What exactly is a hipster?

[guywithashovel]

I can understand wanting to support local businesses. What I can't understand, is how some hipsters bitch and moan about 'corporations,' yet will gladly buy things from corporations that are *not* local. In other words, they'll bitch and moan about how "Giant Eagle sucks," yet they love stores like Whole Foods...which happens to be not only a corporation...but not one that's local! What the fuck is up with that?

Oh yeah, it's good to support local businesses. However, I don't think that should also mean snubbing other businesses or even corporations if they give a good product or service. After all, many small local businesses end up growing into franchises, corporations, etc. And that's good. It means they are making products that people like.

I think that when hipsters like corporations like Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, they do it out of irony. Apparently, when you're a hipster, you hate corporations, but you can still like a few just to be "ironic."

I don't get it, either.

[Silverharp]

I think that when hipsters like corporations like Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, they do it out of irony. Apparently, when you're a hipster, you hate corporations, but you can still like a few just to be "ironic."

I don't get it, either.

And there's the meat of it.
they claim to do everything in an "ironic" fashion without even knowing what irony even is.

Giving up violence and selling your gun to only be mugged later by a guy who bought said gun second hand = irony

Wearing thick rimmed 50's style glasses with non prescription or no lenses, or grown men who wear hello kitty backbacks? Makes you look like a tool.

[Andara Bledin]

Wearing thick rimmed 50's style glasses with non prescription or no lenses, or grown men who wear hello kitty backbacks? Makes you look like a tool.

No argument on the first, but as for the second, I know some guys who actually like Hello Kitty because they like Hello Kitty.

^-.-^

[Silverharp]

No argument on the first, but as for the second, I know some guys who actually like Hello Kitty because they like Hello Kitty.

^-.-^

I'll amend then
Grown men who wear Hello Kitty (or other trends mainly associated with young girls) apparel in the cause of "irony" = tool

Better?

[Andara Bledin]

Better?

Much.

Honestly, anyone who chooses to wear anything for reasons other than they actually want to is a tool, whether what they're doing is following some trend or some anti-trend (like reverse racism, it's the same thing).

I used to know a guy (until he defriended me because I wouldn't put up with his emo hipster bullshit, anyway) that only liked indie music and shitty movies. He had to have been tone-deaf, 'cause some of the stuff he linked me to was off-key to the point of being painful. I'd ask him why he liked stuff, and he'd tell me it was 'cause it was different. Yeah, I guess off-key music is likely to be outside of the mainstream, where people generally expect the singers to be capable of actually singing or at least faking it really well.

^-.-^

[mikoyan29]

And there's the meat of it.
they claim to do everything in an "ironic" fashion without even knowing what irony even is.

Giving up violence and selling your gun to only be mugged later by a guy who bought said gun second hand = irony

Wearing thick rimmed 50's style glasses with non prescription or no lenses, or grown men who wear hello kitty backbacks? Makes you look like a tool.

Sounds like Elvis Costello to me...

[protege]

Wearing thick rimmed 50's style glasses with non prescription or no lenses, or grown men who wear hello kitty backbacks? Makes you look like a tool.

Hehe more irony! Those tools all wear that crap to be "different" or "unconforming." Why then, do such tools all look the same?

[Skunkle]

Simply put, being a hipster is entirely about the image. It's about, "Look how local I am. See how different I am?" It's about "Stick it to the big, bad corporations!" but in image only.

Hipsters will often, though not always, still buy from wherever they want to, as long as they uphold the IMAGE that they don't.

The "irony" thing is simply a way to hide one's true interests from (some) others; if you like Hello Kitty, for example, because you think it's really cute and sweet, but you fear being mocked for your interest, claiming you only like it in an ironic way is an intended cover-up. More than likely, this is mainly for non-hipsters. I have a feeling most hipsters take this as a code word for, "I really, genuinely enjoy [thing, person, band, movie, etc.] but most average joes will probably mock you for it - to borrow a Fratching thread title, 'You watch THAT? But it's a kids' show!' so, by claiming you like it ironically, you can try to minimize damage.

