07.10.13 - Piskorz

Britishness?

Identities

- ethnic

- geographical

- class

- gender

Stereotypes

- land of tradition

- conservatism

- suspicion of high culture

- sense of humor

- religion and politics

- the family

Scotland

- education

- legal and welfare systems

- banknotes

- way of speaking English

Wales

- life similar to the English one

- Welsh identity - language

- not many symbols of Welshness

Northern Ireland

- polarized society

- ethnicity, family, politics, religion -> interrelated 

- minor role of social class

- Protestants -> UK, Catholics -> Irish Republic

England
- little distinction between English and British

- 2005 -> website launched titled Icons of England (Stonehenge, Angel of the North, Routemaster London, the SS Empire Windrush, a cup of tea, the King James’ Bible, a portrait of Henry VIII by Holbein)

Britain

- Not very patriotic

- 50% would emigrate (2007 poll)

- 75% “proud to be British”

- not actively patriotic

- do not personally represent the country

- patriotic when British identity is threatened from the outside

Multiculturalism

• Salad bowl or melting pot

• The salad bowl has gone too far

Black Carribbeans

• Longest - established group

• Most members born in Britain

• From 1948 (Empire Windrush) wave of immigration

• Cultural practices nearest to the white majority

Asians

• Communities close together

• Retained their culture differences

• Alienation from British values

The North South Divide

• Denotes a supposed big difference, much truth in this

Sense of identification with a city (Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, London)

The class identity

• Very flexible class system

1. Different classes = different:

• Sets of attitudes

• Daily habits

• Food at different times of day

• Discussion topics

• Styles and accents of English

• Pastimes and sports

• Values

• Behaviors

Class indicator = language

28.10.13 - Piskorz

Contradictions

- discrimination on the basis of sex illegal

Generally:

- men acceptable to look scruffy

- women express emotions and care for children

But:

• Men not only responsible for finances and also do household chores

Public life:

- occupations not associated with anyone

- one of the first European countries to have female Prime Minister

- female chairperson in Parliament

!!!

• Women MPs = 1/5

• Women university head = 1/9

• Women CEOs = 5%

• Women professors at medical schools = 12%

Britain: “land of tradition”

• Centuries of political continuity

• Attendant ceremonies

• State opening of Parliament

• “trooping the color” – infantry parade, official birthday of the sovereign

• Changing of the guard

The British = too individualistic to follow tradition

• Suspicion of education and “high culture”

• Teachers deprived of high status in society

• Anti-intellectual attitudes

• Upper class not interested in their children getting to university

• Working class = effeminate males (educated, intelligent – not real men)

• Upper class = too much intelligence – not a “team player”

• Few living folk traditions

• Too individualistic

• Not behave in traditional ways, but like symbols of tradition

• Value continuity of modernity

• Have a sentimental attachment to older times

• Proud of being different (refused CET, left-hand side driving, imperial system of measurement, financial year starts in April)

• Reverence for nature

• Idealized vision of the countryside

• Peace and quiet

• Passion for gardening

• Sentimental attitudes to animals

Observing formalities vs. being formal

Public vs. private role

Formalities vs. formality

A sense of humor

• Ability to ‘take a joke’

• Sense of humor = modesty + stiff upper lip

• No sense of humor = the worst shame of all

Religion and politics

• Not important, part of social identity

Family

• Nuclear family

• Little sense of extended family

• Unusual for different generations to live together

• Higher proportion of people living alone

• Weak family identity

• 40% of children born outside marriage

• 85% of children born to parents living together

LAT – Living Apart Together (couple in different flats)

• ‘Single-parent families’

• Except for Christmas, no large gathering of families

Mongrel Nation – Immigration

1948 – Caribbean emigrants (The Empire Windrush)

• Vibrant nation of immigrants and British

• Fled to England because of persecution

• Wool used in England to make ugly clothing in XVI century and before (better textiles brought by the Dutch immigrants)

• Huguenots bring new skills of producing clothing (silk) -> XVII century (guns, shoes, jewelry also thanks to them)

• 1600s in England – no good system of banking (1694 – Bank of England established – a European concept)

• 1859 – Michael Marks comes to England (Jewish – fixed prices invention, ‘penny bazaar’)

