Fordham University, Bronx, NY

2016

Hipster Spotting NYC

Photos and design by authors,using images from The New Yorker and personal photos

The bravest thing anyone can do in this modern society of judg-ment and stereotypes is to simply be themselves. For my close friend Brandon Wimbush, being himself is the most natural thing about him. He doesn’t seek the attention of others and rarely pays mind to how people view him. It is safe to say that there are many stereotypes relevant during one’s high school experience. Whether you are an athlete, musician, or student council member, you adopt one trait that people categorize you with. As the starting quarter-back on a nationally ranked high school football team, Brandon was no exception to this rule. As our team captain, Brandon was seen through an athletic lens that limited people from viewing his other defining characteristics. During my senior season, ESPN and CBS Sports were constantly on campus attempting to interview Brandon. Some of the nation’s top college football coaches were at our practices, simply trying to watch guys like Brandon in action. After starting in the Under Armor All-American game, and com-mitting to further his education and football career at the Univer-sity of Notre Dame, Brandon now stood at the forefront of high school football. Some analysts even labeled him one of the greatest quarterbacks the have seen in high school. People often used the word “special” to describe Brandon at football, but for myself, I nev-er liked to think that way about him. As my friends and I grew closer to Brandon, we started to understand more about him as an individual. He was someone who was naturally unique. On one of the first days of winter dress code, and decided to wear Brandon wore a bowtie, something that no one else would even attempt to wear. A few days later, a handful of students were soon in bow ties following his lead. It was his own persona that exuded confidence, quickly spreading to everyone in range. He made the people around him better individuals; individ-uals who can think more freely, and act like more of themselves. It took me until my freshman year in college to realize that I am friends with a hipster. In our society, being a hipster is mocked in a sense due to their creative lifestyle. On the online forum Cracked, the author, Nicholas Pell writes, “Hipsters couldn’t incite more blind hatred if they were all ginger-haired Al-Qaeda members. But why? Could it be their taste in music? Fashion sense? Attitude of superi-ority? Perhaps. Or perhaps it’s their stupid, ugly faces. We may nev-er know.” Through research and reflection on this categorization, I have come to the conclusion that a hipster is someone who has the ability to extract fashion and lifestyle ideas from different eras while exemplifying those in their own era. It doesn’t matter if the ideas are old school, or futuristic, as long as they are incorporated into their everyday life. With this definition, I was able to see how Brandon fit the profile perfectly. His taste in music, clothing, and own sense of individuality catapulted him into this position as being a hipster. His reply to all of this was, “I like to think that I am a hipster, but when I go to cities such as New York and see the diversity and lib-erality, I question my own ‘hipsterness.’ I do think that I am a hip-ster in the sense that I pride my individualism on wearing different clothing than most people.” Brandon has always been aware of his own hipsterness, and he embraces it to its fullest extent. He takes on this role of being outside of the norm by finding ways to

Hipsters Challenge the Gender Norms of Americans

What is a hipster? From the experience of someone who has heard the myth, a hipster is described as a person who dresses, acts, and thinks differently from the upper middle class American society. After some research in New York’s Central Park, I took photos of what society believes to be a hipster. In comparison, I examined vari-ous images of the American upper middle class norm to support my analysis. Following my studies in Central Park, I was able to realize that hipsters challenge gender norms through their thoughts and actions.

I decided to go to Central Park because I believe that New York is a good representation of various cultures, since “it has been es-timated that close to 40% of Americans can trace at least one of their ancestors to Ellis Island,” New York’s immigration station (History.com). In the first picture I took in Central Park, exhibited on page six, there are two women holding hands who are dressed differently than everyone else. Someone viewing the image would notice the woman depicted on the left of the image wearing high top basketball sneakers, which is unusual for the average women to wear in the upper middle class society. The hipsters are challenging American gender norms in the photo by holding hands. According to the Washington Post, “1.6% of males identify as gay or lesbian,” a very small proportion of Amer-icans (Volokh 2014). Same sex marriage was made legal on July 26th 2015; therefore it was not part of the norm for a very long time to see same sex couples. Not all hipsters are gay. Some people tend to make assumptions about the relationship between sex and gender. Accord-ing to the book “Introducing Cultural Studies”, in the 1960s, “most feminists viewed sex as a base upon which gender was constructed. Sex and gender were different.” The author Ziauddin Sardar continues by saying, “the body was viewed as a common rack upon which differ-ent societies could inflict different norms of behavior or personality” (Sardar 140). For feminists, acting in ways that go against the tradi-tional American norm helps women escape the “common rack” that Sardar mentions. Women taking up roles in business and politics today for example are still in some cases not the traditional norm. In Bob Dylan’s “The Lonesome Death of Hettie Carol,” a fifty-one year old waitress is struck and killed by a cane swung from William Zanzing-er, who only receives a six-month jail sentence. The mistreatment of women is another cause for wearing clothes the challenge American gender norms. In the second image depicted on page six, a woman is depicted wearing loose jeans that are ripped. Through my perception in modern American society, women are usually seen wearing form fit-ted jeans. Part of the male gender norm is to wear jeans that are loose. Whether the people illustrated are heterosexual or not, these hipsters express actions that are different than the norms of upper middle class Americans through fashion and public display of beliefs. After the Central Park trip, I questioned my friends that came to Central Park about their viewing experience. They all put together their ideas of a stereotypical hipster, however some had different opin-ions. For example, some thought of hipsters as having long messy hair while some thought of hipsters as having stylish, and short haircuts. Long hair is typically a characteristic of women in the upper middle class American society. Therefore the action of a man having hair of