Most hipster trends are annoying to me. Claiming to enjoy things only because few others do is stupid if you don't actually enjoy whatever it is. Dropping them when they become popular only because they're popular, even if you enjoy them, is stupid. Buying locally and avoiding feeding the corporate engine is great if you actually are dedicated to it. But that last thing, the irony bit?

...I gotta give it to them on that one. Few other people have found a way to openly enjoy certain things without opening oneself to mockery and teasing. Guys I know tell me to stop doing this, using that, or the like, because "You're not nine! Grow up!" or "That's for girls, man up!"

[Andara Bledin]

Few other people have found a way to openly enjoy certain things without opening oneself to mockery and teasing. Guys I know tell me to stop doing this, using that, or the like, because "You're not nine! Grow up!" or "That's for girls, man up!"

You know what? Anyone who judges what I like can piss off and go like something else.

There's an awful lot of freedom when you don't give a shit if others think you're silly for liking what you like.

^-.-^

[jackfaire]

Yup they can tell me how they don't respect me as a fan because I didn't hear about a band until after the second album all they want but screw them.

Amusingly I got to turn that around on them with The Academy is once.

I was flirting with a girl and asked her to show me some music and was handed their first Album 2 weeks after it hit the shelves and some of my hipster friends didn't hear about it for a long time.

[Racket_Man]

I am not sure what the "real" defineation of a "hipster" is BUT I am not it though I have been accused of it a couple of times here on Fratching. and I do not do things in or for "ironic fashion". I am not a loco-vore (though I do patronize local businesses because they are better than the "corp. type' stores), nor do I seek out obscure stuff (music, movies, etc.) to latch on to and defend, nor do I have a particular style of dress, speech, hairstyle, or lingo just because it is "cool" right now.

I like what I like and do what I do not for the sake of being different but because it is who I am.

as someone stated in a thread about a year ago:

Hipster-believer in the creed that "everything old and belonging to an era is cool, but only when worn/eaten/done in an ironic fashion."

me wanting to do certain things is not me being a snob or "hipster" it is ME. I do not put people down or harass them for liking things I do not or bugging them to "get with the program" for whatever thing ie. music, shops and stores, being green, etc.

[blas87]

The hipster I used to work with contradicted his own beliefs by being an avid sports fan, because hipsters dontcha know are supposed to hate sports. Those are overrated, overpaid celebrities!

I couldn't take him seriously because he's an upper middle class kid on a free ride to college and he chooses to look and act homeless and despondent as a "lifestyle choice".

Just as I can't take a lot of celebrities on the OW case seriously. Russell Brand and Susan Sarandon protesting alongside us downtroden poor folk? Please.

[Gravekeeper]

Far as I've observed, a hipster is someone who thinks they're a non-comformist by dressing exactly like their mom did at their age then making passive aggressive remarks over their latte at other people's tastes. -.-

[BlaqueKatt]

Far as I've observed, a hipster is someone who thinks they're a non-comformist by dressing exactly like their mom did at their age then making passive aggressive remarks over their latte at other people's tastes. -.-

around here the latte is usually from starbucks*, and they're posting remarks while sitting in the starbucks window making sure everyone sees the apple logo on their macbook air.....because they're not sheep dammit!


*which is sad, because we have one street that houses around 10 local, independent coffee shops....and one starbucks....guess which one is packed with hipsters? and I don't think it's intentional irony....

[blas87]

We have quite a few local coffee shops around here, mostly catering to the musician/broke college kid types, so that's the hipster hangouts. Quite frankly, I avoid those places because they wreek of people who don't bathe or believe in deoderant, it seems. Kind of a shame, because the best hoagies come from those, and only those, places.

That and Starbucks prices are more reasonable than the guitar cafe.