ENID AND THE HIPSTER SUBCULTURE

" I think the general negativity of my teenage years has blossomed into a much healthier selective cynicism"


These are not my words but that of a precocious young woman who was about 16 when she fell in love with a movie from 2001 called "GHOST WORLD". In particular, the character of
ENID embodied to perfection by Thora Birch.


Enid gave a voice to the alienation and isolation felt by many gifted suburban girls.



Jam packed with the classic lines like "I'm tired of all these extroverted pseudo-
bohemian losers." The message resonated.



In the real world these young woman started to pop up everywhere. At the time I was oblivious, until recently when I dated two.



With their Buddy Holly glasses, full lips, existential angst, ironic logos, depth beyond their years, and their proclivity for depression. The impression was very powerful. That is, if you had the good sense to take notice.



However these same young ladies have often graduated into what now would be categorized as the "HIPSTERS" of today. Watch out.



The "Hipster" subculture cannot be missed in and around a city like Toronto.
To be honest, I am not sure what to really make of it. My general reaction is one of
surprise and a distant Marshall Mcluhan like interest.



Are they going for IRONY or is this supposed to be the REAL THING?
Even better than the real thing?



What is a Hipster? Let's bring on the depth of Wikipedia. Can we go wrong?


Hipster (contemporary subculture)

Hipster is a slang term that first appeared in the 1940s, and was revived in the 1990s and 2000s to describe types of young, recently settled urban middle class adults and older teenagers with interests in non-mainstream fashion and culture, particularly indie rock, independent film, magazines such as Vice and Clash, and websites like Pitchfork Media.[1] In some contexts, hipsters are also referred to as scenesters.[2]
"Hipster" has been used in sometimes contradictory ways, making it difficult to precisely define "hipster culture" because it is a "mutating, trans-Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behavior[s]."[1] One commentator argues that "hipsterism fetishizes the authentic" elements of all of the "fringe movements of the postwar era—beat, hippie, punk, even grunge," and draws on the "cultural stores of every unmelted ethnicity", and "regurgitates it with a winking inauthenticity."[3] Others, like Arsel and Thompson, argue that hipster is a cultural mythology, crystallization of a mass mediated stereotype generated to understand, categorize and marketize the indie consumer culture rather than an objectified group of people.


INTERESTING?


Other contemporary Urban Subcultures that pop into my mind are Goths and Urban Primitives. Belle Legosi's Dead.



The HIPSTERS seem to have morphed tree hugging and 70's fashion... Monogamy and pot smoking... Moustaches, sushi and cunnilingus... Bad sunglasses and Beatnik authors.
Vinyl records and Peru...The list goes on.



As somebody that has ridden a few waves in my time from Disco to the Dead Kennedy's...
There is always something cooler(this word isn't cool anymore) coming soon ...the real reflection of your generation...or a sublime anti-reflection of your generation.


It seems important to identify with some sort of outer extension of your soul. Wear yourself on your sleeve so to speak. Some or the male fashion statements seem to be yanked right out of a 70's porno movie or the Walberg spoof "Brock Landers".



I shouldn't really say too much more as I listen to "that 70's channel" on live 365 internet radio and can identify any song within seconds. "Get down boogie oogie oogie"



"THEY WANT YOU AS A NEW RECRUIT"



Even though I am a male and a little long in the tooth at that.
I get ENID. She really was cool, even in my somewhat jaded opinion.



I am just not sure I want to join in anymore which is a pity. I've had my 15 minutes of fame and I am still trying to recover.



RL