before i lose my style

pgwp:

maura:

New rule: Anyone who uses the word “hipster” as a derogatory noun also has to provide a definition of what the term means.

They must also immediately prove that they are themselves not a hipster.

As my brilliant wife has pointed out, anyone who describes themselves as “classy” are clearly not classy. People who call themselves “edgy” are never edgy. The inverse: people hating on hipsters are, more often than not, hipsters.

(So, I guess that means my definition of “hipster” is “projected self-loathing.”)

The only thing “hipster” implies is a studied attempt to be cool. It is used by two groups: those who think/fear they are less cool than the supposed “hipster” and are trying to denigrate that person in order to lower her/his perceived coolness, as described by maura:

maura:

Serious question: Is “hipster” just a new code word for “white people whose cultural tastes are a bit intimidating”?

…and those who consider themselves cooler than the perceived “hipster” but fear that said “hipster” is closing the gap. They too are trying to denigrate the “hipster,” but in an attempt to widen, not close, the gap of distinction.

Those (and only those) whose social distinction is primarily determined by their cultural consumption can be semi-convincingly characterized as hipsters. Therefore only the upper-middle-class, generally well-educated can be denigrated as such. Within that population it’s pretty much an open playing field. Everyone and no one in this group is a hipster because it is a term that implies that the person so characterizing feels her/his position in the cultural heirarchy is threatened by the target of the term.

As a term, “hipster” has particularly gained currency in the wake of a changing view of wealth. I don’t get the impression that there is as much scorn towards “trust fund kids,” or however you want to phrase the claim that you deserve your financial position and someone else doesn’t deserve her/his better position. Or at least, the charge seems to come much more heavily weighted with envy and much less heavily weighted with straight-up class scorn.