Price Check: Hating on Hipsters
Our first rebuttal!
Mr. Duffy, I believe you’re missing the point. The reason it’s hard to specify to constitutes a hipster (and also the reason no one ever self-identifies as a hipster) is that, in its current incarnation, the term isn’t an objective signifier, it’s a relative one. A hipster is anyone who spends more time caring about more superficial shit than you do. It’s impossible not to make fun of hipsters, just as it’s impossible to not make fun of snobs, dweebs, bougies, guidos and cokewhores. That’s what the word is there for.
Secondly, the article you cite seems to me less a mean-spirited pile-on than a critique of one certain subset of hipster (as you say, there are many different kinds): the rich kid who adorns himself in symbols of the working class. There’s no actual word for this specific type of person (Sara’s “lumberjack” I think comes closest), so Haddow uses the broad catch-all term ‘hipster’. I agree with you that the term is insufficient; the article makes no sense if your mental image of a hipster is an Oxford-and-seersucker-wearing Vampire Weekend fan.
Thirdly, come on. They’re begging for it:
In conclusion, hating on hipsters is the same sort of resentful mocking we’ve always done of people who think they’re better than us. It’s no different than making fun of an uppity neighbor or a snobbish camp counselor or someone who pronounces foreign words in an accent, it’s just that hipsters are newer. We haven’t gotten it out of our system yet.
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7 Comments, Comment or Ping
I dunno. He did sort of call them the end of Western Civilization as we know it…
Hippies too. They definitely need to be mentioned here. Hippies are no good. Does the word “hipster” derive from “hippie” ??? Or vice versa maybe? Hippies need to be mocked more. Are they counter-hipsters? Anti-superficiality? If so, that makes them even more ridiculous.
1. That’s true. I guess you’re right about the hyperbole.
2. The word ‘hipster’ as far as I can tell actually predates the hippie movement; it came into being to describe heroin-enthused jazzcats in the 1940s. The definition has subsequently shifted.
And, as far as hippies go, they are a subset of hipsters now. They still shop at Urban Outfitters and drive cars, just usually old ones that use more gas. They are, like, the smellier version of the oxford vampire weekend kind.
Maybe in my other blog I’ll go through the list of hipsters, but I need help with all the subsets.
I wouldn’t categorize Hippies so easily though–drug rug hipies, gangsta hippies, protest (or throwback) hippies, Appalacian hippies (not common, but interesting–met one, says he listens to Yonder Mountain String Band)… I think there’s a lot of horizontal spread here that isn’t quite hipster. Anyway who’s to judge? I’ve got a little hippie resistance in me just as much as this whole dialogue about labeling people screams “Oxford pretentiousness!”
‘hipster’ is just another scene. scenes derive when people that like a certain thing start noticing other people who also like that thing (whatever it is) and they all start doing similar things because they want to fit in with those crowds. “these people like the same stuff i do!” its the crowd/herd mentality. so it is not surprising that you might like or want to do what the other people in this group are doing. there is nothing inherently wrong with saying “hey I really like that kid’s shoes” and then going out and buying them yourself. as the late George Carlin put it, “thats what keeps the economy going!” however, that then snowballs into what are known as ‘trends,’ and trends snowball into ’scenes.’
there are many scenes: skateboard kids, metalheads, basketball players, goths, oxford-yuppies, the yacht club, sports fanatics, the hot girls, the fat girls, et al . . . i don’t even need to point out the trends in any of these scenes because just naming them will draw out a picture in your head of that type of person. then there are sub-scenes per scene. these subscenes were what was discussed with not being able to pin down ‘types’ of hipsters.
however, the inherent problem i see with hipsters is that the trend and scene and thing they like and flock to is ‘being cool and different.’ this poses a problem…because being hipster scene is no different than being a skateboarder scene: all the people in the scene start to like the other people in the scene and want to do the same things (once again, trends).
“but wait,” you ask, “isn’t that the opposite of what they like, cool and different?” yes. you’re right. when you are trying to be cool and different by doing the same thing as everyone else, the world slightly implodes (the middle of the implosion is currently brooklyn). btw, the same principle applies to why goths get shit on.
so when hipsters realize this (which they do), they try to out-cool the rest of them (which never works). there are two results to this: uber-pretentiousness, and hating all other hipsters and claiming you are not one. these are what people hate about hipsters. and these are what hipsters hate about hipsters. you don’t see too many basketball players caring that other ballers have similar clothing appeal or music taste. it doesn’t matter to them because of this:
they are happy with who they are and what they like.
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