development is worth mentioning.
