urbanhipster

Yet more hipster-related news

As the proprietor of urbanhipster.com, I feel obligated to share any hipster-related news and sociological research I stumble across. Today’s link is to a London Globe & Mail column titled “The Backlash Against Hipsters Has Begun.” It’s a good article, but hipster backlash is by no means new.

Ten years ago in Chicago, the coolest person I knew said that Wicker Park was “a little too hipster” for him. New to the big city after a small town lifetime, I nodded and acted like what he was saying made sense. But I was secretly thinking “Too hipster? There’s no such thing. That’s like saying ‘too awesome!’” I couldn’t understand wanting to avoid a place that was teeming with hipsters—it was my ambition to earn my hipster cred by doing time at Quimby’s, Earwax, and Tuman’s. So if my cool friend didn’t identify himself as a hipster, what was he then? And what did this mean for my dream of becoming hip?

The hippest thing hipsters can do is convince themselves (and others) they aren’t hip. Think about it: Snooki and Toby Keith don’t have to go around saying, “Now, I’m no hipster—” because they’re not even close. But the cooler you get, the more you feel obliged to pass off your coolness as effortless and unpretentious.

Even though I did  many cool things in Chicago and met lots of cool people, I never felt that I attained true hipness. I feel like I’m still trying! Evidence of my attempts is everywhere: I have a Holga, several Moleskines, and many pairs of interesting glasses. I play the accordion and decorate my house with garage sale paintings. I collect Pyrex and vintage wallpaper. I even push the limits of quirkiness to the extreme by listening to country music and taking a condescendingly anthropological interest in evangelical Christianity. Sometimes I certainly try too hard.

Yet I’ve still been known to deny my own hipness, partly due to the self-loathing inherent in being a hipster, but partly because I know tons of people cooler than me, and I can’t claim to be on par with them.

But all this recent attention on hipster hate makes me want to honestly and proudly embrace hipster culture and its aesthetics—the best of which is interesting, broad-ranging, and simultaneously ironic and sincere. Maybe you’ll join me as I change my outlook, proudly don my corduroys and stock my Etsy shop,* and go forth unashamed and unafraid of being called hip.

* I don’t really have an Etsy shop. Yet.