I completely agree with Christian Lorentzen: the Hipster must die. In fact, any group of people with qualities so consistently un-redeeming as those conjured by Loentzen and Christine Speir is nothing more than the detritus of an otherwise glorious society. However, with my tongue out of my cheek, let me get to the point for Christine: the Hipster is a cultural phantom. The Hipster does not exist.
To be branded universally homogenous, a group of people would have to be incredibly consistent in both their outward and inward appearances. Christine, you write that hipster fashion “statements” could advertise or mask personalities. You list thrift shopping as a staple of Hipster culture because of a need to look carelessly composed, but then state that the Hipster will spare no expense to participate in the latest, newest trends and “impulsively buy the latest crap.” Additionally, a trend holds no inherent moral description, e.g. the new trend to drink only shade-grown, fair trade coffee is ostensibly a good thing and, despite your charge, thrift shopping is also a good thing. It reuses goods that already exist and actively denies waste and consumerist capitalism.
New trends that the Hipster would partake in would also, by definition, not be initially mass-marketed because that they would not be predicted by marketing agencies. Because of their supposed love for the insular and elite, new Hipster trends would only rise from the ground up, meaning that, most likely, no child laborers or shady backroom deals would be involved. I also fail to see how illegal drug use could be positively correlated with the capitalist establishment, as they directly determine what is “illegal” in the first place; the act is protest by definition and illegal drugs are not taxed. This effectively reverses your argument that the apparently huge Hipster contingent actively supports repressive policies enacted by the government through taxation. Many socially progressive institutions are funded by tax dollars and, most importantly, sales taxes go to states while income taxes fund the federal government, thereby placing your blame on people with the highest income and not the highest expenditure.
But forget all the above and let me say it again: the Hipster does not exist. To revel in and embrace a purely negative group stereotype that is connected with the Hipster (although constantly denying it) does not make someone a Hipster. It makes the person an asshole. What I see in your writing is a coagulation of the worst (Wesworst?) parts of American culture dropped willy-nilly onto a mannequin that happens to be very skinny and located in an urban center. Perhaps what you are getting at is that you are angry at the way youth culture has appropriated consumerism and integrated it into their personalities. Notice that I say youth culture and not Hipsters because it is truly a national trend. For some reason, everyone thinks that the Hipster adores capitalist consumerism while others only dejectedly participate. If you want to blame a group of people for ruining American society, I would mainly blame children and the parents that can’t help but spoil them rotten. After that, go for the marketing agencies and media that purposefully dumb down everything to appeal to the widest swath of people.
Moving on, I have a few questions as to the coherency of your image of the Hipster in the first place. You mention that the capitalists have “succeeded in harnessing angsty adolescent pseudo-rebellion for profit.” This statement belongs in the late 90’s around the time Limp Bizkit was created by Interscope to leech off the popularity of “grunge.” The Hipster, as most people envision it, would not listen to nu-metal, nor would shop at the Gap, nor would it be quite so wrong as to think that hetero and inalbo-normative constructs are anything but fashion and appearance. Both tell you how to conduct yourself based on a ranking given to you that is completely devoid of any individualistic aspects. Sounds like modern life, right? Do you know how many times Middletown residents driving on High Street have called me a fag? There is no way I could be promoting hetero-normative constructs if everyone outside this campus thinks I’m gay. In fact, the method of androgynous dress that most so-called Hipsters adhere to can do nothing other than help buck the hetero-normative trend among society at large.
I think what gets me particularly riled up about this topic is the fact that there certainly is blame to be placed. But to act as though your descriptors describe anything less than regular American youth is to scapegoat a group of people whose actions are inferred entirely by the way they dress. Please don’t play into the Hipster game because you, Christine, and everyone who spends their time trying to destroy culture are losing time to create culture. The Hipster must die, but its death does not preclude the creation of something much better.
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