Why!!!! Hipsters!!! Why!!!!!

[Pompidou]

No no no! I (we?) do it because we like and appreciate such things. BIG DIFF! Hipsters pay $12 for a PBR and whine when the snap top hurts.

A big difference in purpose, but very little difference superficially. Walk around with enough of the visual trappings of a hipster, get accused of being one, deny it, and rest assured you've just rested their case. Nobody casts superficial judgements on people based on intentions and real appreciation. Looking the part and acting the part is sufficient.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've said it in other threads, and I'll say it again here -- the "hipster" ethos is all about cultural colonization. It's about taking the bits and pieces of other people's cultures and treating them as nothing more than playthings for their amusement -- just the sort of thing presumptuous middle-class white people have been doing for generations, just wrapped in a new label. That's what I don't like about hipsterism. I couldn't possibly care less about their beer or their music or their ideas about "style," but I care very much about their trivialization of the reality of working-class culture. Those who think think it's ironic and cute to dress like a blue-collar worker shouldn't whine if actual blue-collar workers put them in their place.

 

[Tomasso]

Probably to the public at large most of us would be considered hipsters...

I don't know about most, but there certainly are a few hipsters in our little clubhouse.

 

[Shangas]

I prefer to use the Victorian term.

Eccentric.

 

[ButteMT61]

A big difference in purpose, but very little difference superficially. Walk around with enough of the visual trappings of a hipster, get accused of being one, deny it, and rest assured you've just rested their case. Nobody casts superficial judgements on people based on intentions and real appreciation. Looking the part and acting the part is sufficient.

No, hardly. Not me anyway. I've never been mistaken for a hipster. I see some here that could, sure. Maybe they are. It's attitude. I can tell the diff in 10 seconds in person. I don't think they mock the blue-collar working class as much as they want people to think they somehow ARE those things. Bit with a gross "I'm cool, look at me" 'tude. Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison and Elvis Costello wore the glass well, hipsters and Hollywood types make me laugh. Nothin' more. Some are my friends too. Or should I say. Colleagues. Such is life.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A skinny middle-class college kid walking around dressed up like a trucker or a factory hand projects about as much "authenticity" as a white boy walking thru Harlem in burnt cork. If you want to look blue collar, get a job in a factory and earn the right.

 

[casechopper]

Do you feel the same about the Japanese who glorify workwear as a style? I don't think they look down on blue collar workers. More, they glorify the style worn by blue collar workers in the past. They may not be working in factories but those that do work in factories these days do not wear traditional styled workwear anyway in general. These days almost everyone walks around in jeans and t-shirts. Is this that different from what a factory worker wears? The style hipster type people wear is a style that isn't modern day workwear and wouldn't be mistaken for such is it?

LizzieMaine: I do take issue with one needing to work in a factory to earn the right to wear a certain kind of clothing. I wear many element of workwear and I do not work in a factory. Blue collar style clothing is practical and I do have to get my hands dirty sometimes and prefer to have clothing that can handle that. Should anyone have to earn the right to wear a suit? Should a businessman ridicule a blue-collar worker that wears suits? Should the college educated point an laugh when a high school dropout dresses formally? I think not. I think that one earns the right to wear what one earns the money to pay for. Some here on this forum are blue collar workers and prefer to wear suits and ties when they can. Some are college educated and prefer to wear work-wear. I personally like the materials, durability and wear chareteristics of work-wear more than dress-wear even though I am college educated. I will not look down on a factory worker in a suit and likewise would feel it a lack of respect for a blue-collar worker to look down on me for the clothing I choose to wear.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I find it disrespectful to poke fun at someone's legitimate lifestyle. It seems crazy to me to go so far is to make poking fun at peoples' ways of life into a personal lifestyle!

There is plenty of corny and cheesy things from every decade. Just seems that as history goes on, a lot of it gets swept under the rug.