• Odeon – Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation (Jewish)

Jewish: hologram, fish in fish ‘n chips

Irish: infrastructure, The Royal Ballet, The Duke of Wellington, Oscar Wilde, many popular words come from Irish

Caribbean people

• Punk began to grow on reggae music (bass and beats up front)

• Long history of blacks in England

1750 – 1/20 in London were black

18.11.2013 - Piskorz

Social fears:

• Mature fear the young

• Working classes loath elites/immigrants

• Elites fear underclass (lowest possible position – British rednecks)

• White fear Muslims

• Muslims fear the West

Five interconnected fears:

• For social cohesion (social unity – habits, language, religion – dominant culture)

• Of other classes

• Of and for the young

• Of public space

• Of cultural fragmentation

The English ignore the silver lining and go for the cloud – Jeremy Paxman. (chronic pessimism – Kate Fox)

Broken Britain

• Crime

• Teenage pregnancy

• Family breakdown

• Anti-social behavior

• Withering of community-spirit

• Erosion of the sense of individual responsibility

Underclass – unskilled working class, skilled working class (they support the British National Party and are far-right)

Murder of James Bulgar (1993) – murdered by two 10-year-olds

Chavs – aggressive teenagers (white working class), ghetto rap, hip hop & R’n’B, from suburbs, amoral

Death of childhood – children pushed to dress like mini-adults, too much homework, grow up too quickly, too protected from the world (cotton wool culture)

Feral youth – violent, illiterate, gangs, 40% of street crime (aged 10-16), most likely to have a knife (aged 14-19)

Reasons for feral youth:

• Youth unemployment (726.000)

• 34% of British would intervene when seeing vandalism

• Wrong examples

• Crisis in education

• Class inequalities

Booze Britain

• Binge drinking a part of Anglo-Saxon culture

1689 – first cheap gin distilled

Nowadays: highest level of drunkenness

2009-2010 – underage drinkers jump to 40%

4% of 15-16 year-olds have trouble with the police

800.000 below 15 drinking regularly

69% in 2009 increase in hospitalization

2000 permanently excluded from school

40.000 temporarily

Alcopop – wine or beer with flavoring

2,7 billion pounds of the annual alcohol misuse in Britain

• Preloading/tanking up – getting drunk before going to the city center (cheap)

• 23 billion pounds – income of UK from alcohol per year

• 40p: 50.000 – reduction of crimes each year by raising the price of alcohol to 40p

• Sheffield statistics – 4 years project of university of Sheffield (10.000 reduction as compared to the abovementioned estimate

• 68% - significant quantities of alcohol preloaded

• 83% - in supermarkets for incredibly cheap price

• 20-80 pounds – prices for alcohol spent in pubs and clubs

• 3 stages of drinking: preloading, pubs, clubs

• Irresponsible drink promotion

• England and Wales vs Scotland – Scotland banned abovementioned promotions

• 70% - alcohol sold in supermarkets

• Drunk tank – places where people could go to sleep it off, sober up

02.12.2013 – Piskorz

Fear of crime

90% support CCTV

4 million CCTV cameras in Great Britian

British most fearful of crime and happiest to be under surveillance

Baltic Exchange – 1992 (IRA)

Bishopgate – 1993 (IRA)

Ring of Steel – Square Mile protection in 1990s

Fear of cultural fragmentation

2060 – population increase by 25% (61 to 77 million)

24.7% new babies born to mothers born outside of UK

Muslims: (general islamophobia)

• 58% - Islam = extremism

• 69% - repression of women

• 75% - negative contribution to society

• 63% - ‘Muslims are terrorists’

• 94% - ‘Islam oppresses women’

• 52% - Britain deeply divided along religious lines

• 45% - religious diversity has had a negative impact

Multiculturalism

• Salad bowl – cultures juxtapose but do not merge

• Melting pot – heterogeneous society becoming homogenous (harmonious whole)

• Cultural mosaic – mix of ethnic groups, languages, cultures

Multiculturalism vs. assimilation

• Acceptance of cultural differences vs. support of assimilation of minorities

Britain:

• 17^th century – Huguenots from France

• 19^th century – Jews from Eastern Europe

• 1880 – 46.000 Jews in London

• 1890 – 135.000 Jews in London

1936: Cable Street

• Oswald Mosley and the Brit Union of Fascists

• March through the East End

• Violent clashes with people

• Battle of the barricades

1948 – The Empire Windrush – the symbol of immigration

• 492 from Jamaica

• Intentions: short stay, money, adventure, visit relatives

Background:

• Need of labor

• Working class people

• Mainly men

• Uneducated

• Perceived as foreigners

16.12.2013 – Piskorz

Race Relation Acts

1965: Making Yourself at Home – language practicalities of everyday life

1965: illegal to discriminate in public places (hotels restaurants)

1968: illegal to refuse housing, employment and public services on ground of ethnic background

1960s/1970s

• First children of immigrants reach adolescence

• Restrictions on immigration

Enter Enoch Powell

• Conservative MP

• Highly intelligent

• Cambridge graduate

• Demonized for his right-wing views

• 1968 – ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech – repatriation, return to families, assimilation, lack of integration

1958: The Notting Hill Race Riots

• Racially – motivated riots in London

• Mob of 300 to 400 white people attacking the houses of West Indian residents

• 140 people arrested

• Many black carrying weapons

1981: Brixton Riots

• Caribbean community

• Deep social and economic problems

• Operation Swamp 81: Sus law (police stopping and searching individuals on the basis of ‘suspicion’)

• 1000 stopped and searched

• 5000 involved in the riot

1981: Scarman Report

• Commissioned by the government

• End of the Sus law

• Emphasis on trust building

• Integration, inclusion

1993: Stephen Lawrence case

• 18 year old black stabbed to death

• Race murder

• White perpetrators

1999: MacPherson Report

• Recommendation which shook the roots of British multiculturalism

• Racist language to be a criminal offense

• Extended education relating to cultural diversity

• Influenced the law and the police

• Controversial

2001: Indians

• Most successful group

Bangladeshis – at the bottom

Pakistanis – poor rural communities, self-enclosed, aggressive, lack of integration

Post-2001: (WTC)

• 13% supported the attacks

• 20% sat on the fence

• Sudden polarization of opinion towards people from Middle East

2005 – Bomb attacks on London Transport

• ‘Home-grown’ terrorists

• Weakness of multiculturalism

• Polarization towards Muslims

Post-2005

• Influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe

• Welcomed as hard-working

• Exploitation of the British benefit system

• Too many, too quickly

• Growth of tensions as recession continued

Political correctness

• Not to discriminate anybody on any grounds

• Today used pejoratively (blind – visually challenged -> that’s idiotic)

20.01.2014 PISKORZ

British Fashion

Isaac Singer – sewing machine (1851)

Charles Worth (1825-99)

• Founder of the industry

• First large-scale fashion house in Paris (1858)

• Stylistic leader of Western World = haute couture

Mass-produced clothing based on standard sizes pioneered in the United States in the 1900s

Britain slow to follow

Changes by the late 1920s

• War

• Affluence

• Feminism

Wartime period:

• Need to avoid wastage of materials

• Scarce manpower

• Fordist assembly-line techniques

• Tailors and Garment Workers Union (1915)

Causes of change:

• Women’s demand for more practical clothes

• Desire to shake off the constraints

• Invention of cheap, hard-wearing, synthetic fabrics (rayon, nylon, polyester – ’26,’35,’41)

Other influences

Vogue

• New styles

• New form of clothing challenging gender boundaries

Cinema stars

• Trousers (Dietrich)

• ‘little black dress’ (Hepburn)

Department stores (ready-to-wear fashion)

Post-war

• Christian Dior’s ‘New Look’ (1947)

• Norman Hartnell

• Hardy Annies

1950s – explosion of youth culture

Casual trinity of unisex clothing

• Denim jeans ( patented by Levi Strauss in 1873)

• T-shirt

• Training shoes (pioneered by Nike in 1971)

1960s – the street invades salons

• Mod

• Punk

• Rave

• Designers more in tune with pop culture

• Challenge to elite couturiers

Mary Quant (blamed for objectification of women with her introduction of miniskirt)

Laura Ashley

• Patchwork quilts

• Traditional, rustic femininity

• Victorian milk-made look (romanticize the countryside)

