In high school the lines of genre personalties were quite defined. People can remember off hand which one they possibly belonged in, for instance perhaps you're a former jock, a former band geek, a former fencer, or even a former student journalist. The key here is the term “former.” People could not consider themselves any of these because it lacks the proper setting and environment: high school. Those persona's graduate with an individual and change post high school.
Once an individual enters the post high school years his or her persona has the very real capacity to morph and shift in ways that would not have been so in high school. Jocks can turn into frat guys, band geeks turn into cool members of marching bands, fencers can turn into Olympic athletes and student journalists... well, I suppose that continues. In some cases these people may fit into a certain persona but are not advocates of a certain lifestyle (excluding the frat guy). There are cliques, but they are less defined and the barriers of entry into a group are very porous. You want to be a frat guy in college, go ahead! You want to be involved in PETA, go ahead! These qualities and backgrounds of people also graduate with a college degree or passage of time.
There are some who pay attention to the persona they emulate and meticulously edit and photoshop the perception others have of them. There exists a subculture of post-modern contemporaries known as hipsters (if you're a hipster and want to sound cool call yourself a PMC). Now it is important to suspend all prior notions and bias against the hipster. It is agreeable that making fun of one is amusing, but this remains to be a harsh and empirical analysis on the
cultural anthropology of the “Hipster.”
The following will be an attempt to garner some sort of stable and thought worthy conclusion about the components and tenets of the post-modern contemporaries. It will cover the history, emergence, behavior systems and fashion sense of these individuals.
What exactly is a hipster? It is a broad noun that covers multiple groups and sub-groups. Hopefully the general description will be accurate, and if not changes will promptly be made. There have been little studies into the subculture of hipsterdom. It has served as an obstacle to being taken seriously. In 2003 Robert Lanham of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, wrote a book called “The Hipster Handbook.” It was then when the term became more popular in the modern sense. Obviously being “hip,” is nothing new. In the 1940's one who was hip to the jazz times was known as a “hipster.” The hipster of 1940's is far different from the ones of 2012, much like how the Indians of the American continent are different than the ones from India. It should be treated as such.
In a piece for the Huffington Post, Julia Plevin said “the definition of "hipster" remains opaque to anyone outside this self-proclaiming, highly-selective circle. I'm sure the hipsters like it that way.” It seems the definition is indeed opaque, but if one were to see a hipster one would know. There are many who exist in the subculture of hipsterism, but some constants include the embrace of skinny jeans, tight shirts and always, always cool sunglasses. Is there anything here in the aesthetic than can have any derived meaning? Probably not. One would next notice endorsement of counter-culture as a whole, which makes the meaning of the word “cool,” remarkably confusing. It's application is used in great caution of the hipster and is central to the total idea of the hipster persona. Knowing what's cool means the world. Here lies the central constant among all hipsters: if something is deemed cool by a majority of individuals it is then not cool among hipsters. Expression of self is something that is cool because the vast majority of people are very reserved in dress and mind. There is nothing that is overstimulating about the average person. As such the hipster needs to express his or her self in a way that is uniquely their own. The question here is “why.” Hipsterdom is above all else a response to something, as emerging sub-cultures often are. In the '60's counter-culture was the hippie movement (this is different from being a hipster), in the '80's some people embraced the role of being a “yuppie,” or a “young upcoming professional.” These responses were large and could be seen in social settings. Hipsters are responding to a world full of supposed blandness and plain aesthetics, however, this response is full of hypocrisy, and hey, that's okay.
A theme in hipsterdom is the tattoo. Ink is something that can set oneself apart from others. Hipsters don't get regular tattoo's though, some of them are really ironic and witty. Irony is a big thing in the subculture. A textbook definition of irony is “the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning,” yet there is no real way to describe irony in a way that satisfied. All one can do is give examples into instances of irony, like how Germany lost two very costly world wars and conquered Europe in 2012 by means of capitalism and finance (without bloodshed), that is ironic. The embrace of irony stems from an umbrella like system where wit is king. Irony is a tool of wit, and one who exercises this wit will never openly say something is ironic, they will merely suggest the notion. It's not cool to call something ironic, but rather cooler to know it. Tattoo's are part of this cultural embrace of irony. An example of hipster tattoo irony would be the finger mustache, in that a hipster will get a tattoo of a mustache on his or her index finger, and display this mark in ironic photos by holding it to the upper lip.
The shirt a hipster wears also varies. On men a sleeveless shirt with each side of the torso fully cut is popular. It ends up that a third of the fabric needs to be removed in order for the shirt to be in style. Also the witty graphic on the shirt is often appropriate. Instances of witty shirts would be located on www.BustedTees.com where “Binford Tools,” is a popular graphic as well as “Don't Tase Me Bro.” The size of said shirt needs to be tight, and not in a way that extenuate muscles, because the majority of male hipsters have a very, very lean body, not muscle lean, but more cartilage pasty lean, sickly child lean. The end of the shirt is supposed to reach only the beginning of the belt line, in order to display the belt. It is important to wear this because it is a method of displaying one's hipster persona, and how witty they are.
The cyclical nature of the trend is what the hipster thrives on. Trendiness is something that is crucial in identifying as a hipster, as it is hip to be trendy. Indeed it is, and as such the moment something trendy seeps into the larger culture of hipsterdom then it immediately loses its trend belt and becomes very uncool (which is why tattoo's are sort of a problem, y'know?). As soon as something new and cutting edge is brought upon the hipster then it's embrace begins. The incubation period is very sporadic. In the case of road bikes the trend is only increasing, and it is unlikely that trend will go out of style, yet the moment a huge corporation gets word of something hip then it loses stature among the “real” hipsters. Urban Outfitters and American Apparel are very involved in marketing hipster chic. Once they begin selling random products related to hipster chic strands of hypocrisy begin to seep in and the identification of hipsters becomes very, very confusing. If one shops at these stores then he or she is on the down slope of a popular trend. They are willing to buy jeans at exorbitant prices to emulate the hipsters who buy the same jeans and shirts from Goodwill. This component is another issue among the mainstream, because what is cool yesterday is really stupid the next, and trend-setting hipsters are the ones who regulate this nonsense. There will not be a stop to this trend cycle, and as such it fuels the evolutionary character of hipsterdom. Examples of the early common evolutionary ancestor would be those kids who were known as “Emo,” in the middle of the prior decade. Dead trends include Von Dutch hats, studded belts, My Chemical Romance and a warehouses full of eyeliner. When this persona was finally identified, the mainstream (at least from this writers personal high school experience) laughed off at the ridiculous nature of the Emo crowd. Those kids graduated, and along with that so did their persona's.
The future of these individuals is uncertain. Perhaps the kryptonite that exists in hipsterdom is that it may become trendy not to be a hipster, and as such a ubiquitous and total shedding of unique individualism will occur and be replaced with a bland and monotonous aesthetic persona.
The central conclusion can include many factors but one is for sure: if the majority of people adopt a persona that encourages individual expression and uniqueness then to conform would be to be unique and not being unique would be a non-conforming aspect. Wal-Mart and Gap clothing will be the minority and as such, it will be cooler to be in that crowd (by way of hipster logic). If everyone is unique then everyone is in effect the same in that each person is different... like them. Very confusing, I know, but the mental exercise will reveal the idiocy of the formula. In the end, if this proposed conclusion is correct, then it would be really ironic, and I'm not saying it is, I'm just saying you might know it is.
No comments:
Post a Comment