It's absolutely okay for a woman to wear a hat indoors, in my opinion. Some of the ladies still venture out on Sundays in their hats and it's a nice thing to see.

I haven't thought of it that way. That definitely does make it feel disrespectful.

..Although, there are plenty of silly 70's and 80's vintage things
No offense meant to whoever likes those eras! haha. 80's sure knew how to make cute sweaters though.



(About the hats- it isn't rude for ladies to wear them indoors right? I hope I haven't been being rude unintentionally!)

Agreed. I drink PBR, my dad has it on tap, as did my grandfather. That's not hipsterism, that's tradition. Perhaps a trivial and silly tradition to some, but one I proudly carry on.

No no no! I (we?) do it because we like and appreciate such things. BIG DIFF! Hipsters pay $12 for a PBR and whine when the snap top hurts.

Again, you hit the nail on the head. As a factory worker, I don't get why anybody would want to dress like one outside of the factory. It's part of the reason why I appreciate vintage clothing so much. It's nice to wear something that actually looks nice when you're not at work.

It happens with the stereotypes of any group. We have very few hipsters here, but 'rednecks' are aplenty. They all dress like farmers all the time, mixed with rap/ghetto styles. It's silly, and when I was growing up, farmers dressed like farmers while farming. See one on Sunday, he was in his Sunday best.

I've said it in other threads, and I'll say it again here -- the "hipster" ethos is all about cultural colonization. It's about taking the bits and pieces of other people's cultures and treating them as nothing more than playthings for their amusement -- just the sort of thing presumptuous middle-class white people have been doing for generations, just wrapped in a new label. That's what I don't like about hipsterism. I couldn't possibly care less about their beer or their music or their ideas about "style," but I care very much about their trivialization of the reality of working-class culture. Those who think think it's ironic and cute to dress like a blue-collar worker shouldn't whine if actual blue-collar workers put them in their place.

A skinny middle-class college kid walking around dressed up like a trucker or a factory hand projects about as much "authenticity" as a white boy walking thru Harlem in burnt cork. If you want to look blue collar, get a job in a factory and earn the right.

 

[ButteMT61]

A skinny middle-class college kid walking around dressed up like a trucker or a factory hand projects about as much "authenticity" as a white boy walking thru Harlem in burnt cork. If you want to look blue collar, get a job in a factory and earn the right.

What factories?...

 

[ButteMT61]

I think the current Japanese workwear stuff is pretty damn cool, sans the ability of any blue collar worker to buy any of it. It's so insanely expensive that even white collar folks struggle with the prices. It's a shame too as it's incredible gear. I think they also respect it's heritage. So to me, it's cool and they seem cool too. Just crazy expensive.

 

[CharleneC]

It looks like this thread will just be another chance to show how hateful one group of people can be towards another. Has anyone else grown tired of these hateful threads?

 

[ButteMT61]

Most of my roots are very blue collar. Miners, machinists, etc. my dad was the first in the family to go to college/grad school. Even though I've gone "further", I am more comfortable around these folks than any other group. I'd love to take some hipsters to a Montana bar. Just once.

 

[Shangas]

My father's side of the family was certainly working/lower-middle class.

My grandfather was a newspaperman, and a photographic assistant. My grandmother was a dressmaker. My oldest uncle was an English master for 40 years. That's about the most senior position that anyone held in our family until the current generations.

That said, I don't see why a person's family background should dictate what they can or cannot wear. I do see Lizziemaine's point, but I'm not entirely sure that it's valid.

Of course, it isn't always 'appropriate' or rather to say, it wouldn't really SUIT, but there shouldn't be some sort of unwritten law about it.

 

[Pompidou]

It's not the wearing that Lizzie is bothered about, but the pretending. The closest parallel I can think of is the wall of shame for folks pretending to be Navy Seals.

So, wear blue collar if you like, work blue collar if you want to, but if you don't, don't lead the world to believe you do, for the reaction it gets.

 

[Shangas]

Sounds like the reverse of that old expression of 'putting on airs and graces'.

