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Hipsters Revisited
August 25, 2008 - 7:52am — Katie LiedermanIf you live in or around a major U.S. city, then surely you've noticed it's all the rage to wear shirts that say shit like 'Die Hipster Scum,' probably purchased at Urban Outfitters from a neophyte hipster cashier in hipster sneakers that just miss. Books and/or websites deriding all things hipster like stuffwhitepeoplelike.com, Hipster Haikus and The Hipster Handbook have been blowing up and/or flying off bookshelves for more than half a decade.
Now, people who can't personally identify with any defining criteria for hipsters don't harbor any amount of animosity for them because they don't see strains of their own repressed hipster identity mirrored in them. So to you, this may be a bit esoteric. My apologies for penning something arcane and, thus, both shamefully and hypocritically hipsterish.
I am well aware that being anti-hipster is almost more hipster than being hipster. But if you have any sort of a handle on what's cool, then you know that "hipsters" are to be either avoided at all costs or mocked to no end. Granted, for some, the definition of "hipster" can be highly subjective. A frat boy, business executive or sheltered housewife might deem someone like Ashlee Simpson, John Mayer or American Idol winner David Cook a hipster because they wear vests and always look vaguely bored. But they're not hipsters. They're just variations on your garden-variety tool.
So what is a hipster? Hipsters have pet ferrets named Bo Diddley. Hipsters shun cell phones and shower once a month. Hipsters drink absynthe, lounge on antique furniture in Hammer pants and brag to their friends about kinky sex they're not actually having. (This being said, some think it's more hipster to not have friends or sex.) For a night out on the town, they adopt the aesthetic of mimes or early-'90s WB sitcom characters.
They rarely smile, smell like attics and consistently order the weirdest thing they can find on the menu (Tripe hash with two sides of guava compote, anyone?) as a means of screaming "That's right, I went there!" They pretend to care that books they've bought and haven't read are first editions. In essence, they're giant posers who fight hedonism and life's simple pleasures at all costs. They take pride in their raging, relentless, all-encompassing subversiveness because they have no sense of self and fear that joy might render them mainstream and boring. Call me judgmental, but this is the sense I've gotten, having spent copious amounts of time in the presence of hipster folk in cities from coast to coast.
We all know that real hipsters will never admit to being hipsters and loathe the word. And whenever my friends and I start ragging on them, a nerve is inevitably touched; and then we'll spend the rest of the night chugging tequila (or doing something comparably antithetical to hipsterdom) and loudly complaining about the MGMT song on the jukebox to compensate (when we all secretly love it).
Here's my problem: I am gay, yes, which I concur is vaguely hipster. But I also wear push-up bras and stilettos and schlep a gold lamé hangbag to Dallas BBQ chain restaurants, Radio City Music Hall and WNBA games.
I don't have asymmetrical bangs or lines shaved into the side of my head. I'm not all that tattooed or pierced and don’t find Drew Barrymore to be even remotely corny or annoying. I like Usher and Chris Brown and movies about underdog sports teams who come back in the end to win the big game. I earnestly sing James Taylor or Paula Cole when sitting around a campfire. I like having sex with my girlfriend and not incorporating parental play while doing so. I like comedy clubs and dogs and coffee shops with baristas who don't give me attitude. I like Hot Pockets, I like Hawaiian Punch, I like people and books and films that are upbeat and accessible, and I like liking my life. But I, and many of my queer friends, can't relate to pop culture's status quo on most tips. So, where does that leave us? As derelicts of sorts, I suppose. Which, truth be told, is pretty hipster in and of itself. Damn it.
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31 Comments
at 21, i think i might have
at 21, i think i might have been one. although it was 1995 and i'm not sure if the word was used to describe my friends and i at the time. too cool for school, indie-rock-art-school-pot-smoking-imported-beer-swilling geeks. At 34, I couldn't care less about being cool, or not being cool, or being anything other than happy with myself and my friends. I don't care if the music I like is dorky, and I don't do anything to be "ironic" anymore. I'm so glad I'm over all of that. The only thing worse than a hipster is an AGING hipster. I do still like the imported beer and indie rock though ;-)
Hipster Bingo!
At our little neighborhood pub we used to play hipster bingo. Anytime someone walked in they fit a type of hipster that was pictured on the card. It was hysterical. We could fill a board in about 5 or 10 minutes. Then it just became a drinking game. Good thing we could walk home!
Hipsters
Hipster Summer Olympics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAO4EVMlpwM
Hipster Winter Olympics:
http://www.youtube.com/P0YKPAC
I don't really have an opinion on hipsters. Anyone who is polite and respectful are OK in my book, I don't really mind how they dress or what music they listen to. I actually listen to a lot of admittedly hipster music (LOVE MGMT) and yet I'm going to a Maroon 5/Counting Crows concert this week. But those youtube videos are pretty funny... I love American Apparel instant replays.
P.S. I was seriously worried that you quit writing blogs on ourchart, or that you were horribly mangled in a hotdog-vendor-cart accident. Glad to know you're A-OK Miss Katie!
not mangled
was just on vacay and being lazy. you look so much like chloe sevigny it's perverted. now i'm going to watch those links.
i feel enlightened. My
i feel enlightened. My vocabulary is now several words larger. But most importantly, I now know what a hipster is. And I think my best friend is one...*shrugs* Oh well.
i thought hipsters were a type of jean
and underwear, and any other kind of clothing you wear from hip.
i have no idea what you are talking about.
