Why do we hate hipsters when they don't even exist?
Are you a hipster? Do you personally know anyone who labels themself a hipster? Do you know of any real person who accepts this label for themselves? I thought not. Why do we feel the need to invent a category of people to dislike, especially when the supposed misdeeds of these non-existent people aren’t even all that serious?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
45 Answers
This was the same problem that existed in the 70s. Only then, they were called Hippies.
I was never a hippie. But, I did enjoy the music of that era and most of it was aimed toward the drug cult. Songs like Cocaine and Draggin A Line were some of their favorite songs.
I don’t identify as a hipster. Others have identified me as such. Others do identify as hipsters, I can find them for you if I needed to. I don’t attach a negative to the word.
They’re not called hipsters, they’re called dickheads.
And they’re definitely real.
“We” do not hate hipsters. As an identified subculture, it is subject to parody and attack by those who are envious or befuddled.
Meh…just more labels for those that feel the need to stand out as unique.
I agree with @john65pennington.
I’d call myself more of a hippie, ( actually, I prefer the term bohemian ) but, there is no label invented that can encompass the totality of any person.
My association with “Hippie” means a free spirited, artistic, back to nature, simple living type of personality that embraces healthy non-conformist views, a great love of the natural world and a desire for peaceful living, not a bong smoking, barefoot, Grateful Dead groupie blowing pot smoke in the face of their naked children. lol
Labels can nail down SOME traits of lifestyle and belief systems but they, in no way, paint a one size fits all picture.
From what I can figure, hipsters are the cutting edge of trendy who disdain the trends the second they hit mainstream. Hipsters can be identified by their bored expressions and the call “Oh them.” ::sniff:: “I was into them before they sold out.”
People who buy into hipster trends once they’re available in the mall are called “posers”.
Hipsters are totally different from hippies for me. Hipsters are into the music scene. They know where the best new music is and they are always on top of it. They know the best new clubs and all the other stuff that is cutting edge long before the general public even hears of it.
I think people don’t like them because they are jealous. Most people want to be where all the cool people are and do the stuff that no one else is doing and hear the music before anyone else knows it exists. But most of us are not cool enough or in enough to be hooked up to these scenes.
Hold on, let me pull out my high school yearbook and tally up how many hipsters there were…. Eh screw it, let’s just say roughly 500 out of 2,000. They’re annoying as hell when it comes to music, looking down on you for not keeping up with the top 40
You’re right, it is often a term of abuse. However, that doesn’t mean hipsters don’t exist. They seem to exist largely in certain places, Williamsburg, NYC being the biggest one. I live near the “hipster” part of town in my city.
Why do they get so much dislike? Because they’re so showy and needy. Because it’s annoying to constantly be told that you couldn’t possibly have heard of that band before they were cool, only they have that particular superpower. Because the entire point of the hipster is to say that they are hipper than thou, and then all the people who are “thou” feel pissed at being told they are inferior. Basically, they’re kinda assholes. Though, apparently, it’s no longer fun to make fun of hipsters…
I’m going off the incarnation of hipster that appears in The Hipster Handbook and The Burg, not hippies or beatniks or whatever.
I don’t hate hipsters, but they do exist.
They don’t exist? That’s freaking AWESOME!!!
Now I can have the category all to myself and be the only one.
There’s a words vs. things issue here. Is the category of “hipster” a real one, i.e., is there some definable set of characteristics that attaches to that, and does anybody have those characteristics? But even if there are such people, what do they call themselves? Even if there is a real category, people in that category may not call themselves hipsters, if “hipster” is a pejorative term.
The Beats were a real category of people, and I think Kerouac and Ginsburg et al. recognized they they belonged to some sort of literary or cultural movement or however we want to classify it, but they did not like the label “beatnik”.
Thanks for your answers and links. @Aethelflaed your link says what I was trying to get at with greater perspicacity. I saw the episode of Happy Endings they refer to. It was so heavy handed that it partly inspired this post. The folks at Portlandia did a much better job without even using the word hipster.
Our own Fiddle has labeled himself a Hillbilly Hipster.
Hey! I was into banjo music before it was cool.
@CugelTheClueless I personally wouldn’t look to Happy Endings for any kind of striking insight into culture or people. Portlandia, on the other hand, hells yes. Feminist bookstore is pretty much the most awesome thing ever. If “ever” meant “today, possibly this week”.
I’m so cool I can still be into stuff that used to be cool and people think it’s cool.
