— By Kristen Haney |
So there’s an art opening at Cafe Royale this Thursday called “Hipster Apocalypse,” and reading about it I’m just like….ughhhhhhh. I mean, read the description:
Ironically, although hipsters have existed in one form or another for decades, the hipster movement has become more main stream, influencing the American status quo by supporting alternative art, music, and fashion. Like an epidemic of entitlement, the hipster condition has spread across America and over the seas to Japan and other countries susceptible to American culture. We see hipsters every day riding their fixed-gear bicycles on their way to studying film at local art schools. They drink the most expensive coffee and the cheapest beer. Imagine a world where alternative culture is pop culture; a world where Vampire Weekend plays the half time show at the Super Bowl instead of Bruce Springsteen; a world where stores selling used records and clothing are as large and as common as Walmart. The purpose of this show is to create awareness of the hipster way and the rise in demand for outrageous moustaches, vacuum sealed jeans, high-school sports tee shirts, and the over-consumption of Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Now, (TAKING ALL OF MY STRENGTH TO OVERLOOK THEIR USE OF THE WORD IRONIC) I don’t generally drink Pabst because I have taste buds, but I do a lot of hipstery things like not eating meat and loving boys with ironic facial hair. And I’m just tired of the term “hipster”. It feels like 20-somethings are divided into “hipsters” and “bros and beezies,” and they’re supposed to hate each other and be condescending towards each other and blah blah blah. And at this point I'm like WHO CARES. We all grew up with a sense of entitlement because most of us were born to upper middle class white people who coddled us and told us we were “special” while rearing us in suburbia and sending us to SAT prep classes because we were “destined to succeed.” Some of us embraced this upbringing, moved to the Marina, and continued to live off of the emotional and financial support of our parents. Others were like, “wait, but I’m different and I want people to know I’m different and SO not like my parents,” so they moved to the Mission and liked the same things everyone else liked, like second-hand flannel and oversized glasses, while continuing to live off of the emotional and financial support of our parents. So I guess my whole point is…don’t point the finger at hipsters for this culture of entitlement sweeping over the helpless nation “like an epidemic.” It’s my whole goddamned generation, and you created us.
That said, I'm sure it's all very lovely art (UNICORNS! RAAAAAINBOWS!!), and the reception goes from 8pm-midnight. make up your own minds, you goddamned conformists.
Comments (20)
very well said Kristen; i generally agree.
at the end of the day ‘Hipster’ is just another label WE ALL USE because we’re lazy. who cares if a demograph of twenty-some’s ride simple bicycles to the park, drinks a cheap beer in cases, and wears flannel? whoever who makes a bigger deal about it than it really is needs to stfu and/or gtfo.
additionally, anyone who throws art openings called Hipster Apocalypse is just trying to ride a buzzword to relevance, and sometimes the bank. they don’t give a shit about spreading awareness or information. i mean c’mon, it’s all a trend/fad, not SARS or the plague.
We prefer fauxhemian or doucheoisie, thank you very much.
BRO WHY DID YOU TAKE MY PICTURE?!?! I WAS MAKING THOSE FOR MY BAND!!!! YOU”VE PROBABLY NEVER HEARD OF US ANYWAY!
zach….i am so deeply sorry. what a faux pas on my part.
doucheoisie ————The BEST new descriptive noun !!!!!!
Why did someone take a picture of George? (He’s a local neighborhood kid, far from a hipster).
very well said.
Hipster apocalypse… hipocalypse!
I was born to upper middle class people?! Sweet! How do I cash in on that? And who the hell was that woman who raised me?
she’s called a nanny brizz. your parents were just sneakier than most.
This kid is a mission local. Do you even live in san francisco? Classist tolerance is so ironic, especially when preached on a website dealing in expensive mid-day breakfast reviews and street art critiques
hey… not all of us are white or middle class………….
double ugh to you, and mucho credit to my very lovely friend who painted the unicorn rainbow picture you like so much.
i do like it! a lot!
I never enter flame wars, but you’re an idiot so I’m entering this one!
I’m neither a bro nor a hipster, and I was not raised in suburbia, coddled by my parents who entered me into SAT prep classes. I worked hard to get where I am, and was almost the first one in my family to graduate from college (and no, not an art school, but USC where I graduated at the head of my department). I am Mexican-American, I grew up fairly poor, I play music, I drink beer, I buy expensive coffee. Cheap beer is tolerable, sometimes tasty; cheap coffee is shit.
