During my time at Carleton I have taken notice to a semi-phenomenon: the popularization of hipster culture. Trends come and go, but this one is particularly feeble, exemplified in the fact that New York Magazine reported that the hipster was dead— two years ago. Even more concerning about this trend is that it seems to emphasize inequality and righteousness strictly through appearance. So what exactly is a hipster? In my opinion, a hipster is someone who is all style and no substance. They are driven by the ‘cool-factor’ and, like many of the people they claim to avoid, superficial acceptance by others.
“I have felt a little embarrassment or have been slightly offended before,” says vice-president of Carleton’s Visual Arts Society and third-year student Daniela Molinari. To Molinari, a hipster is someone who “has a silly mustache,” “looks ridiculous and seems pretty unnecessary.” Molinari’s impression seems to complement my idea that hipsters try to achieve a cultural status through surface, and outright impractical, means.
If that is true, then why do so many students bash hipsters, yet seem to feel intimidated or take this culture seriously? Breaking down what hipsters appear to stand for, their ‘acquired status’ becomes quite naïve, especially when looking at Elise Thompson’s assessment of hipsters in “Why Does Everyone Hate Hipster Assholes?” In her article, she stated that they are “soldiers of fortune of style” who will only accept what is popular and in style, “appropriat[ing] the style[s]” of past countercultural movements, while “discard[ing] everything that the style stood for.” What Thompson is saying is that at their cultural core, hipsters are inauthentic and superficial, as they are concerned with what is ‘cool’ just as much as any ‘mainstream’ folk.
Individuality should be what it is defined as, something that distinguishes someone from another. Huffington Post writer Julia Plevin seemed to accurately sum up the hypocrisy of hipster culture when she stated that the “whole point of hipsters is that they avoid labels and being labeled. However, they all dress the same and act the same and conform in their non-conformity.”
An alarming amount of youth seem to think that individuality can be accessed through an image already set in place years ago. Students are buying into the scraped up leftovers from the original hipster movement of the early 2000’s, and fully believe that they are distancing themselves from a mainstream image. Students are taking codes from culture by the book, instead of adding their own interpretation. What they should be doing is discovering what truly represents them and their interests, and correlating that into their own likeness, regardless of what image they are ‘supposed’ to project in relation to their passions.
No person or culture should dictate how you think you should look and feel. So go ahead, wear what you love and feel passion for what motivates you; for nothing differentiates you more than being true to yourself.
— Katarina Protsack,
third-year communications
