This works on so many levels. There's the shock that anyone is, in 2008, still calling themselves preppie. Especially since even in the 1980s I never actually knew anyone who went to prep school to use that word.
Then there's the hilarious arrogance of the men. It reads like something in the kind of bad feminist short stories people used to write in my college creative writing classes--the ones where the teacher used to say, "But Willow, no one's actually that malignantly stupid."
And what would I not give to be a fly on the wall when one of these erstwhile Romeos sidles up to a tattooed chick at the Black Cat and tries to woo her by telling her how much he loves Death Cab for Cutie*.
There's also the shock of seeing most of the bars I go to regularly described as hipster hangouts. If there's anything less hip than me, I rarely run into it.
Of course, it seems like now I may have to find some other bars. Not that I'm in any romantic danger from 25 year old preppies looking for the kind of girl you Don't Take Home to Mother. But I'm not sure I can bear to watch their excruciating humiliation. Don't worry that she'll be turned off by your polo shirt, friend. It's not your clothes--it's you.
* So do I. But I don't brag about it.
I'm slowly falling in love with you... :)
Shorter Megan: I'm totally hip and cool--I am so!--but I don't like to draw attention to it. Apart from not so subtly announcing it on my blog, I mean.
"There's also the shock of seeing most of the bars I go to regularly described as hipster hangouts. If there's anything less hip than me, I rarely run into it."
Your typical 21st century hipster is all about not being hip. You have obviously just brought it to a zen level.
First you must learn to be hip.
Then you must forget to be hip.
The you really gotta try this Namibian light-roast mocha-chino.
Why would anyone hip ever want to live in Washington DC?
Why would anyone hip ever want to live in Washington DC?
Indeed, why Ian MacKaye, Dave Grohl, The Bad Brains and I were just talking about that just the other day.
Why would anyone hip ever want to live in Washington DC?
Because once you pass into your thirties and the Hip wears off, your best fallback is Power.
What am I Ed? Chopped Liver?
I'm so unhip I've never heard of Death Cab For Cutie. They're not bad.
Sigh. I'm afraid this post misses the tragedy of the hipster.
The tragedy of the "LNS" is obvious. The hipster, a bit less so, but only because they are an elusive species
Aesthetic hipness CAN be an extension of a creative mind, wide-ranging experiences, and an innate curiosity (see 3000, Andre).
This is an attractive quality to many people, who aren't creative, don't have a wide range of experiences, and are not curious.
They want to be liked by "hipsters" though, so they emulate them the easiest way they know how -- the aesthetic.
These people lack the "hipster" substance, which is apparent to anyone who is familiar with the species.
Of course, the aesthetic provides a preprogrammed response for the poser hipsters -- indignation and withdrawal from the objectable parties behind a wall of insults attacking the objectable parties' incapacity to comprehend their hipness
"Pshh, that guy just doesn't like me because of my gauge earrings..."
When in reality the objecting party could care less about his earrings or his vain attempt to spray paint his feathers to get the attention of a mate -- the party only feels bad that some poor soul will fall for the fakery, and then takes refuge in the fact than anyone stupid enough to do so is likely also a poser.
It depends on how stupid the guys are. If this is just a 'hunting expedition' for bragging rights, but the guys take a little time to dress somewhere near the style of the bar... I dunno. Certain things are cultural universals. If a guy is smoothe and confident, he'll have a shot over guys that are unsure of themselves.
As for the idea that hipsters (are these goths btw? I think you are describing goths) are smarter than preps/straights. Whatever. Its an aesthetic. You can embrace straight aesthetic and be smart. You can embrace the hipster aesthetic and be a stoner burnout.
I'm from the nerd herd m'self so the distinctions are mostly amusement to me.
I'm in the middle of a D&D game right now actually.
8)
I neglected to mention how easy it is to fool these pseudo-intellectual bimbos.
"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" provides a satirical take on how one can easily snow an environmentalist group. One of the main characters, after being snubbed by said group, adopts their mannerisms and returns to seek revenge. He easily wins them over, sabotages their goal, fools the leader, and bangs the leader's girlfriend -- completely relevant to the discussion? Maybe not.
But a hilarious satire of these elitist cliques. (Please, poster, don't bother with a hyper-aggressive response about how college Republicans are 1000x worse, I'm with you, just chill out, and realize your buddies are stupid, too.)
Pray tell, what the fuck are you talking about?
Death Cab for Cutie is a very good, very self-absorbed band. Introspective post-Beatles 60's flavor with a dash of poison. Anthems for those who will lose Holland in about twenty years.
Ah yes, but Megan, you and I missed the true Preppie movement of 1981, we were still in grade school.
You want to meet a true relic of the Preppie era, a self identified preppy I suggest you have dinner with my husband who, if it weren't for someone pointing out that, no, really, a man in his 40s should not be wearing his collar up on his polo shits, probably still wood. I once, while waiting for a table at Lupa with him, had to endure a 20 minute rant about how one does not roll up ones sleeves AND untuck ones oxford shirt from one's khakis as it looks slovenly.
He's really quite the anthro study, that one.
The definitive word on hipsters:
http://catandgirl.com/view.php?loc=455
Weird. You'd think the Latter Day Saints were having enough trouble these days that the Latter Night Saints would NOT be looking so attractive....but then what do I know?
Polo shirt + Dockers = douche bag
And what would I not give to be a fly on the wall when one of these erstwhile Romeos sidles up to a tattooed chick at the Black Cat and tries to woo her by telling her how much he loves Death Cab for Cutie*.
