I wore thick-rim glasses because 1. I didn't/couldn't care about fashion 2. my parents didn't have the money for nicer frames and 3. I actually could not see without glasses. So yeah, when I see thick rim glasses being worn _because_ they "look geeky," or worse, without even any lenses because the person has perfect vision, it annoys me a little bit. Because I got treated like dog shit by the exact same class of person who now dresses in a parody of my life as a frivolous fashion decision.
I can understand your annoyance and you're certainly entitled to it. I suppose the first thing I did when I read your post is ask myself "Well, why do I wear these glasses?" The simple answer is that my girlfriend thought I should get new glasses, so we picked out a bunch from Warby Parker to try on and she liked these the best. But even though she picked them out, I was complicit in the choice; if she had picked out some sort of bizarrely-shaped polka-dotted frame, I'm pretty sure I would've vetoed that. So there was some part of me that said "hey, I kinda like how I look in these."
Now, does this mean I'm appropriating a look that was formerly a magnet for bullies? Maybe. But the key thing to remember when considering the relationship between ridicule and compliments is that both are equally arbitrary. There was no reason for people to mock you or me for our choice of glasses back then, just like there's no intrinsic reason that these same glasses should appear attractive 10 years later. That's just how fashion/culture works.
I think if someone personally harassed someone else for wearing "dorky" glasses, and then later decided to wear that same style of glasses to appear fashionable while continuing to deride people that don't share their taste in clothing, then yeah, that would seem pretty hypocritical.
What suggests to you that these are the same people? Like, if I wore lensless glasses for kicks, would that put me into the "high school bully" class?
You're doing what TFA complains about: making assumptions about people & speaking ill of them because of how they dress. Why make assumptions? Why get mad because some guy wears a V-neck?
It's "cool" to be a nerd now, only in the sense that you can generally like whatever you want and be accepted for it. And I think that's great. Wish it was like that when I was a kid. Hipsters tried to make being a "nerd" "cool" in their usual exclusionary fashion, by ironically appropriating what they thought was ugly and awkward. Unsurprisingly us ugly, awkward folks didn't like that.
EDIT: I have nothing against the guy in the article, to make that clear.
Who the hell knows? Not you. You are just judging them for their style and how well they can pull it off. This tells you nothing of who they actually are.
I'm not sure how old you are & I apologize if this comes off as patronizing, but I promise you'll be happier when you let go of some of this stuff. You're getting pissed off at some guy on a fixie with a "Chthulu is my Homeboy" shirt on because you got bullied in high school for wearing glasses? Two reasons not to do this:
1) It's arbitrary: you don't know if the fixie guy was a bully or bullied as a kid, if it even matters; you're just hating some random person who has nothing to do with your childhood.
2) There is a cost and probably no benefit: being bitter and angry at people is not free of cost- it can make you feel bad, increase your stress, and make other people not want to be around you. What's the cost/benefit ratio on hating PBR drinkers?
Can we stop for a moment to appreciate how amazing this is? As a social development, this is something I could barely even conceptualize when I was in high school at the turn of the millenia.
People with both styles are in many of my social circles, but they still seem relatively distinct to me.
Depending on where you're at culturally, anime could be relatively obscure.
Hipster is a blanket term that really means something along the lines of "they're doing something unique to others in order to stand out and be 'cool.'" A "geek" may wear a Github or a Mario T-shirt because it's "cool" within their circle, but relatively obscure to the general public.
You could dress up like a 1980s goth kid, which is retro and relatively obscure these days, but I don't think many people would consider that hipster. I think anime t-shirts are similar, even where anime is obscure (also, I think outside of college campuses, anime is universally more obscure than many people believe).
You might be surprised. There used to be a Tumblr blog called LookAtThatFuckingHipster, and it was kind of funny the insane range of people that get submitted there. Part of the silliness of hipster-hating is that it would seem we can't even agree what constitutes a hipster! I remember seeing more than a few emos and goths in the bunch.
I don't know anyone who actually dresses for attention. I know plenty of people who dress unusually though, since I'm part of the rock/goth/alternative community in my city. Every one of them dresses according to their sense of aesthetics. They dress in a way that they think looks good.
I get the feeling that a lot of the people complaining about hipsters are like when you get regular people complaining about modern art or jazz music. Ignorant people making assumptions. I'm not saying I understand hipster fashion, but I at least know that I don't understand it. I find it hard to believe that many people dress in a way that they personally think looks bad in order to be fashionable.
The two objects of interest are not the same, they're not in the same category, but they're both tied by the same kind of enjoyment for retro things.
So it's not really about which shirts are worn by geeks and hipsters at the same time ...
I'd call it better than Budweiser, worse than Coors. Certainly better than the other heavyweight in 'cheap booze that young people drink': Natural Light. For some reason drinking natty light is not seen to be as damming an indicator on a persons character though... that is reserved for PBR.
The first exists in the US, but the second doesn't really (outside a few circles typically called 'beer snobs' ;).
I've been to Utah and see what kind of nonsense they do with beer.
I definitely prefer Sierra Nevada, Stone IPA, and Harpoon to Bud Light 95% of the time, but there are days when it's 115 degrees out and my mind says "I want beer-flavored water."
The worst beer, by far, is heavy beer that tastes like garbage. I can drink Natty Light and be happy; I cannot drink a heavy beer that tastes bad.
This whole anti-hipster sentiment is so bizarre to me. It's all about policing other peoples' fashion/taste/activities without reason. The idea that hipsters are somehow not genuine doesn't make any sense. What is there to be genuine to?
If you use an old film camera because you like the photos it takes and are fascinated by how it operates, more power to you.
If you use an old film camera because you think it looks cool around your neck, more power to you.
If you use an old film camera because you like the fact that you're one of the only people using one, more power to you.
In terms of a stereotypical hipster, it's because it's being smug that you're not following the crowd. But you get there by paying a lot of attention to what the crowd likes, and using that as your primary decision maker. AKA you're following the crowd.
It's okay to like being unique, but find a niche though your own preferences, not though hypocritical reasoning.
But, in practice, the mockery boils down to an exercise in More Authentic Than Thou based on guesses from superficial details. Isn't making judgements about authenticity based on a few superficial details an even more loathsome exercise in hypocrisy?
I do like EvanKelly's point here: "What is there to be genuine to."?
What the heck is someone supposed to wear that is neither an overt exercise in conformity or a contrived exercise in non-conformity? What would in between or opting out of the pretense look like?
In fact, it might look a lot like Mr. Hermelin, whose clothes look functional and cheap, without any visible labels, without any apparent in-factory distressing of the fabric.
Edit: fixed broken english.
You want to use a typewriter at the local coffee shop? Rock on.
It is most often upper-middle kids (generally white) adopting and gentrifying sub-cultures and then abandoning them when all of the cool has been drained out. What is left becomes fodder for "ironic" mockery.
That is what the author never thinks of addressing. What he boils down to "they hate me because they think I want attention" isn't because he wants attention, it is because he has taken on the trappings of a group who devour other groups.