Narz
keeping it real
When I hear the word "hipster" I think of someone who is more concerned with image than substance or depth & more considered with what others think than who they are.
What is a hipster?
- Thread starter Dida
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Mr. Dictator
A Chain-Smoking Fox
I don't know if I'd say there's a perfect alignment there.
caketastydelish
Deity
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- Apr 12, 2008
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- 9,718
I would like you elaborate.
Mr. Dictator
A Chain-Smoking Fox
Many of the things on that website have been standard fare in white people for ages before the hipster was born. If the hipster possess those traits now, it's more likely from cultural inheritance.
Well I can give some examples of friends of mine who moved to New York after graduation from college, work as waiters and the like, have degrees in various liberal arts, live in neighborhoods that are 80+% minority for the low rents (no doubt annoying the inhabitants in the process), attend Occupy protests, wear tight jeans and scarves, care excessively about their image as interesting people despite being interesting enough not to worry about that, yada yada yada.
I love these people dearly, more so than most people I've met who are on a more "successful" track in life. However, they are hipsters, for better or for worse. I can't say I don't like hipsters, but I don't like the subculture. Not that it can be defined very well anyway.
I love these people dearly, more so than most people I've met who are on a more "successful" track in life. However, they are hipsters, for better or for worse. I can't say I don't like hipsters, but I don't like the subculture. Not that it can be defined very well anyway.
sophie
Break My Heart
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Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
Quackers
The Frog
^^ rofl TF.
Adding to what Lord Joakin said, I remember some guy who turned up to College with no shoes on and a bongo drum and the classic long braided hair. He would sit down anywhere and just start hitting this decrepid looking drum and sometimes singing. Now he is the very worst of teh worst
Adding to what Lord Joakin said, I remember some guy who turned up to College with no shoes on and a bongo drum and the classic long braided hair. He would sit down anywhere and just start hitting this decrepid looking drum and sometimes singing. Now he is the very worst of teh worst
Mr. Dictator
A Chain-Smoking Fox
^^ rofl TF.
Adding to what Lord Joakin said, I remember some guy who turned up to College with no shoes on and a bongo drum and the classic long braided hair. He would sit down anywhere and just start hitting this decrepid looking drum and sometimes singing. Now he is the very worst of teh worst
Not a hipster, but a hippie. Key difference being a greater sense of confusion as to when he is and less of a care of how he looks to other people.
I don't get why people are trying to argue that there's no way to really use hipster as a label, when it's clear what 'subculture' hipster labels, just like it's clear what a goth or emo or punk is. Just because you can't say that 'every' hipster likes so and so, it's not like you can say every goth likes so and so either, but you can still clearly say who's a hipster and a who's a goth/punk whatever label the subculture/society attaches to it. We label and generalize everything and it's never going to change, get over it.
Terxpahseyton
Nobody
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- Sep 9, 2006
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- 10,759
No one argues that. If I tell you that my vacuum cleaner is broken, I am not telling you that there is no way to have a functioning vacuum cleaner.
But it's not as if the term hipster is really vague or unclear, so it's not broken at all, it's very clear what a fixed vacuum is and what the hipster label identifies.
Just because almost everyone in downtown's cartoon was slightly different, all of them except the first two can be called hipsters, just like everyone who embrace several elements of the punk subculture, however different they are, or goth, etc. can easily fit under those labels. Now i'm not saying labels or generalizations are a good or bad thing, they just are what they are.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
No, that's exactly what it is. Hence the discussion.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
I don't follow; why does the fact that some labels have clear (if imprecise) meanings imply that any other label must have a clear meaning?
GrandAdmiral
Deity
Lol, he's not talking about nerds that need to wear glasses. You will see far more girls in Japan with gigantic frame clown like glasses, or large frame nerd like glasses without lenses than anywhere (although it's a really old trend there). I don't know where the trend originated, but I first saw it in Japan a long time ago, and then it spread to Korea, Hong Kong, etc. It has absolutely nothing to do with function.
In fact, most of the hipster trends remind me of how poor college students in Japan dressed in the 90s.
Not saying it does, but I don't follow why some people find the hipster label somehow one with less of a clear meaning than any of those others. As you say, obviously all of the labels are imprecise and really don't speak to the character of the individual on anything more than a superficial basis, but as easily as one can put that label on any of those, one can easily attach the hipster label as well.
Everyone in this thread besides yourself actually has pointed out what they label a hipster and they all correlate, just as if everyone was talking about what a goth was. The hipster label has as clear a meaning as those others and frankly I don't see how one can't see that.
GrandAdmiral
Deity
I've seen the term the used to describe just about every type of street fashion, or to describe anyone who shops at Urban Outfitter. Furthermore, using the most narrow definition of hipster brings up a style that is generic enough that you can't really identify if someone is a hipster or a student from Taiwan. To make matters worse nobody chooses to identify themselves as a hipster, so there is no authority in the matter. I would say the term is vague. It's more likely to be used as an insult than a clear definition of a subculture.