a similar length to that of a woman challenges American gender norms. When asked to describe a person who would symbolize the upper middle class, my friends who are all upper middle class college students, were able to formulate an image. The image that was being explained was someone who wears proper clothes, and acts in a way that is socially acceptable to the American norm. The proper clothing brands that came to mind for my friends, were Vineyard Vines, Polo Ralph Lauren, and Brooks Brothers. After looking at the clothes from all three websites, I was able to note that the lowest price for a dress shirt was found on the Polo Ralph Lauren website, where the sale price was $40. One of my friends who joined me wears Vineyard Vines clothing more than any other brand, at least through my experience with him as my friend. The other two people were wearing clothes from Polo and had claimed to own clothing from Brooks Brothers. Their statements are accurate considering they are all from upper middle class American college students. I wondered why hipsters are not seen wearing clothes from those brands typically, though they can fit the upper middle class category. No matter what class the hipsters are associated with, they still protest gender norms set by traditional upper middle class Americans. These brands however set norms for the types of clothes men and women should wear, since everything is categorized on each website according to gender. The hipsters wear gender-challenging clothing as a form of protest to the American norms. I thought that Central Park would be an appropriate area to find hipsters, though there were not as many as I believed I would find. I have noticed hipsters before, and have seen many throughout New York, but maybe I overestimated the amount of hipsters I found. The most likely reason why my anthropological study of hipsters was challenging is because I am not a hipster myself. Though I believed I was in the right city, I probably could have made a better decision on where to find hipsters since I do not think like one. The act of wearing unique clothes that are usually seen on a member of the opposite sex is a way of opposing the norms of the American upper middle class. The decision to dress in certain ways and the decision to change ones own appearance to challenge gender norms is a characteristic of a hipster. Hipsters also use ap-pearance to oppose the stereotypes set by men on what roles women should have. Defying these gender norms goes helps confirm the statement that hipsters are people that dress, act, and think differently than the rest of the traditional upper middle class American society.

Works CitedSardar, Ziauddin. Introducing Cultural Studies. Seattle, Washington: Totem Books USA, 2001. Print. Charters, Ann. The Portable Sixties Reader. New York: Penguin, 2003. Print.“Ellis Island.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2016Volokh, Eugene. “What Percentage of the U.S. Population Is Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual?” Washington Post. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.http://www.ralphlauren.com/product/index.jsp?productId=69015176&cp=1760781.2004212&f-d=up+to+%24100.00&ab=tn_men_cs_dressshirts&ff=StorePrice&fg=Price&fv=00000000%7E-%7E00010000&parentPage=familyhttp://www.vineyardvines.com/home-showhttp://www.brooksbrothers.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-brooksbrothers-Site/default/Home-Show?c-mp=ppc_us_google_branded_S_B_A_Brand&gclid=CMuGmrzGwcsCFdgRgQodrJIJ8w

What is a “true” hipster?

Although hipsters are the biggest advocates for a real and unique self-persona, their style and mentality has become so homog-enized, mainstream, and ironic that they do not even exemplify what the identity was originally meant to be. As stated by Christy Wampole in her piece on the irony of hipsters, “If irony is the ethos of our age — and it is — then the hipster is our archetype of ironic living”. Those considered ‘true’ hipsters hold every aspect of the hipster culture as a piece of themselves. This culture includes social awareness, being eco-friendly, wearing clothes ranging from exorbitant to thrift store prices, and having a sort of artiness about them (Alford). A key piece of the hipster culture is the absolute rejection of conformity and main-stream trends. For example, a hipster would never even call themselves a hipster. Admitting conformity to any generally well-known term such as “hipster” would defeat the whole meaning of the word. Any word you can think of that places them alongside a mass selection of others would be completely off limits for a tried and true hipster.