Women’s clothing – shaped by the sexual imperatives

Fashion – an important element of British pop-culture

1930s – Burton established

• White-collar male workers

• Inexpensive, smart clothes

• BUT

• Little changes to men’s fashion

• Suit, shirt and tie in brown, black or navy

• Declining popularity of the hat

• Colorful, flamboyant clothes - gayness

1946 – bikini patented by Louis Reard

• Cult of sunbathing

• Bikini as a benchmark of female beauty

1950s – Victorian corset, Afro-Caribbean influences

1959 – London Fashion Week

1960s – fashion continues to undermine social convention

1969 – ‘wonderbra’ launched

1970s/1980s – Rastafarian influence

2000s – dominance of black subcultures

• Home-boy look

• Clubwear (lycra, bright colors)

Savile Row – fashion street

Dress codes: crucial to understanding the divisions between identities in Britain (smart vs. scruffy)

Subcultures

• Punks

• Hippies

• Bikers

• Goths

• Mods

• Soulboys/girls

• Teds

• Skinheads

• Homeboys

British fashion = no longer ‘made in England’

English dress:

• Since 18^th century: high degree of eccentricity/individualism

• Today: mixing thrift-shop/vintage dressing with high-street/designer wear

• The role of youth/school culture

Iconography of tradition:

• Contradictory characteristics (emphasis on innovation/novelty)

• Importance of youth culture

• High profile of the creative industries in the UK

London fashion:

• Cult of cool scruffiness

• Youth-driven

• Experimental

London designers:

• Vivienne Westwood

• John Galliano

• Alexander McQueen

• Hussein Chalayan

03.02.2014 Piskorz

British Pop: music and fashion

Early popular music:

• Before 19^th c – folk music

• Folk songs reflecting the region/occupation of the author

19thc. :decline in England

• Music halls built for variety show

• People moving into cities

Tin Pan Alley -> collection of NYC music publishers and songwriters, concentration of music shops

• Denmark Street: “Britain’s Tin Pan Alley”

1920s – Traditional jazz and ‘ragtime’ music

1930s – smooth, sophisticated music, relaxed, glamorous and seductive songs

Crooning – slow and sentimental way of singing

1940s – slow, sentimental ballads, stories of unrequited love

• Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Britain: Frankie Vaughn

New technology – gramophones, records, transistor radio by Sony (1955)

‘Record Mirror’ – top twenty bestselling singles (1955)

The Hit Parade (top twenty)

1950s

USA:

• Free, prosperous, consumer culture

• Full employment

• Affluent teenagers (independence in clothes, music, idolized heroes)

‘Blackboard Jungle’ (1955) – ‘Rock around the clock’ song used (movie about aggressive young students)

Rock’n’roll – to have sex, make love

New Edwardians (teds, teddy boys)

• Long jackets

• Velvet on collar

• Bootlace ties

• Heavy suede shoes

• Hair greased with Brylcream

• Disliked: conformity, austerity, authority

Skiffle (punk of 1950s)

• Fast and rhythmical

• Few keys/chords

• Instruments: ‘washboard’/acoustics/bass/kazoo/banjo

• Popular with young, left-wing intellectuals

• Free of commercial pressure

The Beatles (The Quarrymen)

• Sentimental, nostalgic about the past

• Songs short and about everyday life, slang in lyrics

Beatlemania: 1967 – Sgt. Pepper’s – departure from earlier material, lost fans, about drugs and mysticism, 1970 break up

Pop music as an object of serious comment

Rhtym and blues

• British musicians attracted to Black American music

1962-1967 (The Animals, Yardbirds, Spencer Davis Group, Fleetwood Mac

Rolling Stones:

• Formed in contrast to the Beatles

• Wild sexy bohemian

• Long hair, exotic clothes

• Influenced by r’n’b

• Compete with the Beatles

Mods (1960s) – modernists

• Young

• Fashion-conscious

• Londoners

• Modern jazz listeners

• Consumption (Vespa scooters), fashion, music significant

Rockers (1960s)

• Traditional manifestation of working-class

• Motorcycles, leather jackets, denim jeans, long hair

• Scruffy, loutish, naïve

• Clashes with the mods