Are Greasers And Socs Real

1950s and 60s youth subculture in the U.s.a.

North American greaser of Quebec, Canada, c. 1960

Greasers are a youth subculture that emerged in the 1950s and early 1960s from predominantly working grade and lower-class teenagers and young adults in the United States. The subculture remained prominent into the mid-1960s and was specially embraced by certain ethnic groups in urban areas, particularly Italian Americans and Latino Americans.

History

Etymology of the term greaser

The etymology for the term greaser is unknown.^[1] ^: 109 It is speculated that the word originated in the late 19th century in the Us as a derogatory label for poor laborers, specifically those of Italian, Greek or Mexican descent.^[2] ^[three] The similar term "greaseball" is a slur for individuals of Italian or Greek descent,^[three] though to a lesser extent it has also been used more mostly to refer to all Mediterranean, Latino, or Hispanic people.^[iv] ^[5] ^[6] By the time of the Civil War, the word was understood to conduct racist and segregationist meanings.^[seven] ^: 31 Information technology was later used to reference automotive mechanics. It was not used in writing to refer to the American subculture of the mid-20th century until the mid-1960s, though in this sense it still evoked a debasing ethnic connotation and a relation to car piece of work.^[2] ^[a] The name was applied to members of the subculture partly because of their characteristic greased-back pilus.^[10]

Within Greater Baltimore during the 1950s and early 1960s, greasers were colloquially referred to as drapes and drapettes.^[xi] ^[12] ^[13]

Origins of the subculture and rise to popularity

The greaser subculture may have emerged in the post-World State of war II era among the motorcycle clubs and street gangs of the late 1940s in the United states, though it was certainly established past the 1950s, when information technology was increasingly adopted by ethnic urban youth.^[2] ^[b] The original greasers (oft coming from "ethnic" backgrounds) were aligned by a feeling of working class and lower course disillusionment with American popular culture either through a lack of economic opportunity in spite of the post-war boom or a marginalization enacted by the general domestic shift towards homogeneity in the 1950s.^[14] Most were male, normally indigenous or white working course outsiders, and were often interested in hotrod culture or motorcycling.^[ii] A handful of middle-course youth were fatigued to the subculture for its rebellious attitude.^[15]

The weak structural foundation of the greasers can be attributed to the subculture's origins in working-class youth possessing few economic resources with which to participate in American consumerism.^[16] Greasers, unlike motorcyclists, did not explicitly have their own involvement clubs or publications. As such, at that place was no business marketing geared specifically towards the grouping.^[17] Their option in habiliment was largely drawn from a common understanding of the empowering aesthetic of working-class attire, rather than a cohesive association with similarly dressed individuals.^[17] Many greasers were in motorcycle clubs or in street gangs—and conversely, some gang members and bikers dressed like greasers—though such membership was not necessarily an inherent principle of the subculture.^[18]

Ethnically, original greasers were composed mostly of Italian Americans in the Northeast and Mexican American Chicanos in the Southwest. Since both of these groups were mostly olive skinned, the "greaser" label assumed a quasi-racial status that implied an urban, ethnic, lower-course masculinity and delinquency. This development led to an ambiguity in the racial distinction between poor Italian Americans and Puerto Ricans in New York City during the 1950s and 1960s.^[16] Greasers were also perceived as being predisposed to perpetrating sexual violence, evoking fearfulness in centre-class males only as well titillation in heart-class females.^[19]

Decline and modern incarnations

Though the television show American Bandstand helped to "sanitize" the negative image of greasers in the 1960s and 1970s, sexual promiscuity was still seen as a key component of the modern grapheme.^[20] By the mid-1970s, the greaser image had become a quintessential role of 1950s nostalgia and cultural revival.^[21]

