"Hipster" — I'd never encountered the term before entering this community in fall 2010, and I've always wondered why. When my graduating class returned for the first break, it was as if this concept had been directly injected into the language center of our brains. Once used to describe "On the Road" beatniks — the disillusioned, jazz-snapping poetry slingers who rejected 1950s conformity — the expression has swollen and burst. From moods to music, everything now has one label: hipster. Oh, how it is feared.
Flash forward, and College Hill is rampant with Kreayshawn carbon copies, acoustic guitars and flannel-clad folks sporting chunky glasses and over-moussed hair. To gauge campus sentiment, just ask around.
The word on the street is that if someone owns clothes from Urban Outfitters or American Eagle, has a superiority complex, loses himself in poetry and proclaims himself a culture connoisseur attending fancy-pants art exhibits, that dude's a hipster. Hipsters are also found perusing thrift stores or making their own clothing. They're "environmental" and eat organic. And don't forget about their indie music.
Ouch, I thought. I've never once been called a hipster, but man do I love sustainable farming and saving seals. Before developing an identity crisis and suiting up with the best of 'em, I actually thought about the issue. How does one reconcile the fact that hipsters shop where T-shirts have three styles, six colors and cost $40 with their affinities for vintage and used clothing?
These days, anything remotely associated with the hipster fad is under fire. The problem is that many supposedly hipster characteristics, like visiting thrift shops and making instead of buying, are not solely pursued to be "in." If that was the case, we'd all be paying $5 for a shirt and $35 for the brand name like most other Americans. In reality, crafting wardrobes from second-hand threads is something we do because it's fun, economical and self-sufficient. Besides, pieces of clothing outnumber Americans themselves, and we might as well use what is already there, right? I see retro as history, a work of art rather than something that is "cool" just because it fell out of style. How can we condemn people for appreciating how weird and funky material culture was when folks were getting down with their bad selves? And environmentalism criticized at this school? This "hipster" label has gotten out of control.
Worst is the attack against indie. People seem to have forgotten what "indie" means: independent — as in the stuff ignored by major record labels and production companies that are in the biz solely for the cash. If you scoff at indie music because "it's so hipster," you are simultaneously rejecting up-and-coming waves of pop, rock, folk, rap, electro and every other genre.
Urban Dictionary says it best. Hipster is "a subculture of men and women typically in their 20s and 30s that value independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of art and indie-rock, creativity, intelligence and witty banter." Give or take a few points, that sounds like the average Brown student, hipster and non-hipster alike. Yet, for some reason, we still use the term as an adjective to describe almost anything that earns our disapproval.
The question becomes why is "hipster" the go-to description of everything bad? Without a doubt, the reasons we despise hipsters are the airs of pretentious sophistication they bring to all they do and the many who adopt the attitude and dress to be "in" without believing in the movement's central tenets. The truth is these forms of insecurity are not just restricted to this subculture. They are aspects of human nature, present in every ethnic, socioeconomic and cultural group.
By putting these stigmas on every hipster and then blasting all they are associated with, we end up characterizing entire fields of study, ideas, music genres and art itself as the toys and tools of hipsterism. Do we want to reach the point where fear of perceived elitism is so strong that when a friend suggests seeing a new exhibit, people laugh in his face? Instead of tackling our true target, our unexamined hatred of everything labeled "hipster" undermines the most cherished aspect of humanity: its diversity of interests. It snatches credibility from social movements like Occupy Wall Street, which, good or bad, have undoubtedly raised awareness of tensions and problems within society. It hurts the cause of progressives and nonprofit workers who toil to improve opportunity and security for all citizens. It even weakens the appeal of environmentalism, urban farming and sustainability.
Letting something that is consistently hated and attacked control what we view as "cool" is the most illogical approach to the situation. By avoiding what is currently popular — or being perceived as doing so — we adopt a core ideology of hipsterism. Getting sucked into this drama makes us become what we truly hate about hipsters. We must free ourselves from labels and aim our criticism at pretentiousness and conformity. As long as we do what we like and like what we do, the critical others won't have any clue.
Adam Bouche '14 is a geology and archaeology concentrator from Ipswich, Mass. He can be contacted at adam_bouche@brown.edu.