I live in Hollywood, California, the birth and land of hipsters…. they DO exist. Believe me, I’ve seen them. There’s a lot of artsy little coffee shops and that’s where a lot of them hang out.
I’m friends with some hipsters but I’m not into the fashion, but that’s more of a personal preference. In Hollywood one thing I noticed about hipsters here is that most of them ride bikes (don’t drive), and all the guys are growing beards or dali-like mustaches :)
I like the lumberjack beards though. Not into the fashion of guys wearing dinosaur t-shirts. But that’s again, just a personal preference when it comes to what I think is sexy.
We have a lot of hipsters here. The only people that really hate hipsters are Hipsters.
My nephew is a hipster- he has a porkpie hat, rides a fixie and wears longish plaid shorts and has a bike messenger bag. He says he is not a hipster, he just likes being comfortable and the bike gives him a good workout.
If you are ever in Oakland CA, go to the Blue Bottle Coffee roasting plant for a cup of coffee. I was afraid they wouldn’t serve me because I am not a hipster (I am an Old.)
Hollywood, California and San Francisco, California…. the birth and land of the Hipsters :)
If nothing else, hipster seems to exist as a marketing strategy. I once read something about hipsters which mentioned “ironic beer choices” and “ironic facial hair”. I had no idea how beer or facial hair could be ironic (though I see how they could be used to strike a pose), but then a bar opened up in Grand Rapids (that great center of hipness, haha) that seemed to be aimed at this demographic. They have classic arcade games and other touches, including serving certain drinks in jelly jars, and bottles of Mickey’s Big Mouth or Colt 45 in little paper bags. Ok, now I see how beer can be ironic, but I still don’t get how facial hair can be ironic.
Here I was thinking hating on hipsters was so, like, 2009, but @Aethelflaed‘s link tells me, as if! It goes back to at least 2006.
@rooeytoo You’re retro-hip.
Every generation has these people. Hippies and posers (Zappa: “Is that a real poncho or is that a Sears poncho?”), Pop-artistes and posers, Punks and posers, Valley girls and posers, Yuppies and posers, Goths and posers, Emo and (well, who the hell would pose as emo?)
@Blueroses I think the hatred of emos is basically that they’re goth posers.
I spent a lot of time in Harvard Square (Cambridge, MA) circa 1983–1986. It seems to me it was teaming with what we now describe as “hipsters”.
Looking over at my nine-year old daughter, she is bedecked with peace symbols and tie-dye, made popular in the 1960s. Is she a hippie?
I’m pretty sure these labels are invented in an effort to market a lifestyle (current or nostalgic or Disney-fied) and sell a boatload of related merchandise.
WE do? I never even heard of them. I thought you were talking about the 1960’s hippies, and I am one.
Maybe they don’t exist because “we hate them”...
@cprevite
“Looking over at my nine-year old daughter, she is bedecked with peace symbols and tie-dye, made popular in the 1960s. Is she a hippie?”
Has your daughter ever met a hippie who went to San Francisco during the Summer of Love in 1967? ;-)
@Earthgirl I’ll one-up you… I was into Telluride Bluegrass Festival before it was cool. :D
@Blackberry – I will never move or go to Portland for any reason, on purpose.
@YARNLADY I never even heard of them.
Consider yourself very lucky.
Blueroses Are you trying to say you are more uncool than I am? Huh,huh?? I hate to even admit all the nerdy things I am into. But wait…...isn’t nerdiness cool now?......I’m so confused
It’s just hard to take them seriously when they’re all trying so hard to be unique—in the same exact way.
Being a bit OCD myself, they also make me want to break out a pair of scissors and even out their haircuts.
There’s no point in being cool or uncool any more. Sooner or later, whatever you are will end up being cool for fifteen minutes. Just make sure you keep a sharp eye out so that you can enjoy being cool for those fifteen minutes. I missed mine, but that’s ok. I can relax into not worrying about being cool.
My pants fall off honestly, kids. My stomach is too big for a belt to keep them up. It’s time to go to suspenders, I think. Were suspenders ever cool? I hope so. I’d hate to start doing something that had a chance of becoming cool. That would be so uncool.
The thing is that they do exist.
I’m so glad I’m not in high school anymore.
Re. the guys in @partyrock‘s link: the one on the right might actually be a sailor. I’ve observed that tall ship sailors are often hipsters, while yacht-club sailors are more likely to be fratboy/jock types. The tall ship sailors also tend to be into nautical traditions, so even if they aren’t hipsters they may have tattoos, earrings, and beards.
Answer this question 
Composing members:
0