Culture

Style

Young greaser in the Southeastern United States, 1956

The most notable physical characteristic of greasers was the greased-back hairstyles they fashioned for themselves through utilize of hair products such as pomade or petroleum jelly, which necessitated frequent combing and reshaping to maintain.^[nine] Males sported coiffures adopted from early on rock 'north' scroll and rockabilly performers such as Elvis Presley, among them the Folsom, Pompadour, Elephant'due south trunk, and Duck's ass, while females commonly backcombed, coiffed, or teased their pilus.^[22]

Male person greasers typically wore loose work pants such equally cotton twill trousers, common among the working grade; nighttime slacks, or dark bluish Levi'south jeans, widely pop among all American youth in the 1950s. The latter were often cuffed over ankle-loftier black or brown leather boots,^[9] including steel-toed engineer or combat boots, Harness boots, work boots, and (especially in the Southwest) cowboy boots. Other footwear choices included Chuck Taylor All-Stars, pointed Italian dress shoes, brothel creepers, and winklepickers.^[23] Male shirts were typically solid blackness or white T-shirts, ringer T-shirts, or sometimes sleeveless undershirts or tank tops (which would have been retailed as underwear). Choices of outerwear included denim or leather jackets (including Perfecto motorcycle jackets). Female greaser dress included leather jackets and risque clothing, such as tight and cropped capris and pedal pushers (broadly popular during the fourth dimension menses).^[24]

Music tastes

In the early on 1950s, in that location was pregnant greaser interest in doo-wop, a genre of African-American music from the industrial cities of the Northeast that had disseminated to mainstream American music through Italian American performers.^[16] Greasers were heavily associated with the culture surrounding rock n' ringlet, a musical genre that had induced feelings of a moral panic amidst older heart-class generations during the mid-to-late 1950s, to whom greasers epitomized the connexion betwixt stone music and juvenile delinquency professed past several important social and cultural observers of the time.^[19]

Portrayal in media and popular civilisation

Greaser revival look in 1974

The first cinematic representation of the greaser subculture was the 1953 film The Wild 1.^[25] ^: 185
The music grouping Sha-Na-Na, formed in the late 1960s, models their onstage presence on New York City greasers (the band members themselves were generally Ivy Leaguers).^[26]
The 1967 critically-acclaimed young adult novel The Outsiders past Due south. E. Hinton told the story of a gang of greasers, and was controversial upon release due to its depiction of gang violence. The motion-picture show adaptation of The Outsiders was released in 1983 and directed past Francis Ford Coppola.^[27]
The 1971 American musical and subsequent 1978 film Grease centers effectually greasers.^[28]
Character "Fonzie" from the American Goggle box show Happy Days is a stereotypical greaser who was frequently seen on his motorcycle, wore a leather jacket, and typified the essence of cool, in dissimilarity to his circle of friends.^[29]
Characters Leonard "Lenny" Kosnowski and Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman from the American sitcom Laverne & Shirley, a spin-off of Happy Days.^[30]
The 1990 John Waters flick Cry-Baby is a camp reminiscence of Baltimore greasers during the 1950s.^[31]

Notes

^ S. E. Hinton, author of the novel The Outsiders, an influential portrayal of greasers, knew the term from her youth in 1950s Tulsa, Oklahoma.^[viii] ^[9]
^ Moore writes that there is ambivalence surrounding the birth of the defining greaser fashion and style, though the associated await is similar to the one displayed by post-state of war bikers.^[two]

