AIBU to wonder why in God's name anyone would want to be a hipster?

[aermingers]

I thought of this because of the cereal cafe thread (although I think those two seem like nice lads).

I mean, hipsters are a bit of a joke now right? People who are so achingly desperate to be different but they're slavishly following their own crowd like sheep.

I look at them and I just think it's such a pretentious pile of arse and it just shows an obsession with image and outward appearances above all else. And having the right sort of job in 'meeja' or 'creative industries' and hanging with the right crowd. It's sort of a modern type of snobbery which has a lot more in common with their Grandparents obsessions with class and outward appearances by stone cladding their drive and working for the right company and shopping in the right supermarket than they'd like to admit.

I mean, does anybody else look at hipsters and think 'Oh you're so cool' apart from other hipsters? They just seem like the punchline to a joke to me now.

Lmao knitting

I read your comment to dh (who is exactly as you describe) and he said "but it's so much more than a fashion trend"

Surely we have reached peak hipster now that you can buy drinking jars in BHS.
When's the next thing kicking off?

Oh I quite enjoy hipsters - anyone who looks like a cross between a lumberjack and Sherlock Holmes has got to be entertaining at the very least

I find people who are most conscious of their image some of the least entertaining people ever!

OP, I think it is a common error to assume that members of certain 'tribes' wish to be different from everyone. What pisses people off its that they actually think that person wants to be different from them, and I think that they then think this means the other people feels superior to them.

Many people dress in a way that identifies with people they know, or share other interests with, so goths dress like other goths etc. Even when I was 15 I had this tedious discussion with people (generally smug adults) accusing me of wanting to be different - no, I want to be like my mates and the bands I like - we have the same taste, unsurprisingly!

On a personal note, I would much prefer my child to grow up to be a grungy hipster like a smaller percentage of the population, than follow a body conscious fish pouting fake tan, idealised image of a woman, just because a larger proportion of the population do this!

DH is quite miffed with the hipsters, because he had a beard before it was cool.

Badoom tish

You'll never find a rough hipster though.. Contradiction in terms.

Love the term 'hipster doofus' from Kramer out of Seinfeld

Benoit DOUBLE HIGH FIVE (high 10 p'raps?) - very well put.

I cam spot a male hipster easily but what is the female equivalent? What di I need to look for?

I've had a beard for 20 years and was into many of the things that some of the hipsters are long before they were. Sadly, though, I still can't get a girlfriend. I suspect I just lack their amazing intellectual self-confidence.

I have a theory that, as a society, we can handle subcultures that claim to be different/individual, but that we struggle with anyone who is genuinely offbeat or has very individual tastes/interests.

I'm get a bit tired of all this sexy geek stuff, too. I don't think I've ever felt 'sexy' in my entire life.

Off I go to buy drinking jars in BHS and grow a beard...

Also really wanting a hipster-bearded emoticon please MNHQ!

I saw a short, chubby hipster boy the other week. I laughed. He looked like the spawn of Frodo Baggins and Anthony Worrall Thomson.

You're right, spiders, it's not a good look for anyone over about 12 stones (and I say this as a 20-stone blokes myself!).

Yanbu

Went to broadway market London once - never again. So many of them there, so self conscious and afraid to step out of line! Weird to live so restrictively

Why did the hipster burn his mouth?

He ate his pizza before it was cool.

Isn't this just the stuff of youth? Most of us have gone through a stage of identifying with our peers be they goths, rockers, gatecrasher kids, ravers, new age, hipsters, those into r&b, New Romantics etc etc it's fun experimenting with the expression of one's identity and something that teens and early twenties do - and some continue to do for far longer.

Just because you have outgrown it doesn't mean the next lot can't enjoy it - plus they get lots of pics to cringe at when they get older. :)

If you want a hipster mecca, please go to Herne, Brixton. You will spot them easily, same clothes,hair etc. funny to watch as they are very pretentious rude and up them selves.

mad but most hipsters I've seen and know are definitely not youth! !

I get fashion and wanting to look good but the hipster movement is geared toward late 20 to mid 30 and it just seems a bit to...try hard?

My friend lives in E London and is raising a little hipster but looks a bit like a child dressed post ww2.

Agree Possum most hipsters I've encountered are 30 something try hards. The desperation to be seen as individual and 'other' is tangible.
Real alternative people don't care, they tend to be happy in their skin and don't have anything to prove, (lots of my friends fall into this category).

Gin, excellent joke, I will save it for STBxH tomorrow (he may nott have turned out to be my ideal man but he still tells a great joke). Here's one of his;

How many hipsters can you fit in a phone box? One, any more and it would be too mainstream.

We live in hipster central, seriously it's harder to find a pint of carling than artisan home brew larger with a cool name. Possibly with a home grown veg as a surprise ingredient or water from their own well.

Sorry, Gah not gin (must be on my mind) also please ignore typo.

So are the chaps that dress like something out of Toad of Toad Hall a kind of subset of hipsters, then? I've seen some that look like they're in costume, not clothes.

I agree with FafferTime

It's like asking why someone would choose to be a 'chav' or a middle class type who goes to Tuscany in the summer then skiing in winter.

You don't wake up one day and think "I want to join this subculture". You slowly discover that you like the sorts of thing that a certain group of other people like.

And nobody chooses to be "a hipster"or "a chav" because nobody calls themselves that.

Also agree with Bluegrass

Young(ish), likely to have good well paid job in a satisfyingly creative industry, plenty of free time and disposable income to indulge in buying Apple gizmos, craft beers and hanging around in bars and coffee shops. My god, I can't imagine OP, it sounds utterly miserable, the fools!

Thank you Losty 'Gin' would be quite an appropriate name at times.

Hipsters everywhere.