Michael Warner’s article Publics and Counterpublics, provides not only a definition of public versus counterpublic, but also how they correlate to each other. He describes how members of a counterpublic are not just a subset of the public, but that they exist because of a conflictual relation to the dominant public (423). Since some publics can actually stand in for the public, due to institutionalized forms of power that provide agency, and a hierarchy of facilities that dictates activities as public or private (423), this conflict becomes extremely important. I believe that punk as a counterpublic is continuously being bought into and co-opted by the mainstream public. This creates an even higher desire within the punk community to defy conformity …show more content…
Due to punk being constantly and consistently co-opted, much like the revolutions of the Situationists were, there has been an increase of resistance towards this co-opting of the punk lifestyle. As well, there is also the issue of the core situationist elements of punk being disregarded in favour of punk fashion and punk music, which brings about an understanding that only the aspects of punk that are ‘desirable’ will be mainstreamed and assimilated. This creates a shallow representation of punk based on what elements of it can be bought and consumed. The appeal that comes from marketing punk to the masses implies that there is some sort of demand from the public for consumption. But, in my opinion, it is not so much a business opportunity, as it is a political one. I believe society is trying to remove punk from punk and rid itself of this counterpublic through materialization, in an effort to keep anarchistic and revolutionary ideas at bay, and without an …show more content…
While there are some elements of punk and carnival that differ, there are many similarities as well.Carnival, if given political antagonism, can act as a catalyst and a site of symbolic struggle (26-27), much in the same way punk can. The article also discusses ‘70s British punk as carnival due to the, “carnivalesque clash between disaffected youth and official discourses against a backdrop of political and economic crisis, and heightened class tensions” (27), which furthers the notion that punk is the current, or most relevant, form of Bakhtinian carnival. Not just in its attributes, but in its efforts to “consecrate inventive freedom…to liberate from the prevailing point of view of the world, from conventions and established truths…from all that is humdrum and universally accepted” (28). Punk in our society is recognizable not only through fashion and music, but through its strong political stance and opposition to the questionable aspects of our society that are widely accepted. Punk opens up conversation for other voices, much like carnival did. It allows for opposition and the challenging of the public to happen, and can actually have an effective change given enough power, enough voices. Which, to those in positions of power is quite