What is a skin head?
The skin head movement started around 1969 in Britain out of the white mods and black rudeboy gangs and in part as a reaction to the hippy movement of the time. Although Some did seem to taget gays and South Asians for violents this was no more so the case than any other youth movement of the time. The hate centered beliefs of some of the skin head groups did not appear until later on.
A second wave of skin heads seemed to have come in the late sevnties and eighties out of the punk movement but ska retainted a large following of skin heads at that time. Form out of the ska sound something new begain to be heard though and the name for this new sound was coined as Oi!! by a music writer named Gary Bushell. Oi! bands were nothing more than street punk bands at that time. OI! was a wroking class reaction to the art students who had over run the punk scene. Some of the early Oi! bands were The Opressed, Sham 69, and ,Last Resort.
As you see the begaining of the movement was based around a sound, a beat all its own. So, how did the hate centered movemnt come about? Once again we have to look at Britain and the U.S. to see this part of skin history.
By the mid-80's the skin movement was in full swing and in Britain many foot ball hooligans were infact skins. This is where the British fascist movements began to do heavy recruitment with the help of a popular OI! band called Skrewdriver. In the U.S. White Nationalist groups such as the White Aryain Resistance , started recruiting in the same way with some success. This hate centered movement was , however met with resistance from within by skin groups like SHARP , (SkinHEads Aginst Racial Prejudice) and RASH , (Red and Anarchist ShinHeads. Many of the North American Aryans did however shave their heads in skin style as part of their initation into the group. The Aryain resistance groups claimed a distinction between themselves and the so called "bonehead" skins by being more traditional skin , although they were no less homophobic than the rest.
Violence between skinheads factions was sometime political and sometimes just gang fights , resulted in clubs refusing to book OI! bands so the culture has not grown as some other sub-cultures have and, the talk shows has created an unforgetable image of the Nazi skins that has danaged the skin movement over the years.
The Gay Shin Movement has not been as wide felt in America as it has in London and parts of Europe. There the gay skins have created a lively culture while in America we have closed off more to ourselves. The basic ideas of any Skin head movement are the same as far as Loyality to your mates, the muisc and fighting for the working class. As I have stated before however the racial politicts is not at the heart of the major skin movements.
What is the Working Class?
The working class can best be discribed as an economic class that does not live on the capital of their ownings but, works for their living.. This would inclued not only laborers but , office workers and anyone else that can not live off thier own capital. The skin heads actively identify with this class right down to the skin gear whitch at its most basic consist of heavey boots, jeans , and at one time the collarless "grandad" shirt of the working class per - war era..
The cult of the skinheads in the day and age when classes seem blurred still seems to identify with a working class even though it seems on the ooutside that there is no true working class per say any longer some would debate.
The Gay Skin: Fact or Fiction?
There is nothing in Skin culture that says one can not be gay and a skin head. In fact gay skin heads have made very big contrabutions to skin culture. One of the most noted would be one time closeted gay skin, Nicky Crane who finally came out before millions of skins. The now well known image of the crusified skin we have seen for years was infact designed by a gay skin head. These are just two examples of the Gay skin heads impacting the skin culture.
What does it mean to me to claim skin head and be gay? That is a simple one. For me it is the beat, the feeling of being a real man who loves real men. I am not about the disco - gay bar scence and running about town flapping banners and ringing bells. I am a man who is skin who happens to like other men.
The sexual side of the so called skins is not something I believe in per say. The bonage, water sports , S&M , fetish types are not what all gay skins are about and infact tend to be once again, a very small precntage of the whole. In fact many have simply taken on theimage and not the ideas. For me it is about celebrating my maleness and about being proud to be a man in the deepest sense of the word.
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