The irony behind this fits well to the hipster, because a lot of what they embody is quite contradictory. Many preach social justice and equality, yet at the same time enhance the gentrification process of places like Brooklyn and the South Bronx, and endlessly appropriate cultures. The term “hipster” originally came from the term “hippie”. The hippie movement was also a major appropriator of different cul-tures, including the Beat movement (Tomlinson). The entire hipster culture is contradictory and ironic. Hipsters advocate for uniqueness and personal identity, but all have some sort of oddly placed piercing, art based tattoo, or haircut involving a portion of their head being shaved.

In my anthropological study I saw all of these traits within a multitude of people. These are what would be considered the ‘true’ hipsters. I also observed the half hipsters, or ‘hybrid’ hipsters as I am now aware it has been coined. These are those people, including myself, who cannot claim to be true hipsters because they do not subscribe to every aspect of the culture. We have grabbed and morphed certain concepts of the hipster culture and style to fit ourselves, which may be even more hipster than the hipsters if you think about it. For example, the hybrids may still be environmentally conscious and socially aware, but will not force themselves to put a piercing in their eyebrow simply because it is a part of the hipster style.

This Saturday I ventured to the Brooklyn Museum along with five friends. The initial intention behind this journey was to see “The Dinner Party”, a feminist art exhibit which depicts the vaginas of fa-mous women in history on plates. I had never heard of the exhibit before my friend informed me of it. This is the first reason that I do not consider myself a true hipster, but a mere hybrid. Hipsters must be informed. Their culture includes knowledge of art, social movements, off-beat fashion trends, any inkling of societal injustice, and all types of music. My roommate and best friend who first invited me to come to the exhibit is by no means a hybrid. She has purple hair with the sides shaved off, a septum piercing, a tattoo of a Picasso sketch on her arm, and was very excited (and informed) about the exhibit. She already knew most of the women who were depicted in the piece and even had

a few in mind that she was excited to see. I knew nothing. Neither did four of the other people that were with us. We were all mere hybrids.

While at the museum I saw a lot of other people that seemed to embody a similar culture as my roommate. They went very slowly through the exhibit, noting and discussing their favorites whilst twirling their oddly cut hair. I saw a lot of too short bangs and faded streaks of pinks and purples; shirts and skirts that did not match, too large sunglasses, and thick heeled shoes were sprinkled throughout the strangely arranged museum. It was almost as if the layout of the floor intentionally made no sense. It was almost as if, like the rest of the hipsters, it was intentionally built to make no sense. Feminist art was on the same wing as an arrangement of rooms featuring household furniture of the past century. In true hipster fashion, the museum had no rhyme or reason.

“No rhyme or reason” should be the go to phrase when we try to explain hipsters. They are the picture of irony. Wearing styles from decades before their time, preaching about social issues they have no place from which to relate, and living in places so gentrified it is unhealthy, hipsters in their truest form are often nauseating. The best parts of the hipster culture are its pieces. The culture as a cohesive unit is, after all, just a compilation of many different cultures, and this is why its pieces are better than its whole. This is due to the fact that the pieces are just taken bits from other cultures. ‘True’ hipsters often come off as phony because of the incredible cultural appro-priation that is the hipster. Most will pay three hundred dollars for a velvet t-shirt in one instance, but in another prowl the racks of a thrift store while scrutinizing corporate America and our consumerist culture. In today’s society being a hipster has become so mainstream that it is no different than being basic. This is the irony of it.

A classmate recently said “The moment a culture loses its identity is when it gains mainstream popularity”. Being a hipster may have started as an identity in which you can dye your hair whatever color you wanted and express your knowledge for feminist art freely, but now it has become almost a cliché. If one wanted to be con-sidered a hipster now, one might be required to shave half of their head and know everything about the exhibits in the Brooklyn Museum. This is why I have come to the conclusion that the half hipsters are more hipsters than the perceived ‘true’ hipsters. They adapt the aspects of the culture because they see them as valid and enjoyable, not simply because they are a part of the identity. This should be what is considered hipster, not the masses of people new to Brooklyn riding around fixed gear bicycles to pay ten dollars for a burlap sack. This seems more unique and real to me than the twelve people I saw with pastel hair in the hour and a half time span I was in the Brooklyn Museum.

