- Crusties
-
"Crusty" redirects here. For things pertaining to or having a crust, see Crust. For the airliner, see Tupolev Tu-134.
Crusties is a term for members of an urban subculture, with roots in punk and grebo. The term pre-dates crust punk and can be used independently. The trend was most widespread in the UK in the late 1980s and early 1990s but there are also international subsets.[1]
Contents
Background
Crusties are distinctive for their unkempt appearance. They are associated with anti-capitalism,[2] road protests, squatting, raves and begging.[3] Typical dress styles involve dreadlocks, piercings, tattoos and dirty clothing (generally second-hand or army surplus).[4]
Crusties have been been described as being typically unemployed youth with no permanent home,[4] although the group obviously has no formal definition or membership conditions. Some are an urban version of the New Age Traveller[3] and so may have relatively settled long-term homes.
Other usages
The term 'crusties' is also a slang term used in body piercing for the dried, crusty leakage from a new piercing.[5] In the Bath, Somerset and Bristol areas of England a crusty is a derogatory term for any homeless person. The term crusty to mean surly or lazy dates back to at least the mid eighteenth century in Somerset.[6]
See also
References
- ^ "Homelessness". http://www.digihitch.com/road-culture/hitchhiker-lingo/118.
- ^ Jones, Liz, "I hate these Crusties", The Daily Mail, 5th April 2009
- ^ a b Hetherington, K: New Age Travellers, page 9. Cassell. 2000
- ^ a b Cambridge Dictionary, "Definition of Crusty, noun"
- ^ "Body Piercing". http://tattoo.about.com/library/blgloscrusties.htm.
- ^ "English proverbs from 1768". http://ia700301.us.archive.org//load_djvu_applet.php?file=32/items/acompleatcollec00raygoog/acompleatcollec00raygoog.djvu.
Categories:- Anarchist movements
- Counterculture
- Musical subcultures
- Social class subcultures
- Youth culture in the United Kingdom
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.