Memories of the Past, Inequalities of the Present: The Temporality of Subcultural Violence, Gender, and Authenticity

In this chapter, I argue that mnemonic discourses about Berlin’s psychobilly past are structured hegemonically and serve to reproduce gender inequality in the subcultural present. Drawing on 24 months of ethnographic research conducted in Berlin, I critically examine three prominent memory themes. First, I explore the gender and memory dynamics people use to define what they recognize as “real” psychobilly. I then detail discourses surrounding what locals refer to as “fashionbillies,” a specific model of inauthentic subcultural personhood that many people consider a worrying feature of the contemporary psychobilly scene. Finally, I focus on behavioral forms of spatial marginalization to explain how the same gatekeeping mechanisms found in collective memories of psychobilly’s past are visible in the present day. In highlighting a range of learned and reproduced behaviors, I show how gender hierarchy becomes naturalized in this scene to the point that inequality itself comes to represent authentic psychobilly.