"Guido" Image
Social identities are problematic because they are transacted by individuals and groups with disparate interests and resources. Guido has emerged as a highly contested identity now that it is being transacted in the wider public discourse. The MTV reality show Jersey Shore demonstrates the power of the corporate media to shape discourse in the popular culture.
Guido can be seen fundamentally as a form of “youth agency”, the central concept in the youth studies field referring to the “meaning-making, narratives, cultural productions, and social engagements” of young people in relation to popular culture. Youth culture is predicated on structural transformations associated with “late capitalism” that create an age category defined by expressive consumption. A small body of research in the United States documents the emergence of social and cultural forms that are “hybrids” of ethnicity and youth popular culture. Research shows expressive repertoires or styles, especially visual signifiers or a “look”, fabricated out of symbolic commodities and media imagery that rework Italian ethnicity for a collective position in the local youth scene and mainstream American society.
Guido is an identity option when certain symbolic repertoires are in evidence, such as a look, a sound, and an attitude read by those who are literate in local youth culture codes. It is the outcome of a particular youth agency and it is recognized as self-authored; collective agency was asserted in the song “Guido Rap” recorded by a local Italian American DJ in 1987 and was distributed in subcultural circles. It is a “mix and match” style, what the cultural studies approach refers to as a “bricolage” of symbols. Appropriation is unified by ethnicity and meaningful within a local youth style tradition. This accounts for the survival of greaser elements like slicked-backed hair and sleeveless undershirts and themes like masculine aggression which have been increasingly stylized by the “all-consuming project” of bodily display - “looking ripped” as an outcome of particular leisure routines (the look of a somebody without a typical working class Italian American body). Stylized masculinity is a check on repertoires associated with femininity and gay fashion trends like sculpted eyebrows and even dancing; the signature “fist pump” dance style is a masculinist street culture gesture.
Guido offers a symbol that specifically identifies the brand; Italian ethnicity makes the brand more salient. Guido combines a commodified youth party culture with a style that has street culture roots, similar to the element of urban authenticity that sells Black youth culture in the suburbs. Guido began selectively poaching Hip Hop before it diffused to mainstream youth. MTV exploited a connection to gangsta when it casted Guido as “the hottest pimps”. As such, Guido can appeal to a suburban youth market that crosses over to Hip Hop but not Blackness, while Jersey Shore has scripted moral panic with depictions of brawling and licentious sex.
There is perhaps a clue in media depictions of arriviste Italian Americans for an interpretation of Guido. Conspicuous consumption salves a status wound caused by negatively privileged ethnicity: the collective ethnic memory of poverty, stunted formal education, dirty labor and worse. Guido is a struggle for recognition and respect by an age fraction that privileges consumption rather than formal education, reflecting class differences in an ethnic culture that continues to evolve in metropolitan New York City and throughout the Northeast.
Jersey Shore is a particular representation of Guido that has the weight of reality because it is constructed in the mass media and ratings have established its commercial success. This has reverberated in the popular culture notably in other prestigious mass media outlets and on the Internet. The ongoing study of Guido as youth culture has to take measure of Jersey Shore’s impact on the feedback loop because Guido has been solidified as a category of the media culture which can be expected to shore up identity performances in the urban style spectacle. In particular, media celebrity may have yielded highly visible style leaders who can figure in commercial endorsements for commodities appropriated by youth themselves like Armani Exchange and Ed Hardy tee-shirts. Celebrities can be enlisted to sell signature styles to youth who identify with the brand irrespective of the organic connections of ethnicity, class, and place.
Guido can be seen fundamentally as a form of “youth agency”, the central concept in the youth studies field referring to the “meaning-making, narratives, cultural productions, and social engagements” of young people in relation to popular culture. Youth culture is predicated on structural transformations associated with “late capitalism” that create an age category defined by expressive consumption. A small body of research in the United States documents the emergence of social and cultural forms that are “hybrids” of ethnicity and youth popular culture. Research shows expressive repertoires or styles, especially visual signifiers or a “look”, fabricated out of symbolic commodities and media imagery that rework Italian ethnicity for a collective position in the local youth scene and mainstream American society.
Guido is an identity option when certain symbolic repertoires are in evidence, such as a look, a sound, and an attitude read by those who are literate in local youth culture codes. It is the outcome of a particular youth agency and it is recognized as self-authored; collective agency was asserted in the song “Guido Rap” recorded by a local Italian American DJ in 1987 and was distributed in subcultural circles. It is a “mix and match” style, what the cultural studies approach refers to as a “bricolage” of symbols. Appropriation is unified by ethnicity and meaningful within a local youth style tradition. This accounts for the survival of greaser elements like slicked-backed hair and sleeveless undershirts and themes like masculine aggression which have been increasingly stylized by the “all-consuming project” of bodily display - “looking ripped” as an outcome of particular leisure routines (the look of a somebody without a typical working class Italian American body). Stylized masculinity is a check on repertoires associated with femininity and gay fashion trends like sculpted eyebrows and even dancing; the signature “fist pump” dance style is a masculinist street culture gesture.
Guido offers a symbol that specifically identifies the brand; Italian ethnicity makes the brand more salient. Guido combines a commodified youth party culture with a style that has street culture roots, similar to the element of urban authenticity that sells Black youth culture in the suburbs. Guido began selectively poaching Hip Hop before it diffused to mainstream youth. MTV exploited a connection to gangsta when it casted Guido as “the hottest pimps”. As such, Guido can appeal to a suburban youth market that crosses over to Hip Hop but not Blackness, while Jersey Shore has scripted moral panic with depictions of brawling and licentious sex.
There is perhaps a clue in media depictions of arriviste Italian Americans for an interpretation of Guido. Conspicuous consumption salves a status wound caused by negatively privileged ethnicity: the collective ethnic memory of poverty, stunted formal education, dirty labor and worse. Guido is a struggle for recognition and respect by an age fraction that privileges consumption rather than formal education, reflecting class differences in an ethnic culture that continues to evolve in metropolitan New York City and throughout the Northeast.
Jersey Shore is a particular representation of Guido that has the weight of reality because it is constructed in the mass media and ratings have established its commercial success. This has reverberated in the popular culture notably in other prestigious mass media outlets and on the Internet. The ongoing study of Guido as youth culture has to take measure of Jersey Shore’s impact on the feedback loop because Guido has been solidified as a category of the media culture which can be expected to shore up identity performances in the urban style spectacle. In particular, media celebrity may have yielded highly visible style leaders who can figure in commercial endorsements for commodities appropriated by youth themselves like Armani Exchange and Ed Hardy tee-shirts. Celebrities can be enlisted to sell signature styles to youth who identify with the brand irrespective of the organic connections of ethnicity, class, and place.