Paul Willis ‘Profane culture’

Willis’s research is based on evaluating two different minority cultures: the motor-bike boys and hippies in early 1960. Even if the research has made long time ago, these cultures are still appear but in other forms. 
“Both cultures reproduced –even creatively-the weaknesses, brutality and limitations of their own structural locations and parent class cultures”. Of course, both these cultures were excluded from the society and created their own rules, norms and values. The main difference were in their locating parent cultures. The motor bike boys were mostly from working class families, while hippies from middle class. Another difference is that motor bike boys didn’t create their cultures despite hippies wanted to be excluded and so they did that.
Motor bike boys are those who accept masculinity and relied on the strength. They ignored all the rules and norms by creating their own. ”Their appearance was aggressively masculine. They did not make demands, or pioneer changes there for more humanized systems of work – or even see any connections between technology in their leisure and the most massive application of technology of all: machinery in work.” Hippies behaved in another way, they had more cultural capital and accepted rules of the society. However: “Hippies did indeed reject existing attitudes and practices: they did not work. But even here there was no attack on the basis of work (as motor bike boys did). The culture privately maintained its own rhythms and sense of time which constituted a profound exposure and criticism of industrial time.” This gave an opportunity for hippy to spread their culture faster and have an influence on the society. The culture had a real purpose of its appearance. 

If we look at the world nowadays, almost every society has their own ‘motor bike boys’ but in new appearance. Their tastes, living styles, preferences, views have changed but the whole idea hasn’t. Still there are ‘lads’ reject hidden curriculum and creates new generation of working class, while ‘hippies’ seem to be disappeared as their main points of view were based on rejection industrial society and in some cases supporting capitalists:"You look for a Hippie today where are they? They are living in nice apartments and houses, or dead of drug overdoses, with flat screen TV’s and fancy stereos. They still read the writings of Karl Marx and will usually be at the rallies for liberal politicians, or protesting conservative politicians."

However, macho lads now have more risk than they used because of a big reduction in masculinity work, so it is difficult to forecast what cultures we will have in future.

(source:Paul willis, Profane culture, issued by Routledge & Kegan Paul)