Everyone has heard the word hipster. Most people have used it at some point, referring to someone they thought fit the part.
It’s been used to describe me and it drives me absolutely, up-the-wall crazy.
Why? Because the shoe doesn’t fit.
To be a hipster is to be a part of a subculture. Hipsters shun mainstream societal conventions regarding everything from music to the way they buy groceries. They often wear vintage clothing and rarely don a T-shirt without some ironic meaning.
Frankly, it seems exhausting to constantly be so concerned with being different.
Like any other classification in society, there are extremes and relativities of the word hipster.
On one end are the undeniable, most hipster of the hipsters: skintight jeans, ridiculous haircuts and giant, unneeded glasses found in a thrift store. Everyone has seen them and scoffed.
I’ve wondered why they wear scarves with T-shirts in the middle of summer. I’ve wondered what exactly is on their heads and questioned if a regular hat could fulfill that same purpose.
On the other end, there’s me and those like me. I don’t wear skintight jeans, just jeans that fit properly. I have a well-barbered haircut. My glasses are worn out of necessity — legitimate vision impairment.
A sense of style has been sorely mistaken for the all too apparent signs of a hipster.
Somewhere along the line, the word hipster was generalized. The extreme and mild forms of the word were lumped together and considered the same.
Society has started to look at the exterior, the clothing people wear, and a snap judgement is made if it’s anywhere near their definition of hipster.
This has left people like me caught in the crossfire of hipster labeling and its negative connotations.
A Duke fan would rather not be mistaken for a University of North Carolina fan just because they’re in the same state and I do not like being associated with the word hipster.
It’s like eschewing the difference between hot and mild salsa.
This has left the style-inclined among the male gender wrongfully accused of crimes they did not commit.
This is my plea: think before accusing.
Matt Murphy can be reached at [email protected] or@matthewcharlesz on Twitter.
