The Hipster Paradox: Unified Anti-Conformity
Portland, Oregon, 2012 was an unparalleled moment in time — you just had to be there.
Girls with Zooey Deschanel bangs and glasses wore knit tights under jean shorts. Men dressed in suspenders and had perfectly groomed handlebar mustaches that curled up at the ends.
Although this fashion era lives on in the hearts of some elder millennials, the hipster style has seen a significant decline over the past eight years.
The origins of the word hipster date back to the 1930s. A “hepster” was someone who frequented Harlem jazz clubs and was “in the know” when it came to emerging subcultures. An article published in 1944 popularized the word, and – whether it was a typo or an intentional move by the author – the “e” changed to an “i,” and the hipster was born.
The term eventually evolved to describe specifically Caucasian males who borrowed aspects of Black American culture but could not authentically replicate them. This unsuccessful imitation led to the word’s negative connotation today.
In the 1990s–2010s, hipsters reemerged in the zeitgeist and underwent yet another transformation. This new wave of hipsters stood for resisting traditionalism, capitalism, and conformity. Locally sourced organic food, specialty coffee, and craft beer became staples of hipster culture because they were seen as a form of protest against big corporations. If something was perceived as mainstream, this new brand of hipster wholeheartedly rejected it.
And therein lies the paradox. By resisting aspects of conformity in similar ways, hipsters ended up all looking the same.
In 2019, the MIT Technology Review published an article titled “The Hipster Effect: Why Anti-Conformists Always End Up Looking the Same.” The paper highlighted a study that used complexity science to explain why people who reject the mainstream end up looking similar. This was done by creating a computer model that simulated pop culture trends and predicted how countercultures eventually resist them. The cover photo of the article featured a quintessential hipster: a bearded individual dressed in flannel and a beanie.
Two months after publication, a man threatened to sue the magazine for using his image, but was met with a humbling and ironic reality. The photo was not of him, but of an entirely different person. There is no such thing as a self-proclaimed hipster. Due to online mockery, people resist the label, even if it’s accurate. Hipsters are often called arrogant and pretentious, as well as often being labeled gentrifiers.
In December 2014, hipster brothers Gary and Alan Keery opened the Cereal Killer Cafe in Shoreditch, London. The two were charging £3.20 ($6.13 adjusted for inflation) for a single bowl of cereal. Shoreditch was once an inexpensive, “edgy” part of London filled with struggling artists and people using their last bit of cash to hit the club. Over the past two decades, the cost of living in the area had risen, pushing its original residents out and stripping the area of its sense of community. The Cereal Killer Cafe felt like an added slap in the face, and people could not let its presence go unnoticed. Twitter (now X) was flooded with visceral hipster hate, which only added fuel to the fire. Nine months after its opening, 200 protesters carrying torches attacked the cafe with paint and graffiti.
But not all criticism resulted in this level of action. Thousands of hipster memes and parodies emerged during this era, and the popular sketch comedy series Portlandia inspired many jokes and cultural touchpoints. Hipsters were easy to pick on because they couldn’t fight back. Admitting to being a hipster defeated the entire purpose of what they stood for.
Hipsters demonstrate how originality is becoming harder to come by. Globalization and mass media have made it more difficult to “be ourselves” without looking exactly like someone else. But hipsters also serve as a reminder not to resist who you are. Hipsters were repeatedly made fun of for their stubbornness. They clung to the idea of individuality and refused to accept that they belonged to something bigger. It's okay to belong to a culture, or a subculture; we don’t all have to be entirely original.
Hipsters found it easier to create an identity based on the things they didn’t like, but ultimately, it only resulted in them becoming the very thing they resisted: mainstream.
Sources:
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.5046925/man-angry-his-photo-was-used-to-prove-all-hipsters-look-alike-then-learns-it-wasn-t-him-1.5046933
https://www.dictionary.com/articles/hipster
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Helen Myers is a third-year journalism and advertising student minoring in French. You’ll find her at your local coffee shop, trying to finish a crossword puzzle and listening to 90s British rock.