Every now and then I run across an image, video, article, blog, or overhear a comment regarding hipsters. It’s usually negative, commenting on the absurd or ridiculousness nature of their attire and attitudes. Often times I am able to laugh with the jokes and laugh with my hipsters friends at these jokes and quite frankly laugh at myself, because even though I don’t dress “hipster,” my mindset and attitude is very much that of a “hipster,” or at least I think so.

Admittedly, one of the reasons I am writing this is because, I am little sore about the stereotypes that are passed around about hipsters.

A friend of mine, Jessica, posted this image on her blog recently:

I don’t think the image is wrong, but I think it makes it easier for people who like to rip on hipsters to rip on us/them more. Considering I can only assume based on how it’s written, was written by a hipster, so logically, people who rip on hipsters are going to read this and be like “Oh, I must right in thinking I can rip on hipsters because they’re ripping on themselves, I get a free pass.” Complaining and being somewhat angry that this image was created is stupid and a waste of time, especially when looking upon the evidence of other sub-cultures where people’s perceptions towards them haven’t changed. Hippies, punks, beatniks, and flappers are still made fun of pretty heavily to this day. Me talking about my animosity towards the image is going to do nothing towards the social perception towards this culture.

However, having said that, I think it’s important to point out that what the beatniks were to the fifties, hippies were to the sixties and seventies, flappers to the twenties, and punks to the eighties…hipsters were to the aughties. It’s a sub-culture composed of people who defied convention and conformity to ideas that are commonly upheld by most.

Lets look at some facts…

The hippie culture

• gave unmarried couples of all ages the freedom to travel and live together without societal disapproval
• expanded rights to homosexual, bisexual and transsexual people
• enabled for greater acceptance for religious and cultural diversity
• enabled for co-operative business enterprises and creative community living arrangements to be more accepted
• health food stores of the 60’s and 70’s are now large-scale, profitable businesses, due to greater interest in natural foods, herbal remedies, vitamins and other nutritional supplements
• broadened the personal appearance options and clothing styles, including nudity, which became more widely acceptable

The beatnik culture

• were there before the hippies arrived on the scene to tell them they did not have to conform. That they could speak out against societal norms and find their way to their own truth
• engaged in a questioning of traditional values which produced a break with the mainstream culture that to this day people react to – or against
• produced a great deal of interest in lifestyle experimentation (notably in regards to sex and drugs); and they had a large intellectual effect in encouraging the questioning of authority (a force behind the anti-war movement)
• were very active in popularizing interest in Zen Buddhism in the West

Flapper culture

• redefined how women act in society by going to jazz clubs at night where they danced provocatively, smoked cigarettes, sniffed cocaine, and dated freely; they rode bicycles and drove cars and drank alcohol openly
• began taking work outside the home and challenging women’s traditional societal roles
• advocated voting and women’s rights

Punk culture

• educated and made popular following and believing in highly controversial “ism’s,” that advocated and popularized individual freedom and anti-establishment views. Common punk viewpoints include anti-authoritarianism, a DIY ethic, non-conformity, direct action and not selling out; other notable trends: nihilism, anarchism, socialism, anti-militarism, anti-capitalism, anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-nationalism, anti-homophobia, environmentalism, vegetarianism, veganism and animal rights.
• seeked to outrage others with the highly theatrical use of clothing, hairstyles, cosmetics, tattoos, jewelry and body modification. This again, like the beatniks, was to engage people in questioning traditional values which would produce a break in the mainstream
• popularized DIY thinking specifically in regards to, but was not limited to: publishing, fashion, and art.

Where and how do hipsters fit into any of this? How do they contribute to a social cause instead of just being pretentious pricks? Well, now that the aughties just ended, it might be easier to see how.

Hipster culture

• thrives on anything independent, anything that hasn’t been subjected to censorship and filters. Which helped popularize independent media, thinking and living; in turn making people want to live more authentic and promote the idea of complete creative control over every vestige of your life
• promotes such positive thinking acts such as thrift store shopping, eating organic, locally grown, vegetarian, and/or vegan food, drinking local beer (or even brewing their own), listening to public radio, and riding bicycles
• helped to make the widely accepted concept of metrosexuality popular in turn helping people become more accepting of gay culture

Us hipsters are not without our faults…of course everyone gets us wrong. The definition of ‘hipster’ remains opaque to anyone outside this self-proclaiming, highly-selective circle. The whole point of hipsters is that they avoid labels and being labeled. However, we all dress the same and act the same and conform in our non-conformity, much like all other subcultures.

In the beginning it wasn’t like this obviously, but the more and more people became exposed to hipsters the more and more people were influenced by them, therefore, creating a mockery of everything that once was. And the same could be said for quite literally every other subculture. The more exposure we gain the more our word and influence is spread which is great because it does exactly what we want it to do. Make people think differently than how they’ve always thought. But, in the end, it’s the mainstreamers that are influenced by us that claim ownership and skew the concepts that we originally intended to suit their own needs.

Many of us may be pretentious pricks, the image isn’t wrong about that. But, what it fails to point out is that, so weren’t all the other subcultures. But that doesn’t mean we contribute nothing to society. And quite honestly, that’s how many of these people involved in these subcultures feel about the mainstream…is that YOU’RE all pretentious pricks because we don’t fit into YOUR culture. So we created our own.

Listen, I/we really don’t care if you make fun of us, because quite honestly, it’s really funny when you do. Just don’t say we contribute nothing to society when you can’t turn on the TV, go online, or simply just walk around without seeing our influence somewhere that the mainstream has adopted.