What is hipster?

[firecat]

There is a company that sells printed magnetic sheets the size of your whole refrigerator*. This one depicts 35mm cameras, Converse basketball shoes, round glasses, something that looks like a cassette tape, and something else I can't parse. This particular magnet is called "hipsters set."

http://www.kudumagnets.com/hipsters-set

I thought I had an idea of what hipster is. But this makes me think that hipster is nostalgia for the 70s, and that's not what I thought it was.

*If you ask me, that takes all the fun out of refrigerator magnets.

Comments

[firecat]

Also, it seems to me that to never be interested in anything popular is as old as the hills.

[staranise]

Yes. So now hipsters have seen that it's uncool and poseurish to deny everything popular, so they are systematically taking over bits of pop culture--you can be excited about The Avengers if you do it in a dorky (but not genuine!) way. So you can have a Captain America lunchbox, or read the original comics, but not both.

It's like a worm eating its own tail. It's like rich kids acting like the people I grew up around (blue-collar white people) are fucking hilarious. It's the stink of people desperately afraid that if they give up trying and just be who they are, their lives will be over.

</bitter>

[firecat]

I remember the pressure to not be interested in anything. I'm glad I never managed it.

[yarram]

"It's the stink of people desperately afraid that if they give up trying and just be who they are, their lives will be over."

Not to rain on your parade, but this is pretty much the thing that keeps QUILTBAGs in the closet. I do understand what you're pointing at, it's just that the phrasing bugs me, and I wanted to name for myself why.