Hipster Paradise

For the majority of young people the term "hipster" is old news as well as a word used far too often. A lot of negative stigma is created whenever the subject is brought up. In fact, I can practically hear the sighs and envision the eye rolls from some of the blog community when glancing at the title of the post. To get down to the point, since Minneapolis was named the most hipster state as well as the most gay state and the most biker friendly state, I once again was forced with trying to explain what a hipster actually is to my parents. After being asked before and doing my best to explain in my own words as well as even reading off some Urban Dictionary information, I still felt like my parents were very confused. Not until my mom and dad came to visit me in the Cities from my small hometown in Wisconsin did they have the opportunity to notice the subset of culture and actually comment with, "People dress a certain way here that's different."

This was a perfect invitation for me to point out some objects that would traditionally classify a person as hip based on the way society has constructed the subjects of the particular culture to appear. I said many of them wear clothing that is unique, often found from thrift stores and may sport edgy hairstyles. They don't strive to appear conventionally good looking and/or clean cut and often listen to unpopular music, ride bikes, and appreciate creative, artistic endeavors. Their whole philosophy is to be different from everyone else by deviating from mainstream culture as much as possible. With the combination of the verbal and visual explanations, I think they finally understood more or less. I also tried to tell them about how a lot of individuals now go out of their way to become a part of this culture just because of its inter-textual popularity. Our society has portrayed hipsters in many different lights: dirty, pretentious, assholes, Parliament smokers, skinny jean wearers, PBR drinkers, fixie riders, underground party goers etc. Ultimately, my parent's response to the entire phenomenon was, "That's pretty silly." Having to break down this social construction for other people helped me to realize just how strongly culture dictates the way people practice and live everyday.