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Stereotyping - Hipster Hate

Posted by Snow.. from Vale Of Glamorgan - Published on 04/08/2012 at 11:17
5 comments » - Tagged as Culture, Fashion, People

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Yn Cymraeg

Every time I log into Facebook, I can be guaranteed at least one status hating on "Hipsters" appear on my newsfeed.

If you'd asked me a few months ago what is a hipster, I probably would have told you someone who doesn't care about the crowd. You know, they're just themselves. Since seeing the outbreak of the hate towards "Hipsters" on Facebook though, I honestly couldn't tell you. From what I've seen it seems that there's now a new "clique" that are Hipsters... well, I don't get it, I've always thought it was someone who did completely their own thing, so how you could get a whole group exactly the same is beyond me.

But what I don't get even more than the label, is why these people are hating. We all know that bands and artists make a lot of merchandise with logos and whatnot on. Most of the time these are t-shirts, yeah? So is it really so much of crime for just anybody to wear these t-shirts? If you ask the fans, then prepare for a gob-full of how these "hipster people" are making the band look bad or whatever for walking around with their t-shirts on. I bet if you asked the band or people in charge of the merchandise though, they wouldn't care, at the end of the day it's still profit for them right? The more they sell the better.

Iron Maiden are one of my favourite bands, yet because I don't exactly dress like a "mosher", "punk", "goth", "rocker" or whatever, if I wear my gig t-shirt out, chances are, one of their fans will think I'm "another one of the hipster people, who just thinks Eddie looks cool". Arghh! It's so frustrating, you know, people don't have to have their hair a certain way, dress a certain way, do certain things, just to wear a band t-shirt. At the end of the day it's more publicity for the band, as if they'll be bothered that one person out of 7 billion is wearing their merch and not listening to their music.

Why does it seem that today we have to fit into a certain stereotype? If you don't then you're considered weird... well then, what's normal? People shouldn't have to pretend to like things to fit in. At the same time, they shouldn't pretend not to like things if they think it's going to make them look cooler. What's wrong with just being you?

Today I was answering some questions on hate crime, and one of the questions was to do with decreasing hate crime, and how we can teach people that everyone's equal. Well, from what I'm seeing everyday we're never going to be able to get that view across to everyone. In today's society, it seems as if you're getting judged for every little thing that you do, and it's really starting to get on my nerves.?Whether it's "goth", "chav", "sl*t", etc when you're in high school or "Tory monsters", "Labour monsters" blah blah blah, from the people running our country! As much as I hate saying it, it's never going to stop. The fact that there's a new group called "hipsters"?! Well, it says it all. We just love our stereotypes. I won't lie, I do judge people on the way they dress etc. Everyone does, it's human nature. But I could never go to the extreme of making a point of hating a certain group of people. Even if I have made an opinion on them because of how they look, I'll still want to get to know them first, for all I know the only thing I don't have in common with them is the way we dress!

I can't stand making judgements on people, but it's something that's done subconsciously by everyone, no matter what they may say. What I don't get is how you can act on that initial opinion, by making hate statuses because someone wore your favourite band t-shirt but don't look the type of person to listen to that band; how the hell would you know? Or shouting "faggot" at a guy because he was listening to musical theatre; the person shouting it would have no clue of his sexual orientation just from that.

We all have the right to our opinions, but I hate it when those opinions start to affect the way people are living to avoid negative judgements. It just seems as if labels and stereotypes run the whole world today, like they're setting some sort of subconscious hierarchy that everyone is aware of. I get told I'm horrible for saying I don't really like the human race... well if you think about it, why would you like it?