Students have longed for a word to excuse certain lifestyle choices such as sagging pants, flat-billed hats, and an overall disregard for human decency. Fueled by a hipper-than-thou love of mainstream hip-hop and a general knowledge of Urban Dictionary, these students have latched on to the culture of swag. This culture, one which promotes a blasé attitude toward life in general and an unwarranted superiority complex, fits the label of teen angst.
Originally a slang term in the early 1800s for stolen goods or booty, swag has become increasingly popular among high school teens trying to fit in.
Amid a generation where Jersey Shore is considered a popular show, swag has become the epitome of what countless teens strive for.
Alex Fleher, junior, said swag is a desirable trait to have if you know how to apply it to your own lifestyle.
“I first learned about swag from the chart-topping single ‘Boyfriend’ by my boy Justin Bieber,” Fleher said.
He explained swag can sometimes be used as a verb to describe how certain people act in public.
“I basically swag my way through the halls of Marquette every day,” he said. “It’s how I was raised.”
Fleher said that swag isn’t always directed at males but that it is rare to describe a female as having swag.
Anna Tovar, junior, said students use swag as a way to express themselves through hours of hard work and gold-chain buying in order to appear cool.
“Swag can have a good connotation if it’s applied to the right people,” Tovar said. “Otherwise, it’s used to make fun of stuck-up, overconfident kids.”
She said swag mainly describes how people act and not always what they wear.
“It’s really just how you carry yourself around others and how you want others to see you,” Tovar said. “If you want a bunch of 12-year-old girls to chase after you, then make sure you have swag. All you have to do is walk with a limp and say YOLO at least 10 times a day.”
Although the roots of swag have been traced back to hip-hop, the culture has truly become popular on the social networking site, Twitter, a place where mid-recession teens and “scenesters” go to vent instead of the mall.
Just like the old saying goes, “You can’t have money without labor,” well you can’t have swag without bad pick-up lines, tight-fitting shirts, and basketball shoes that are just a little too big.
Rapper Soulja Boy, in his riveting song “Turn My Swag On,” explained, very intellectually, that he “hopped up out the bed, turned [his] swag on, took a look in the mirror, said ‘what’s up?’”
Hello to you too, Soulja Boy, but please, please, turn it off.