But isn't the flip side of these guys' shocking arrogance the shocking gullibility of some girls? I mean, would they really have this attitude if they hadn't ever successfully scored? I'm guessing that we'd be just as shocked to be a fly on the wall the day after, when whatever girls these guys successfully went after are talking to their friends about them.
That said... wow. Morons.
As a preppie - in terms of dress - whose musical tastes, etc. result in spending an inordinate amount of my social life out and about in hipster enclaves I find this whole thing hilarious.
Hipsters are sheep. So many of them left high school either damaged or feeling marginalized that they are absolutely intoxicated with this alternate universe they've created where they get to believe they're the cool people. I can't really speak to the guys being commented on because, well, throwing on a polo shirt and khaki pants is in and of itself a choice devoid of any meaning as opposed to the painstakingly cultivated aesthetic of, cough, individuality that is the hipster. With punks, goths et al there has always been an element of clothes as plumage but at least it was a big hearty middle finger at everyone else as well. Hipsters are an inside joke without a punchline yet and the telling of it has long since grown tiresome.
Some of these "preppie" guys may be bonafide douchebags, but I've never had the least bit of a challenge in tapping hipster chicks. And the truth behind the carefully cultivated exterior always comes out. Having common cultural interests definitely helps establish rapport but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that being good looking, normal, having an Ivy degree and having been a very good college athlete is the combination that makes it like shooting fish in a barrel. Its not even close to that easy for me at regular bars. I guess it makes them all wet to think they've met someone who gets their interests but also embodies the highest virtues of the mainstream world they feel so insecure in.
Being hip? That's a kids game, not much more to it than a popularity contest. Which most people grow out of by their 30's, the sad fact being that even being twenty-something is no guarantee of having assembled an idiosyncratic identity that you are comfortable with. The other sad fact being twenty-something is also no guarantee that you are not slavishly addicted to the good opinions of others. Again, this is just a stage that most people go through and eventually grow out of.
Otoh, you then have some good stories to tell, much, much later.
Shall we shag now, or shall we shag later? Works like a charm *s*. Of course, these days I emphasize the JD from Harvard and my days on the football team a bit more than I used to....
Also posted at Ross's place:
Isn't part of the humor behind sites like "Stuff White People Like" that a lot of white hipsters are actually "well-bred" prep school kids who went to good universities, often highly-ranked expensive private universities whose families' were rich enough that they could major in art history and comparative literature? I mean, look at Yglesias on this site. It's just amazing how clueless professional DC younger Republicans can be.
Publius is the most on target, but underestimates the tragedy, too. There's a note of aspiration in his diagnosis that I almost never see in the real world.
I'm a musician whose fans are almost all from the elite upper ranks of hipsters, the ones who regard the type under examination here (Death Cab For Cutie?!) as the social equivalent of Huckabee voters. In theory, this means I occupy an equivalent position in the hipster hierarchy to someone like Bruce Sterling's in the geek ranks. But in everyday hipster life, it's not so, not at all, because, and only because, I look like some guy.
At my own shows, I regularly get shit-eyed, and I've twice been heckled for out-of-place unhipness, by my own female fans who don't recognize me. Learning that the name they're attached to and the dude they disdain are one doesn't soften the attitude. I purely disappoint them.
I don't really mind, because I'm as disinterested in them as they are in the no-name version of me, but it's clarifying. Posers are posing only for each other.
(The rest of my fans are academics. They behave identically, in scarves.)
my husband who, if it weren't for someone pointing out that, no, really, a man in his 40s should not be wearing his collar up on his polo shits, probably still wood.
I see these guys all the time. I too would be one if my wife would let me.
But you know what? It's coming back. I have seen more and more young folk with the turquoise polo shirt with the collar up and the topsiders with no socks, and I say, huh, haven't seen that for about 20 years...
"But you know what? It's coming back. I have seen more and more young folk with the turquoise polo shirt with the collar up and the topsiders with no socks, and I say, huh, haven't seen that for about 20 years...
Posted by JP | May 24, 2008 8:48 PM"
And the funny thing is they are rarely, if ever, actual preppies, but they pretend to have gone to Andover once they reach college.
Cross-posted at Ross Douthat's blog.
Reality Man has it right. If I had to write a list of the wealthiest people that I know, and a list of the most hipsterish/culturally bohemian people that I know, those two lists would overlap quite a bit.
These guys base their goals and values on materialism and social-climbing, yet they are clueless about the markers of real wealth and social status. Sorry guys, ownership of a few polo shirts and a blackberry doesn't make you part of the ruling class, and lack of ownership of same doesn't deal you out of that class. What a bunch of maroons.
One additional comment about younger kids bringing back 80s preppy style. From what I've seen they often mix it up with a little bit of "alternative" cultural appearances, like some tattoos or footwear that one definitely wouldn't have found on an 80s preppie. So it's not quite exactly the same, except maybe with these LNS buffoons. I swear, these kids today...
Whee. Reading that, the only thing that came to mind was "The Clueless Meeting the Bemused."
And what do you bet that no matter how many times they fall into bed together, at the end Mr. Blackberry will go home to marry some Nice Girl he's been introduced to by Mom....
*sigh* Le plus que on le vois, le plus c'est la meme chose...
death cab for cutie became unhip seven years ago!
(trying to win most annoying post, perhaps succeeding.)
Young? Hip? An oxymoron at the present time.Do I win?
Well, actually, sidling up to a gal and talking about how much you hate Death Cab has a much higher chance of success.
hipster-ism has really run its course in the past 10-15 years, I expect it to fade... or at least start padding itself with substance... but as long as VICE magazine lives, there is still evidence of it thriving in a way...