EPIPHANY!

[pocochina]

So…I figured out what it is that bothers me so much about hipsterism.

It’s nihilist.  It’s scruffy.  It’s not enjoying anything.  It’s glamorized even though it’s not particularly glamorous.

It’s depression drag.

Comments

[blackfrancine]

Haha! I had this EXACT same epiphany not too long ago. Almost the same verbiage was involved. I think my rant to a friend included the term "clothing nihilists."

And I like irony as much as the next guy. Really I do. But when you're so doused in irony that there is nothing of any real, earnest meaning... what is the point of irony? It too becomes a nihilistic exercise.

And I'd add that hipsters don't just appropriate the shit reality of other people's lives--it's mocking the shit reality of their lives. Or, more accurately, it's mocking the reality of other people's lives as if those realities WERE, objectively, shit

[pocochina]

UGH GROSS JULIA STILES WHY WHY. This just ruins 10 Things I Hate about You for me.

Like...if someone found a cool old ring at a thrift store? That doesn't bother me, that can be a neat and unique style choice. But shitting on someone's life because they are working class is so fucked up.

when you're so doused in irony that there is nothing of any real, earnest meaning... what is the point of irony?

Bam. Exactly. And "irony" does not mean "I'm choosing to enjoy the aesthetic stylings of Lady Gaga ironically." If you are doing something because you enjoy it, that is not irony. It is appropriate. "Irony" is a cover for "so earnest it is embarrassing, that is related to a genuine feeling in any way, because all honest feeling is shameful." Like my icon? See my icon? About a mind-wiped protozombie who is bored? THAT IS NOT IRONIC. IT IS ILLUSTRATIVE.

[soonest_mended]

This. Exactly. Thank you.

[pocochina]

Fucking people just make me RAGE sometimes. I really do try to be live and let live about recreational stuff. And not ironically! I think live and let live is objectively good and I try to contribute to it. But this isn't letting live. This hurts people.

[soonest_mended]

No, I have to agree. It fills me with the same kind of rage that consumes me when I used to overhear emo teens bragging about their 'cutting' scars. I wanted to choke the ever-loving shit out of them, knowing that people their ages were hating and hurting themselves and hiding it in shame while these privileged, healthy teenagers crowed over how 'deep' their pain was and showed off their safety-pin scratches, two on each wrist.

Never mind the ones who tried to pass off their scratches as actual suicide attempts.

So, yeah, I would love to smack sense into some hipsters. If you've never been too blitzed with depression to wash your hair or roll over in bed, you do not get to play at it. Just... screw that.

[pocochina]

Ugh YES. I mean I can at least see the social issues that give rise to that - your pain is Not Real unless we can see some scars, you little shit - but it is still bullshit.

The hipsterdom, though? Even more fucked up in some ways, b/c these are grown-ass people. STFU.

[eleusis_walks]

so i am kind of a hipster

i am from new york where the whole thing started though

and we are just drenched in our post-9/11 ennui over here

still

is that okay?

[pocochina]

haha! You are writing amazing essays about Cordelia Chase and feminism and therefore not involved in the douchey disavowal of everything enjoyable in life. If you were like "well if I were to IRONICALLY do 30 Days of AtS and write about what I WOULD say if I were not so OVER THAT" that would be dickish nihilism. Because obviously it is fun. It is just the scoffing at everything in the fucking world that annoys the shit out of me.

[eleusis_walks]

oh well i mean you just know the bad kind of hipsters then

i like the ones who embrace tacky kitschy stuff and live for the glitter and thrill and hedonism in the broken world we found ourselves growing up in

which, you know. kind of nihilistic, but in a way that seems hopeful to me.

kind of like AtS.

[pocochina]

yeah. The people I know who embrace the shallow fun for what it is - FUN, grow the fuck up and use the big kid one syllable word - wouldn't call themselves hipsters. And the hipsters DNW that. So bleh.

[pixxelpuss]

MOTHERFUCKING HIPSTERISM

[pocochina]

They took over Cap Hill and pushed all the gay people out

WE ARE SO REAL. WE APPRECIATE YOUR SHIT SO MUCH WE ARE HERE TO GENTRIFY IT. I can't even.

And like...I know there are theoretically people who like hipster music and skinny jeans and are gay, but the Hipster Subculture (TM) is way more about showing how much of a postmodern heterosexual uberdouche you are. Again I say, Dov C.

And just...yes. I don't give a shit about what people enjoy, because I don't have the energy, and when I do, I usually squander it ACTUALLY ENJOYING STUFF. I am so uncool woe is me wah wah.

It's this shallow way of abdicating all human responsibility to CARE and ENGAGE and CREATE and all for the sake of looking too cool to try

Fucking word. And if someone really just doesn't care, they're probably not faking depression but just hiding out and I have sympathy for that, but to create this whole childish reward system where the biggest thing to care about is not caring...what the hell is that.

[duh_i_read]

They took over Cap Hill and pushed all the gay people out

WE ARE SO REAL. WE APPRECIATE YOUR SHIT SO MUCH WE ARE HERE TO GENTRIFY IT

Through my own personal experience hobnobbing with hipsters, I consider aspects of hipster subculture as appropriating facets of queer culture: the gender ambiguity, the trash/glam fashion aesthetic and, my personal favorite, encroaching into queer spaces en mass until they are just obnoxious hipster spaces.

Your concept of hipster drag is brilliant; I knew there was another reason I despised hipsters.

[pocochina]

That's a good point about the queer appropriation. It's not like it's mainstreaming actual interrogations of gender. Just taking what's shiny and pretty and eyerolling at the rest of it. Especially with the "androgynous" women's clothing. LOOK AT ME, I AM ELFIN AND BRALESS UNDER MY "MEN'S" BLAZER. Yawn.

[bluemage55]

Thankfully, most of the places I hang out at here in the Bay Area aren't infested with hipsters. Still, I do run into them occasionally when socializing at bars or clubs. Few things earn people a nexting from me faster than pretending to not care about anything.

[lexica510]

I'm always amused when I see hipsters waiting in line at Bakesale Betty. Because even depression-drag hipsters can't pretend those fried chicken sandwiches aren't good. *grin*

[bluemage55]

Haven't had Bakesale Betty before since I'm rarely in Oakland. I'll have to try it the next time I'm there.

[pocochina]

Few things earn people a nexting from me faster than pretending to not care about anything

FOR REAL. No, I don't think you look cool standing there pretending you don't hear the band. You look like you stole someone's klonapin. WHICH IS NOT COOL.