Hipsters Revisited

I don't want to belabour this topic too much. I realise that it's not as interesting to others as it is to me. It's mostly interesting to me because of my own vanity. I don't like the idea that the culture that I'm closest to (though don't identify with completely) is one that is mostly associated with negative qualities. I want to make clear though something that I might have been misleading about in my other hipster post: I have seen and acknowledge the existence of the kind of pretentious, douchey people that are generally called hipsters, and they really fucking annoy me.

But likewise I've met people who look like hipsters, enjoy their music, play in a band etc. but aren't pretentious elitist assholes, and in this lies the problem: Does not being a dickhead make you not a hipster? Or rather, is the enjoyment of the culture, style and sentiments of a certain demographic enough alone to make you a hipster?

It could be that you just can't be one without those negative attributes, but I don't think that's what it should be. If that's the case then the term hipster is nothing but a negative stereotype, designed to identify and mock a certain outgroup. It's not a particularly useful stereotype either, because, I would argue, you can take any group - for example jocks - and find within it as many ugly personalities as you would in a group of hipsters. You could find just as many people who take the creed of their specific group to extremes, and because of that become elitist, arrogant and generally annoying.

What would be a better use of the term, I think, would be a simple means of identifying certain tastes. It is not necessary that the term carry with it any appraisal of personality at all. If it were redefined in this way, then people like me wouldn't have to shy away from the label. Because really, if I were to identify with one culture, this is the one I would undoubtedly choose. But I can't, because to do so would be the same as calling myself a snob (or whatever else), and to say that I relate to the (annoying) extremes of this culture. Obviously I don't, and wouldn't want to, but  because this negative stereotype of a hipster is the only one that exists, I know that from some perspectives I am equated with exactly that. And so, it is from vanity that I originally decided to take the title hipster upon myself. I thought that, by trying to associate the term with something less extreme, I might affect a small positive change in its meaning.