The Anti-Hipster Crusade

Lately I have gotten into conversations with several people on what it means to be a hipster, and the more and more I can pinpoint the hipster phenomenon, the more I dislike it. What is a hipster? For starters, a hipster…

Shops at: Urban Outfitters, Salvation Army

Reads: David Sedaris, Zadie Smith, Dave Eggers, Salon.com

Listens to: Rufus Wainwright, Elephant 6, Stereolab, emo

Wears: Newsboy hat, horn-rimmed glasses, Vans, Blazers, Uggs (though starting to wear Uggs in irony),

According to The Hipster Handbook a hipster is: “One who possesses tastes, social attitudes, and opinions deemed cool by the cool. (Note: it is no longer recommended that one use the term “cool”; a Hipster would instead say “deck”).”

If you want some more insight into the Hipster persona, sign on to Friendster and get into a few networks. You are bound to get connected to many Hipsters with ridiculous hipster profiles that you can peruse. Typical signs of a hipster on friendster:

-In the picture section has a blurry picture of himself/herself or a picture of a weird looking pet

-Has unbelievably esoteric testimonials written about them and writes equally esoteric testimonials

-Under status, lists “Open Marriage”

-Juxtaposes cool television shows/music/interests with supposedly dorky ones, e.g. following “Sex in the City” with C-span

-Has a couple totally random, unqualifiable interests that they probably have partook in once, if at all listed, e.g. “painting doors,” “stealing cardigans,” “post-colonial lit”

-wordy

I think that hipsterism is my generation’s response to the yuppie. You see, many my age want to be yuppies, but they don’t want to admit it because of the image of conspicuous consumption that comes along with the yuppie tag. So they embrace the hipster: self-deprecating yet truly self-possessed, shabby clothing but actually shabby-chic clothing, poor but actually not poor at all.

Have you have observed any hipster traits, moments, etc. that you would like to contribute for the good of this blog? If so, drop me a line or a comment.