I am so tired of the mainstream hipster culture that appropriates styles and symbols from marginalized groups (people of color, queer folks and of course, queer people of color, just to name a few) and churns it into a capitalist monster with a revenue upwards of 1.3 billion US dollars! Did you know the president of Urban Outfitters Richard Hayne is a straight, white, card-carrying, flag waving REPUBLICAN? Philidelphia Weekly knew it when they published this article on him. My favorite quote from the article: "hayne projects a Dick Cheney-esque aura of no-nonsense gray flannel gravitas."
It is not just hipsters or hipster culture that is wack, but they are one damn annoying aspect of a larger history of capitalist cultural appropriation and exploitation. Did I mention gentrification? I meant to. I did find this article refreshing from Racialicious.com. In the article, the author self-identifies as a "conscious hipster" and presents a Third Space à la Homi Bhabha (love the nerdy academic name-dropping) for the hipsters of color. Score! I love the reaffirmation that this camel can roam around in her skinny jeans, spandex, and high-tops while still separating herself from the white, soon-to-be-republican-once-they-make-enough-money hipsters. That said, these are the shoes that I want:
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1 comment:
I like the idea of "hipsters of color" but the main thing I hate about hipsters is that they don't stand for anything. As in the Racialicious article Haute Shotor mentioned, at least beats and hippies stood for something in addition to their unusual fashion sense in the time period. What do hipsters stand for?
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