Stanley Cohens critique of Hebdiges reading of the symbolism of the swastika. The extract is about the subculture of punks and the way they express themselves through fashion with their use of the swastika which is predominately associated with Nazi
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Stanley Cohen’s critique of Hebdige’s reading of the symbolism of the swastika
By: Elisha Morrison
The extract is about the subculture of punks and the way they express themselves through fashion with their use of the swastika which is predominately associated with Nazism. In the extract Cohen (1987) emphasises the “dangers” of applying meaning to a symbol, especially when the symbol in question already has a widely recognised significance. He demonstrates this by analysing Hebdige’s (1979) meaning of the swastika.
Hebdige is a theorist of punk and according to him and other theorists of punk, punks wore the emblem to distance “themselves from the very message the symbol is usually intended to convey” (Cohen, 1987). Hebdige (1979) argued that where there is a hegemonic cultural group, members from a less dominant culture may take a particular area of their culture and decode it with their own meaning. In this instance the swastika, which many believed was not used in a fascist way, but to rebel from their parents and ‘stick two fingers up’ at the British Government of the 1970s. Decoding was done within the dominant-hegemonic position. According to Cohen (1987) the “value of this new decoding work” can be extremely vague seeing that the motive why it was worn or the meaning that was being emitted would not have been apparent to those not belonging to the punk subculture. When people see the swastika being worn by individuals it is understandable for them to assume these individuals are fascist or racist. It would be unreasonable to assume otherwise because the swastika should be one of the last things used as a fashion. Many punks themselves have admitted to wearing the swastika for shock value but whether punks were racist or not it was insensitive to use as a form of rebellion against society when it could cause so much controversy. It seems that punks of the 1970s did not have a direct relationship with Nazis but were tolerant of what they stood for. This is because it showed a complete lack of respect to those who had suffered from the Nazi regime and encouraged racists and fascists to think it was acceptable to promote Nazism. Some punks at that time also said that although were not self confessed Nazis, the admired Hitler for his determination and success so if that meant that he had to support his views about creating a Aryan race, then they would.
