McRobbie (1980), "Settling Accounts with Subcultures: A Feminist Critique"

Hebdige's (1979) Suculture has been widely critiqued, but perhaps the most famous of these is McRobbie's (1980) feminist critique. As McRobbie (1980) aptly argues, the masculinization of “youth” is exacerbated by the academy’s refusal to acknowledge gender’s cultural role. Style itself is invisibly built on women’s backs, McRobbie (1980) notes, and by continuing to erase the ways in which the female body is objectified and acted upon in the name of style, cultural studies loses much political ground. McRobbie’s (1980) critique suggests a bridging of the public and private spheres in subcultural research, arguing that cultural studies gains complexity and depth by expanding its thrust to “questions of style and sexual politics” (p. 78).

She levels two main charges at Hebdige (1979).

1. Hebdige (1979) ignores the fact that his subcultures are the prerogative of men.

McRobbie (1980) argues that the subcultural moves Hebdige describes are primarily based upon the styles of the men in the group. Many of the groups he studies are exclusively led by men.

2. McRobbie (1980) takes Hebdige (1979) to task for ignoring the role women play in subcultures.

By ignoring women's roles in subcultures, Hebdige (1979) ignores the fact that subculture's male fantasy and expression is made possible by women who take up the extra burdens as wives and mothers.

Women are also often used as objects in the development of subcultural style.  Women are present in the visibility of style, but generally only as accessories to the men's presentations.