hipster explanation needed - Page 2

Just weird, in my case. I was a theater kid; we stuck together for the most part.

Idk, "hipster" kinda varies on the region. When one person calls another a hipster though, there's usually a guaranteed set of characteristics. 1, hipster is thin(ner). 2, into (possibly misguided) style. 3, likely a narcissist to some degree, from a casual fan of myspace self-portraiture to, y'know, the raving pathological narcissists, like those girls who stab others in the back and climb the social ladder with religious fervor.

If you opened this thread for more than 2 seconds you are a hipster.

being called a hipster is the worst fcking insult anyone say to me. skinny jeans and v-necks dont make you a hipster. being retarded makes you a hipster. http://www.latfh.com/

If you like Helvetica and vintage photo effects, then you are a hipster.

To be a hipster is to exist in a negative cultural space by which your only signifiers are what can be deemed ironically cool and thus appropriated and intergrated into your personal brand. You do not engage in the creation of meanings (as other subcultures do), but rather, are a part of the dissasociation of cultural attributes from the object's original meanings and a facilitator of their transformation into a kitschy lifestyle accessory that simply signifies "cool." Hipsters, unlike other subcultures, do not create meanings. Rather, through ironic appropriation, they destroy the very authenticity that made them cool in the first place.

Gawker recently introduced the alternative "fauxhemian".

This could be the best post in the history of sf. Needs more Badieu, discussion of empty signifiers, and possibly a discussion of sartrian mauvaise foie. Then it will be on point, and totally meta-literal.

its me

Very good, indeed the hipster is one who diverts from the mainstream in an almost knee-jerk fashion in order to achieve the largely undefined status of 'authenticity'. Their use of irony fits in well with the snarky superiority complex they have over the world as a result of being 'authentic', that they use irony as if to say "I am so cool that I need only present myself as being uncool to show how cool I am".

I think being a hipster used to mean using irony as an ethos but now its just a vague insult people throw at anyone they don't know that seems threateningly confident and alternative.

Even the irony thing doesn't seem to hold up. If there are people who solely do things for ironic reasons, there can't be that many. It seems like it would be a pretty depressing life to have no real interests.

Nowadays most of the people I hear called hipsters seem to be pretty serious about the non-mainstream music that they like.

In conclusion, its just bullshit. I, for one, would just like to move on.

Aren't authenticity and irony opposites? I thought you can only achieve authenticity through sincerity (e.i. wearing an item of clothing for its intended purpose).

Authenticity is a quality while irony in this case is a vessel, so they can be authentic in their interests while expressing them through the use of irony, though the irony in itself is not authentic or inauthentic as it is just a means to an end.

Assembling diverse cultural fragments into a collage that voids them of their original context is a creative endeavour too. Honestly that's what I believe hipsters are; western youth who make collage and flatten content (think Murakami's superflat which is just a chain of signification without stable ideological meaning).

Do you mean Bourdieu or Badiou (both excellent but quite distinct thinkers).

Oh and you meant "foi" (faith) not "foie" (liver).