Within this post I will look at the collective identity and how it is achieved in Shane Meadows 'This Is England'.
This is England is set in 1983. On the way home from school the protagonist Shaun meets a group of 'skinheads' after being bullied all day. This group is comprised of Woody, Gadget, Milky, Pukey and Kez along with several other minor characters i.e. Woody's other half 'Lol'. This group take pity on him and accept him into their group. They soon become best of friends until an old friend of Woody's, Combo, turns up uninvited to a party and tries to convince them to join the National Front. Shaun (who the audience discover has died fighting in the Falklands War) joins them and departs from the gang to join Combo.
The gang have a collective identity however of being 'skinheads'. They achieve this identity through several methods.
The first being the way in which each of them dress (costume). Below is the typical clothing for a skinhead.
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| Harrington Jacket |
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| Turned Up Jeans |
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| Braces To Go Over The Shirt |
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| Doc Marten Boots |
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| 'Pukey' Wears Blue Camouflage Trousers |
Each of the gang wears this style of clothing. Through wearing these clothes they create a collective identity because they can be instantly recognised as the social group they belong to.
The second method is their hair. Within the film they all have shaved heads. There is a scene within 'This Is England' where Shaun has his head shaved and it is treated almost as a right of passage by the gang because he is then truly accepted into the group.
Having a shaved head was all about rebellion against the norms of society. This is what skinheads stood for. Anarchy and disruption to the norms of everyday life.
Notice as well that in This Is England they all smoke and drink. This is a third method of identity.
A character which arises later on in the film is Combo (pictured below)
Combo believes that because there are 3.5 million British people unemployed it is wrong that people from foreign countries should not be allowed into this country and put people out of jobs because it is cheap and easy labour. He convinces Pukey, Gadget and Shaun to stay and join the National Front. This fight is still going on nowadays and was recently being shown in the city where I am currently studying, Norwich, Norfolk, UK. However instead of the National Front it was the English Defence League however they both hold similar views. Below is a link to a local newspaper article on it and one from the BBC.
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