Popular Culture Review Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 2005 | Page 84

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Popular Culture Review
Tait 1999) and reinforced by the media (KCAL 2004; Reitman 2004).
Ethnographic fieldwork, informal discussions, and photographs were used to
assess categorization of GIC among those involved in the culture.
Between January and June 2004, Perversion was visited once weekly.
In addition, Perversion sponsors a forum web page where patrons share thoughts
on the club experience, fashion, current events, and commentaries. Along with
the forum postings, several club “regulars” spoke informally with the
researchers over the course of the observation period.
The forum also posts photographs from the week’s Perversion. A club
photographer walks about and selects patrons, in his estimation, that capture the
essence of Perversion, and/or are fashionably consistent with GIC. The
photographer is employed by ECE. He approaches patrons and requests
permission to be photographed. The photographer has been active in ECE for
approximately three years. Written permission was obtained by the photographer
to use his copyright protected photographs in this study.
These photographs were the basis of our “shooting script,” a
conceptually developed structure driven by a “grounded theoretical development
process” (Suchar 1997:36). Shooting scripts are a tool employed by visual
sociologists, a method designed to investigate social reality by testing and
comparing experience with theoretical assumptions (Ball and Smith 1992;
Wagner 1979). The shooting script frames the focus of inquiry such as
establishing the presence of immigrant (sub)-cultures (Gold 1994; Lopez 2000;
Lopez 2001). Our script in the present study was the representation of Goth and
Industrial cultures. The authors viewed weekly photo postings on Perversion’s
web page and those that best represented GIC (as based on prior research) were
downloaded. From these, eight final photos were selected to be included in the
study. In the tradition of symbolic interaction, interpretation of meanings
attached to the symbols presented were based on the literature and informal
discussions.
Results and Interpretation
The Scene:
Club patrons (self-labeled as “peeps” [for “people”] and referred to as
such hereafter) tended to be in their 20’s, but ages ranged from 18 to 45 (and in
one case, 50). Most were Non-Latino White, about a third Latino, a small
number of Asians, and a smaller number of African Americans. Occupations
represented were: bank teller,