She stopped me in church to compliment me on my outfits, my hats.
“You don’t see people dress like that around here,” she said. “My daughter lives in Portland–and they do a lot of stuff like that there.”
I smiled and thanked her while inwardly exclaiming: “A hipster! She thinks I’m a HIPSTER!”
Allow me to explain my perception of the hipster ethos in video form:
The ironic and rather pretentious hipster attitude really turns me off.
Yet, when I described this woman’s intended compliment to Daniel, he said that I do exhibit some aspects of the hipster.
After all, I wear hats to church. I buy most everything used. I adore vintage clothes. I adore vintage fabrics. I’m all about DIY.
But I’m NOT a hipster, I proclaimed.
Nevertheless, I was unable to explain why I was not a hipster.
Until I read this Op-Ed (HT: Vitamin Z) in the New York Times:
“If irony is the ethos of our age — and it is — then the hipster is our archetype of ironic living…
The ironic frame functions as a shield against criticism. The same goes for ironic living. Irony is the most self-defensive mode, as it allows a person to dodge responsibility for his or her choices, aesthetic and otherwise. To live ironically is to hide in public.”
Really, author Christy Wampole explains, the hipster ethos is all about protecting oneself from mockery by living a life of self-mockery.
And here is where I differ from the hipster.
While I love vintage and hats and old clothing and bicycles and making my own compost (okay, the last is not always the most successful venture), I don’t do so out of any sense of irony.
I simply enjoy those things.
Hence, a recent Facebook wall post:
“I am of the ‘don’t-call-my-Christmas-sweater-ugly’ persuasion. (Also, please show proper respect for my Christmas nighties, socks, turtlenecks, and pajamas.) Yes, I am one of those who enjoys Christmas kitsch without the protection of irony.”
I’m not trying to be either cool or counterculturally uncool. I just like things. I think they’re fun. And they happen to be some of the same things hipsters are “ruining for the rest of us”.
In short, I am NOT a hipster.
(Feel free to add your Yeah, sure‘s here :-) )
Well this doesn’t have anything to do with being a hipster, but….
Let’s just say that at 1:10 in this video I notice that the bowl he’s eating mac and cheese out of I got the same one in greece, which I thought was authentic… but now… I guess I’m not sure…
I’ve been hearing that word but had no idea what it meant. Thanks for the education! :-)
Authentic living–what’s not to love? I get what you’re saying! May more if us be willing o show our true selves!
Oh this post made me laugh. Mainly because I live around Portland and yes, they certainly do do those things around there. But also because I am constantly accusing my brother of being a hipster. His excuse is always the same as yours too. “I’m not a hipster. I just like stuff that hipsters like.”