James Henley

Introducing the Chemo - Teen Sub-Culture Hybrid?

In our local secondary school yesterday, one of the young people we were chatting to described themselves using the label “Chemo” - meaning half Chav and half Emo.

Urban Dictionary describes the Chemo as:

A hybrid of the classic stereotypes “Chav” and “Emo” When mixed together you get a “Chemo” a “Chav” who dresses like an “emo” but still has “Chav” tendancies.

…

The most common type of chemo tends to listen to ‘emo music’ such as MCR and Fallout Boy, but still dress chavy. (longsdale hoodies, trackies ect…) 

It’s interesting, but I guess inevitable that hybrids of different teen sub-culture groups have developed (see also Choth, Swemo and Changsta).

An increasingly individualised culture must mean that individuals are increasingly unwilling or unable to be sorted into sub-cultural groups. These groups, sometimes called homogeneous units, seem to me to be becoming heterogeneous and teenagers seem to be increasingly willing to create close friendship groups which are made of people from across different social groups.

Some questions:

1. Are sub-cultures and stereotypes the same thing?
2. Does an increase in the number of youth sub-cultures inevitably mean that there will be too many variants for it to be worth studying them as groupings? (Is the Homogeneous Unit Principle obsolete?)
3. Do all the members of a sub-culture have to be a perfect fit for it to be worth understanding that culture as a group, rather than as a group of individuals? 

Any thoughts?