Students have thrown the word “hipster” around in multiple contexts, but there seems to be a bit of confusion on what a hipster actually is. Hipsterism is a lot like Bigfoot: Many people claim to have had encounters with it, but there’s no general consensus on exactly what it is. The number one rule of Fight Club is “never talk about Fight Club.” The number one rule of hipsterism is, “Never admit to being a hipster.”
On the surface, a hipster may seem easy to spot. Both male and female hipsters share a common wardrobe: tight fitting jeans, flannel button-up shirts, slightly tacky sweaters, vintage t-shirts and thick-rimmed glasses. Their style seems to be a hodgepodge of previous decades’ styles revived and revamped for modern America.
In reality, hipsters aren’t as easy to spot. Hipsterism goes beyond appearance and embodies a mindset and a system of beliefs consistent among certain people. The dress style is just the physical manifest aspects of it. Eileen Huang, junior, said hipsterism is often mistaken for a strictly-fashion term. Dressing like a hipster doesn’t make you a hipster, Huang said. Huang, who has been referred to as a “hipster” before, said students should be cautious to address someone as such because of its negative connotations.”I don’t see anything wrong with dressing in nice sweaters or cool vintage clothes if that’s your thing,” Huang said. “But hipsters have this ‘I’m-better-than-you’ attitude that comes from this idea that they’re always the first to find out about something cool. That’s where I think this negative image comes from.”Nick Wood, senior, said while specific qualities of a hipster may vary depending on whom you ask, he thinks he has a pretty good grasp of a typical hipster.
“I don’t think many people even know what a hipster is, but they still use the term,” Wood said. “That’s not a huge deal, really, but I think people should know that the term isn’t a compliment. I see hipsters as people who dislike popular things just so they can be different and I don’t want to be someone who bases their personality off of opposing everyone else.”
Wood has been called a hipster before by someone who didn’t understand exactly what it meant. Wood said it’s not just being “hip” that makes you a “hipster.”
“I like the fashion and the dress style, and the music is cool,” Wood said. “I like Indie music and everything, but it’s the mindset that I don’t like.”
Michael Roberts, junior, said the term is too often misused by people who don’t understand it.
“When I’ve heard it here, it’s been directed mainly at people who are fashionable,” Roberts said. “But really it entails that whole being snooty attitude and some people don’t realize that.”
The trouble with hipsters is that they have no set core of beliefs as a whole. While some are political activists championing various causes (i.e. veganism, economic equality, world peace, etc.), others are more consumed with the artistic side of hipsterism (creative writing, drawing, photography, music).
Therefore no exact definition of the word “hipster” can be given. However, a general rule of thumb to identify one is pretty simple: If it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it’s probably a hipster.