Editing Skinhead (section)

{{Short description|Working-class youth subculture}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2010}}
{{Not to be confused with|White power skinhead}}
{{Infobox cultural movement
| name         = Skinhead
| image        = Skingirls 3088254.jpg
| alt          = 
| caption      = Skinhead women with straight-cut [[Bangs (hair)|fringes]] in [[Portugal]] in 2008
| yearsactive  = 1960s–present
| country      = [[United Kingdom]]
| majorfigures = [[Hoxton Tom McCourt]] 
| influences   = Primarily [[Mod (subculture)|mod]] and [[rude boy]] subcultures; [[punk subculture]] influenced the second wave of skinheads 
| influenced   = [[Suedehead (subculture)|Suedeheads]], [[Oi!]], [[Trojan skinhead]], [[White power skinhead]], [[Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice|SHARP]], [[Sharpies (Australian subculture)|Sharpies]], [[hardcore punk]] 
}}

A '''skinhead''' or '''skin''' is a member of a subculture that originated among [[working class|working-class]] youth in London, England, in the 1960s. It soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, with a second working-class skinhead movement emerging worldwide in the late 1970s. Motivated by [[social alienation]] and [[Solidarity|working-class solidarity]], skinheads are defined by their close-cropped or [[Head shaving|shaven heads]] and working-class clothing such as [[Dr. Martens]] and [[steel toe]] work boots, [[Suspenders|braces]], high rise and varying length straight-leg [[jeans]], and button-down collar shirts, usually slim fitting in check or plain. The movement reached a peak at the end of the 1960s, experienced a revival in the 1980s, and, since then, has endured in multiple contexts worldwide.

The rise to prominence of skinheads came in two waves, with the first wave taking place in the late 1960s in the UK. The first skinheads were working class youths motivated by an expression of [[Alternative culture|alternative values]] and working class pride, rejecting both the austerity and [[conservatism]] of the 1950s–early 1960s and the more [[middle class]] or [[bourgeois]] [[hippie movement]] and [[Hippie|peace and love]] ethos of the mid to late 1960s. Skinheads were instead drawn towards more working class outsider [[subculture]]s, incorporating elements of early working class [[Mod (subculture)|mod]] fashion and [[Jamaica]]n music and fashion, especially from Jamaican [[rude boy]]s.{{sfn|Brown|2004}} In the earlier stages of the movement, a considerable overlap existed between early skinhead subculture, [[mod subculture]], and the [[rude boy|rude boy subculture]] found among [[Jamaican British]] and [[Jamaican diaspora|Jamaican immigrant]] youth, as these three groups interacted and fraternized with each other within the same working class and poor neighbourhoods in Britain.<ref name="encycl">{{Cite book |last=Cornish |first=Lindsay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZnSBRxsjn_4C&pg=PA229 |title=Boy Culture: An Encyclopedia |last2=Kehler |first2=Michael |last3=Steinberg |first3=Shirley R. |date=2010 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=9780313350818 |access-date=3 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201201001146/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZnSBRxsjn_4C&pg=PA229 |archive-date=1 December 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> As skinheads adopted elements of mod subculture and Jamaican British and Jamaican immigrant rude boy subculture, both first and second generation skins were influenced by the rhythms of Jamaican music genres such as [[ska]], [[rocksteady]], and [[reggae]], as well as sometimes [[African Americans|African-American]] [[soul music|soul]] and [[rhythm and blues]].<ref name="encycl" /><ref name="cashmore">{{Cite book |last=Cashmore |first=E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XbhTAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT45 |title=Rastaman: The Rastafarian Movement in England |date=2013 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=9781135083731 |access-date=3 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201201001146/https://books.google.com/books?id=XbhTAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT45 |archive-date=1 December 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="contemporary">{{Cite book |last=Childs |first=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tlsKXeRt0wgC&pg=PA188 |title=Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture |last2=Storry |first2=Michael |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1134755554 |access-date=3 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201201001213/https://books.google.com/books?id=tlsKXeRt0wgC&pg=PA188 |archive-date=1 December 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The late 1970s and early 1980s saw a revival or second wave of the skinhead subculture, with increasing interaction between its adherents and the emerging [[punk subculture|punk movement]]. [[Oi!]], a working class offshoot of [[punk rock]], soon became a vital component of skinhead culture, while the Jamaican genres beloved by first generation skinheads were filtered through punk and [[new wave music|new wave]] in a style known as [[Two-tone (music genre)|2 Tone]]. Within these new musical movements, the skinhead subculture diversified, and contemporary skinhead fashions ranged from the original clean-cut 1960s mod- and rude boy-influenced styles to less-strict [[punk fashion|punk]]-influenced styles.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Godfrey |first=John |date=September 1988 |title=Ska Party |url=http://www.skinheadheaven.org.uk/index.php/cuttings/49-ska-party-id-magazine-article-1988 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100407072641/http://www.skinheadheaven.org.uk/index.php/cuttings/49-ska-party-id-magazine-article-1988 |archive-date=7 April 2010 |access-date=27 February 2010 |website=Skinheadheaven.org.uk}}</ref>

During the early 1980s, political affiliations grew in significance and split the subculture, demarcating the [[far-right politics|far-right]] and [[far-left politics|far-left]] strands, although many skins described themselves as [[Apoliticism|apolitical]]. In Great Britain, the skinhead subculture became associated in the public eye with membership of groups such as the far-right [[British National Front|National Front]] and [[British Movement]]. By the 1990s, [[neo-Nazi skinhead]] movements existed across all of Europe and North America, but were counterbalanced by the presence of groups such as [[Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice]] (SHARP) which sprung up in response. To this day, the skinhead subculture reflects a broad spectrum of political beliefs, even as many continue to embrace it as a largely apolitical working class movement.