...Although WHY anyone would bother to go in the opposite direction is a puzzle to me. Perhaps someone can explain this attraction? I could guess why, but it might be rather insulting...

 

[ButteMT61]

My father's side of the family was certainly working/lower-middle class. My grandfather was a newspaperman, and a photographic assistant. My grandmother was a dressmaker. My oldest uncle was an English master for 40 years. That's about the most senior position that anyone held in our family until the current generations. That said, I don't see why a person's family background should dictate what they can or cannot wear. I do see Lizziemaine's point, but I'm not entirely sure that it's valid. Of course, it isn't always 'appropriate' or rather to say, it wouldn't really SUIT, but there shouldn't be some sort of unwritten law about it.

No, there's nothing that should keep anyone from dressing as they like. And even the working class are not above being "flattered" by imitation. But I can also be annoyed by it Hopefully trust fund hipsters have family roots that were more modest.

 

[ButteMT61]

Sounds like the reverse of that old expression of 'putting on airs and graces'. ...Although WHY anyone would bother to go in the opposite direction is a puzzle to me. Perhaps someone can explain this attraction? I could guess why, but it might be rather insulting...

If we could, we would know the secret to the hipster! lol

 

[AtomicEraTom]

So many hipsters are upper-middle-class kids who grew up in the suburbs. They're raised by doctors and lawyers, and live in that world. They see the working-class as being 'neat' or 'interesting', because that's not the world they know. Mom and Dad want them to go to college, get a good job like they did, etc, etc, etc, and this is just another way of rebelling, I think. Look how 'raw' and 'real' they all are, you know?

Sounds like the reverse of that old expression of 'putting on airs and graces'.

...Although WHY anyone would bother to go in the opposite direction is a puzzle to me. Perhaps someone can explain this attraction? I could guess why, but it might be rather insulting...

 

[Shangas]

I suppose that makes sense in a certain way. But it seems like a silly way of showing "individuality" and "rebellion". Trying to "identify" with a class that you've NEVER been a part of in your life. I can see why some people would be offended by that. "Oh look at you, you SO know what it's like to be like us, don't you? Yeah sure...whatever..."

It just reminds me of that word we used to use in school:

"Tryhard".

For those who don't know what that is, it's basically someone posing, trying hard (hence the name) to be something which they so obviously are not.

It sounds so ridiculous.

 

[tonyb]

I can't possibly be the only one who sees the irony in the very existence of this thread, in this forum, can I? This "online community" (there has to be a better phrase) is devoted to, more than anything else, the styles of a bygone era, and is populated to a large degree by people who adopt those styles. And the largest percentage of those people weren't even born when those styles were current. And some of us criticize young people adopting what might be seen as an inauthentic look?

Me, I'm the most normal looking person you'll ever meet, never mind the hats and the occasional pair of canvas sneakers and the old suits and jackets and neckties, many of which are older than their wearer, which (alas) makes them quite old. Affected? I suppose it could look that way to some people. But I don't concern myself with that, just as I would hope that a person whose dress might have some here thinking he's a hipster would pay no nevermind to any of that.

I understand the resentment toward children of privilege co-opting a blue-collar look. (The next time I hear someone born on third base assuming the role of batting coach, I may just club him over the head.) Still, I try not to hold against people things over which they have no control, and no one has any control over the circumstances of his or her birth. Some people are luckier than others. It works the other way, too. When I'm dealing with a ill-tempered teenager, for instance, I try to remember that he's very likely abused and/or neglected at home.

Back in the 1960s, my dad sold Pabst Blue Ribbon to country taverns and groceries in rural southern Wisconsin, by the way. It was a decidedly downmarket product back then. I'll admit to getting a chuckle out of today's youngsters adopting it as some sort of tribal identity marker. At least that's what I think they're doing. I mean, it isn't the only cheap beer. And some is cheaper yet.

What's that line from "As You Like It"?

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.