How embarassing
Ahahaha
I too thought that this blog was going to be about hipster jeans and uuderwear :">
the good news is
if you have no idea what i'm talking about then you most definitely aren't one, which is a good thing.
wrongo placo - please
wrongo placo - please ignore.
dallas bbq?
uh, obviously not a dallas area chain.. never heard of it .. and i'm in dallas.
must suck. don't eat it.
hey
don't knock it till you try it. it's like fast-food bbq, d-grade meat slathered in terrible sauce with the consistency of glue that you hardly taste cuz you're so drunk off the bucket-sized neon blue margarita you just drank with an umbrella in it. then you stumble home with your pants unbuttoned and just feel psyched about the world for no real reason (then you drunk text your exes and regret it in the morning but whatevs).
hmm
sounds enticing. what a sales pitch.
Although I happen to have
Although I happen to have some hipster-ish qualities (my shopping sprees at the Thank You Mart, my affinity for folk musik and lack of rhythm), I think being a hipster is all about the attitude you convey in a social setting, as opposed to your music taste and style.
I find the hipsters in LA are all English majors who only talk amongst themselves, listen to bands until they play venues they consider to be too big (the Troub), take too many drugs, and move to NYC after they graduate.
Sorry Katie, looks like the hipster thing to do these days in LA is move back East (my condolences to you and the rest of the city).
hipsters...
...are just rich kids who want to look and act like they are bohos. the real starving artists are the ones who take pride in what they do and who they are. Hipsters are the ones who sleep on their buds couches (in brooklyn) and think its cool when in fact they have a loft somewhere on the Upper East Side (obviously mommy and daddy bought).
So much to learn
I had no idea about this phenomenon called "hipster." But I can tell I'm not one. I need to go google "Hammer pants" now. So much to learn.
Katie, I need some Dallas BBQ takeout.
oh Minn
you are the hip in hipster.
xo
I dated a hipster once
by accident, of course, and I have to say she was probably the most annoying, pretentious and annoyingly pretentious girl I had ever met. I thought she was cool at first but when I realized she spent most of her energy making fun of anyone that wasn't into the overly obnoxious underground indie music that she worshipped, I started to realize how lame she was (hence her "ex" status).
I think 'Hipster' can be loosely defined as anyone with the attitude "I'm too cool for...anything that I don't think is cool". These people really exist, mostly in cities, and they could use some help in the haircut department and not be allowed to wear acid-washed black jeans that are 6 sizes too small. I just feel bad for them, is all.
www.Lesbiatopia.com
oh my.
the kids who listen to underground indie music that they're not willing to tell anyone else about because they're afraid they may become mainstream or something... those kids are the worst! and they think their music is better than everybody elses'.
i know far too many scene kids.. :/
and my sister tells me in her high school, practically all the freshman are scene kids, aka, clones.
oh, the world these days and the want to fit into society.
perhaps it's a shame...
that scene kids are so attractive. ha. :)
perhaps it's a shame...
that scene kids are so attractive. ha.
yay, youre back! I was
yay, youre back! I was worrying I would not see anymore or your blogs. you are my favorite writer on oc and I cant say I would visit as often if your blogs went away.
I have prepared myself to get razzed for being a kiss ass and slightly sappy, but its proper to occasionally reinforce a writer when you are a fan, is it not?
Not the only one
I was worried, too. I was so happy when I came on today to see this blog.
Btw, LOVE your pic! Hmm...is Tank Girl love hipster-ish?
hmmm... do you think being
hmmm... do you think being a k.l. fan is hipster?
perhaps tg was hipster in
perhaps tg was hipster in the 90's. would she classify now? Im not sure. I guess we will know for sure if combat boots make a big comeback in the fall. it probably wont be black ones this time around. I am going to guess the desert boots will be the hipster instead.
Puss in Boots
Only if they spent $500 dollars on them at the mall but tell everyone that they found them in their grandma's attic.
Or if being gay is on the hipster side...rainbow combat boots? Would those be army regulation? Someone should tell Bush that the pot at the end of the rainbow has weapons of mass destruction. Intelligence said.
So not hip.
I'm really not. I'm quite un-hip. My mother buys the majority of my clothes (because I really hate to shop unless I'm in London). And I usually don't care for fashion and whatnot. And I stopped reading this column half way because I started seeing 'hipster' too much. The first person who thinks they're not a sheep, say 'Baa'.
There is a book called
There is a book called Nation of Rebels that critiques this problem. The fact of the matter is that being an anti-consumer, you're really being the ultimate consumer. Everyone is on the quest to differentiate themselves from everyone else, thus hipsters are only driving consumerism. That being said, I know I have some hipster tendencies myself, but I recognize them and have been trying to shake them for years. Good article. I love counter-culture critique.
You go Katie!!
You just keep marching to your own drum in those stilettos and your push up bra!!
ah, boxes (not those
ah, boxes (not those boxes... that would be aha! boxes... but i digress)
it's funny, as soon as there is something into which one is meant to neatly fit, there are obvious and clearly important ways in which we do not. i mean, we are all part of "the masses"... but really? which dyke is really part of the masses? i know a few who could pass on first inspection... but with a closer look (the kind that might reveal sexual preference or taste for exotic wines or music or art or whatever)... many people find themselves outside of those boxes... those narrow ill-fitting boxes into which we only shove people we don't really know well enough.
we live in an individualist society where people want to identify as singular individuals, while at the same time, being social animals, we still want to fit in - somewhere. i think this is where the tension comes from... we want to be unique but not TOO unique ifyouknowwhatimean.
i thought this being a sex column, the word "hipster" would have to do with praising low-slung underpants or something. but yeah, i live in hipster-ville, montreal, and am probably part of the pack, if it wasn't for just a few small things.... so yay hipsters, or not, depending on the day.
Part of the pack,
but not packed in a box?
No shame,
Taem?
oh, i'll take packed in a
oh, i'll take packed in a box any day ;)