I’m sorry if you think you grew up with a sense of entitlement because everyone else grew up that way and it’s not your fault. I’m sorry because it really is your fault. I know people who grew up poor who still have a sense of entitlement. I also know people who grew up well off and don’t. Both of the people who fall into these camps could be either hipsters, bros, beezies, or none of the above. You’re falling right into the same little closed off world that you’re railing against. You whine about being called a hipster, and then directly call yourself a sef-entitled hipster in the same blog post. I know that when you live inside a world, a certain culture, it’s hard to see any other way, so I should be able to forgive you for not realizing that the world is bigger than living in the Mission and liking what everyone else likes, or moving to the Marina, but I can’t. Your point is completely lost on me, you’re hypocritical, and your writing is terrible. How did you get to write a blog with sentences like this:
“I’m just like….ughhhhhhh. I mean, read the description”
“…they’re supposed to hate each other and be condescending towards each other and blah blah blah. And at this point I’m like WHO CARES.”
I will be at this art show tonight, and I will be there to support my friends’ art. I will not bother or be bothered about some other person’s definition of hipster, but I will most likely be wandering around the Mission dodging fixies flying through stop signs and getting yelled at for not moving out of someone’s entitled path. Hope to see you there!
I never considered this a flame war, merely a healthy argument.
My main point of this article was to express my feelings about people blaming “hipsters” for a culture of entitlement, when really, most people born in my generation were bred with this same feeling of entitlement due to their upbringing. The intention was never to say EVERYONE grew up like I did…but most people I know did (hence my use of the word “most”), whether or not they are “hipsters” or happily living in the marina. I’m not rallying against it, I’m merely acknowledging it. I fully accept that I was lucky enough to be born and raised in a situation where I was always expected to succeed, and I respect everyone who had to work hard for what they did. My point is, point the blame at THE GENERATION ACROSS THE BOARD, not just at hipsters, because, like you said, you can find entitlement everywhere, and I’m saying (and standing by) the fact that it’s more prevalent in early to mid-twenty-somethings, and I’m not the only one with this opinion (http://townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell/2009/03/10/the_culture_of_en…). The description accompanying the show was idiotic, but I fully supported the artists and never once said anything bad about them. I really do love rainbows and unicorns.
Also, THANK YOU for editing my work. I now know that ugggghhhhh is not a descriptor (but really, reading the description, i audibly went “uggghhhh”). Is blah blah blah not an appropriate way to end a sentence? I do recognize this is a blog, but in the future I will send it to my college professor for edits so it can meet your standards. Should I just send it to you to proofread? Since my daily life involves writing and editing, I just lifted this from my blog, which I view as a place where I can write like I speak (admittedly not in AP style) and not worry about people pointing out my grammatical errors. I feel that calling me an idiot was a little uncalled for, and a bit of a personal attack in what could have been a very civil exchange of differing opinions.
And i will not be attending the show, because the description is still something I have an issue with, and I don’t deal well with people who are mean to me via the internet because I’m sensitive and would probably go home and cry to my cats if people were mean to me like this in real life, with the attacks on my intelligence, character, and grammar (not the grammar!) in real life. I wish the artists all the best, and I hope the rant you got off on this post makes you feel better.
oh and don’t bother to proofread this one; I wrote it after a bit of sake so I’m sure it’s riddled with errors, but let’s just recognize this isn’t an academic journal, ok?
I’m going to go ahead and ignore the paragraph about grammar (which I did not attack) since obviously you can write well and refuse to do so, which in itself is more frustrating than just not being able to write well. What I will address is your continued belief that “most people born in my generation were bred with this same feeling of entitlement due to their upbringing”. Most people born in our generation were not born with this feeling of entitlement. You just surround yourself with those people, hence your belief. I know, it’s hard to realize the bigger world out there when yours is so small but so hip. I can guarantee you the amount of people in our generation that were born in suburbia and raised with a sense of entitlement pales in comparison to the amount of everyone else.
My point is that your opinion is actually not an opinion but a statement written as fact, which is not a fact at all. The world is not black and white, divided into hipsters or bros, and we all were not raised the same as you and your friends. I would like you to be able to separate what the world is like from what your world is like.
I also dislike people who blame others for their more unsavory personality traits, such as these feelings of entitlement. If you and/or your friends feel this way, and you know it’s not a likable trait, change it. Otherwise, don’t act that way and then say it’s everyone else’s fault. And don’t lump me into that category as well by calling out the entire generation, when really it’s just you and your friends. Ok, I’m done, I promise!
I was a little disgusted doing my internet research for this show, discovering that there was a lot more information about hating hipsters than what’s involved in hipster culture. I was a little unsure of what to do with the theme of the show up until that point. Well anyways,as far as I can tell a lot of artists that were invited in the show ARE hipsters, or their friends are anyway. I don’t know how the show’s gonna look but Galley Royale is a fun place to hang out, and sometimes that’s the best reason for an art show.
What’s a hipster?
^liiiiiike! A thousand times ^liiiiiike!!!!!!
*bump ;)