by Sara-Jessica Dilks

Why did the hipster burn his tongue?

Because he drank his coffee before it was cool.

They can be found lingering in a Westport coffee shop, reading unreleased volumes of Jack Kerouac and scribbling a reminder in their pocket-size journal to pick up some organic tofu from Whole Foods. “Note to self: buy most outrageous sweater possible from thrift store,” they write. Every so often they pause to peer over their oversized geek-chic spectacles to judge the mainstream loser nearby who’s wearing Nike shorts. “Nike. Eugh. How typical,” they sigh. But judging the mainstream loser is ultimately not worth of their time or thoughts, so they return to sipping their espresso and listening to Bon Iver.

These fascinating creatures have become known today as “hipsters,” normally found lurking in their natural habitat of downtown music venues, thrift stores and lowkey cafés you probably haven’t even heard of. These individuals pride themselves on their wallflower-status, opting to engulf themselves in a world of ironic nostalgia rather than bask in the sun of popularized mass media.

Fueled by the specific intention to defy the mainstream, hipsters make it well-known that they wish to branch out from today’s straight-edged traditional norms of pop culture, settling instead for individualistic trends — generally devoting their time to explore underground or unpopular types of music, art and fashion. As a result, they’re constantly being labeled as indie, artsy, mod, urban and alternative.

However, hipsterdom as a concept isn’t exclusive to 2012. If we examine history, there’s always been a dominant culture in society. It’s inevitable for each and every social group in this world to have a prevailing set of accepted norms, values, behavior and appearance; the individuals who are bold enough to step outside of the cookie-cutter of mainstream society often become known as outcasts in some way or another.

Whether it was the intuitive Aristotle, who disagreed with his generation’s theory that the world was flat, or the progressive Martin Luther King, who spoke out against the racial inequality of America, the idea of breaking the norm has always been considered surprising and essentially radical to the rest of conformed society. I’m not trying to stereotype either Aristotle or MLK as condescending Instagram-lovers but rather am just pointing out how the idea of hipster-like radical expression existed even before the invention of Raybans and Bon Iver.

Speaking of recent years, hipsterdom seems to have lately become an incredibly prominent movement within the American youth culture…so much so that the underlying principle of the movement — originality — has contradicted itself. Unfortunately, it seems that as the hipsterdom trend has grown, many people desire the “hipster” label itself rather than appreciate the undiscovered or unpopular cultural art, music, fashion or literature.

Being hip has in fact become so hip, that the entire purpose of radicalness and individuality has vanished completely.

Come on now, wasn’t the original point of hipsterness to immerse oneself in aspects of culture that aren’t cool? Here’s a few examples of what I’m trying to say:

The store Urban Outfitters sells overpriced high-waisted shorts, flannel plaid shirts and floral sundresses, marketed for an audience of “hip” individuals who New York Magazine identifies as their own “counterculture”.

The how-to website Wikihow has a page devoted to “How to become a hipster in 22 steps”.

There are hundreds of Youtube tutorials on the most successful way to tie your hair into a “messy indie bun.”

The trend “Vintage Chic” headlines over fashion photo spreads in “Teen Vogue” and “Seventeen.”

Some teens view First Fridays, the monthly downtown art gallery, to be a cool scene to gather with friends rather than appreciate it as the cultural arts festival that it actually is.

Seattle-based rapper Macklemore’s single “Thrift Shop” can be heard blasting in the STA parking lot after school, his lyrics declaring that he is going to “pop some tags” at a secondhand store despite the fact he only has “$20 in [his] pocket”.

In the words of Time magazine,

“The hipsters who will be the dead end of Western Civilization are the ones who add nothing new or original and simply recycle and reduce old trends into a meaningless meme.”

If you have indeed fallen subject to hipsterdom because of its trendy nature rather than its embracement of independent thinking, do me a favor and give real underground art and music and literature a shot.

Otherwise, I don’t care how much you dislike espresso…the underground has become the mainstream.