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The Origin Of The Greaser Subculture In America

Decent Essays

The term “subculture” is defined in the dictionary as “a culture within a broader mainstream culture, with its own separate values, practices, and beliefs.” Studying subculture in the perspective of a sociologist, is to understand and comprehend a specific culture. In today’s modern society of America, there are many variety of subcultures that a sociologist can examine from the past or in today’s society. For this paper, the chosen subculture to be investigated is the greaser subculture. Greasers are defined as “a working-class youth subculture that originated in the 1950s among teenagers in northeastern and southern United States.” The paper will discuss the specifics on the origin of the greaser subculture in America along with other factors that came along with it in history. The origin of the term “greaser” was originally a derogatory name taken from the Greaser Act of 1855. The Act was passed in California meant to deride workers or laborers of Mexican background in the middle of the 19th century. It was also applied to Mexican with disdain due to their jobs at greasing wagon carts. The name for a greaser in the fifties was given due to the unique hairstyle applied with hair wax and slicked back. How the subculture of greasers came to be in America was that in the late 1940’s after the end of World War, the male soldiers were either being discharged or sent back home. Most them were suffering from what was known as shell shock or battle fatigue from the battlefields.

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