Citations

^ FWP, New Mexico: A Guide to the Colorful State, American Guide Series (New York: Hastings Business firm, 1940), p. 109.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Moore 2017, p. 138.
^ ^a ^b Roediger, David R. (2006). Working Toward Whiteness: How America's Immigrants Became White. Basic Books. p. 42. ISBN978-0-465-07073-ii.
^ Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry (2015). The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Anarchistic English language. Routledge. p. 1044. ISBN9781317372523 . Retrieved 28 January 2018.
^ Aman, Reinhold (1984). Maledicta, Volume seven. Maledicta. p. 29. ISBN9780916500276.
^ Ruberto, Laura East.; Sciorra, Joseph (2017). New Italian Migrations to the United States: Vol. i: Politics and History Since 1945. University of Illinois Press. ISBN9780252099496.
^ Gutiérrez, R. A., & Almaguer, T., eds., The New Latino Studies Reader: A Twenty-Get-go-Century Perspective (Oakland: Academy of California Press, 2016), p. 31.
^ Smith, D., "An Outsider, Out of the Shadows", The New York Times, September 7, 2005, pp. E1, E7.
^ ^a ^b ^c Moore 2017, p. 139.
^ Torres 2017.
^ Silverman, C., Diner Guys (New York: Ballad Publishing Group, 1989), pp. 28, 272.
^ Orser, West. Due east., Blockbusting in Baltimore: The Edmondson Hamlet Story (Lexington: UPK, 1994), p. 81.
^ Booker, Chiliad. Keith (2007). Postmodern Hollywood: What'southward New in Film and why it Makes Us Feel Then Foreign. Praeger. p. 68. ISBN9780275999001.
^ Moore 2017, pp. 138–139.
^ Symmons 2016, p. 182.
^ ^a ^b ^c Tricario 2014, Section "Anticipating an Italian American Consumption Culture".
^ ^a ^b Moore 2017, p. 141.
^ Moore 2017, pp. 138, 141.
^ ^a ^b Symmons 2016, pp. 181–182.
^ Tricario 2014, Footnote #56.
^ Symmons 2016, p. 184.
^ Moore 2017, p. 140.
^ Blanco F. 2015, p. 137.
^ Moore 2017, pp. 139–140.
^ Gelder & Thornton 1997, p. 185.
^ Perrone, Pierre (April 10, 2010). "Danny McBride: Guitarist with rock'n' roll revivalists Sha Na Na". The Independent.
^ Roger Ebert (March 25, 1983). "The Outsiders". RogerEbert.com. Chicago Sunday-Times.
^ Gruner, O.; Krämer, P. (2019). 'Grease Is the Word': Exploring a Cultural Miracle. Canticle Press. p. 169. ISBN978-1-78527-112-0 . Retrieved March 28, 2022.
^ Charney, Chiliad. (2005). Comedy: A Geographic and Historical Guide. Comedy: A Geographic and Historical Guide. Praeger. p. 595. ISBN978-0-313-32715-5 . Retrieved March 28, 2022.
^ Introducing – Lenny & the Squigtones! (and the Amazing Pre-Spinal Tap Tv set Debut of Nigel Tufnel!)
^ Sprengler, C., "Grease, the Jukebox Fifties and Fourth dimension'due south Percolations", in O. Gruner & P. Krämer, eds., Grease Is the Give-and-take: Exploring a Cultural Phenomenon (London & New York: Anthem Press, 2019), p. 125.

References

Blanco F., José (23 November 2015). Clothing and Style: American Style from Head to Toe (illustrated ed.). ABC-CLIO. ISBN9781610693103.
Gelder, Ken; Thornton, Sarah, eds. (1997). The Subcultures Reader (illustrated, reprint ed.). Psychology Printing. ISBN9780415127271.
Moore, Jennifer Grayer (2017). Street Style in America: An Exploration (illustrated ed.). ABC-CLIO. ISBN9781440844621.
Symmons, Tom (2016). The New Hollywood Historical Moving-picture show: 1967–78 (illustrated ed.). Springer. ISBN9781137529305.
Torres, Lucia (Jan 12, 2017). "Pachucos and Teddy Boys: How Generations of Youth in the U.S. and U.Chiliad. Borrowed From Each Other". KCETLink. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
Tricario, Donald (2014). "x. Consuming Italian Americans: Invoking Ethnicity in the Buying and Selling of Guido". In Cinotto, Simone (ed.). Making Italian America: Consumer Culture and the Production of Indigenous Identities. Fordham University Press. ISBN9780823256266.