Work CitedAlford, Henry. “How I Became a Hipster.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 May 2013. Web. 01

Mar. 2016.Tomlinson, Sally. “Psychedelic Rock Posters:History, Ideas, and Art”. The Portable Sixties Reader. New York:

Penguin, 2003. Print.Wampole, Christy. “How to Live Without Irony.” Opinionator How to Live Without Irony Comments. The New

York Times, 17 Nov. 2012. Web. 01 Mar. 2016.

Cultural Capital: The Hipster Currency

Although hipsters are often the biggest advocates for a real and unique self-persona, their style and mentality has become so homogenized and ironic that their source of pride can now be considered cultural capital (Greif). “Cultural capital” is a phrase coined by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu which is the ability to read and understand cultural codes. It refers to the idea of cultural knowledge as a sort of currency in which the upper class, and in this case hipsters, use cultural knowledge as leverage over the lower classes. Many aspects of the hipster aesthetic and mentality prove the claim that hipsters use cultural capital to not only elevate them-selves, but also separate themselves from other subgroups (Sardar 72). A writer for The New York Times conducted an experiment in which he went to Brooklyn to ‘transform’ into a hipster. From the article in which he wrote about his experience, I gathered that a hipster must be several things, and my anthropological study reaf-firmed my observations. First, hipsters often live in gentrified areas, such as Brooklyn and the South Bronx. These neighborhoods were formerly reserved for lower income people but are now inhabited by hipsters taking advantage of the low rent prices and surrounding culture. The culture of these neighborhoods can still be considered outside of the mainstream, so they attract hipsters left and right. In these hipster hubs, one can observe the sharp impact that hipsters have on their habitats. There are often still signs that the area used to be impoverished, but is now sprinkled with organic coffee bars, vintage thrift stores, and trendy art museums (Alford). The issue in this is that the hipsters have appropriated the old cultures of their areas and transformed them into something completely different. For example, Brooklyn is threaded with thrift shops. These shops were originally meant for the low income inhabitants of the city, because used clothes were all they could afford. Now, however, hip-sters have made these into ‘vintage’ shops, in which the prices have heightened and wearing someone’s old clothes is part of the hipster aesthetic. This plays into the idea of ‘recreational slumming’, where-in people of higher privilege venture into the territory of the lower classes simply for the novelty (West). The irony behind this fits well to the hipster, because a lot of what they embody is quite contradictory. Many preach social jus-tice and equality, yet at the same time enhance the gentrification process, endlessly appropriating cultures (Wampole). These ideas of cultural appropriation and recreational slumming go hand in hand with the hipster use of cultural capital. The theory of hipster use of cultural capital lies in the idea that most of them come from a place of privilege, and therefore can change this real capital, into cultural knowledge. Those born into money have the time and the funds to cultivate their hipster culture. This includes the funds to keep up trendy and intricate hairstyles, the time to research music and art outside of the mainstream, and the ability to live in a place like Brooklyn (out of choice, not necessity). Because of the time and money possessed by hipsters, they can foster their culture, restrict-ing it from the adoption of others who may not have the means to

keep up that same mentality and aesthetic. This is often the reason that hipster culture seems to make no sense to those outside of it. Without all of the same means, it is impossible to completely understand the hipster (Greif). In my anthropological study of hipsters I ventured to the Brooklyn Museum along with five friends. The initial intention behind this journey was to see “The Dinner Party” by Judy Chicago, a feminist art installation which depicts the vaginas of famous women in history on plates. I had never heard of the exhibit before my friend and roommate informed me of it, which I am sure is the case with many people outside of the ‘hipster’ world. The knowledge of art, and in this case, this specific artwork, was something that created an inequality between the five of us who went to the museum that day. Those who had no prior knowledge of the exhibit were evidently moving at a different and seemingly less appreciative pace than those who did. My roommate already knew most of the women who were depicted in the piece and even had a few in mind that she was excited to see. It felt as if because I had not heard of the exhibit before that week, I could not fully grasp its meaning and significance. In perfect accordance with the theory of cultural capital as leverage, I felt inferior and out of place because of my lack of cultural knowledge. Upon further analyzation, the entire Brooklyn Museum played into the idea of restriction based in cultural knowledge as leverage. The manner in which the floors and exhibits were set up made no sense. If I had not had a specific intention upon my arrival at the museum, I would not know where to turn. It was almost as if the layout of the floors intentionally made no sense. “The Dinner Party” (reference image 1), along with other feminist art pieces, was on the same wing as a display of American homes throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (reference image 2). In true hipster fashion, the museum had no rhyme or reason to those outside of the culture. If one had not had the time to do research prior to their visit, or had simply happened upon the Brooklyn Museum without planning, it would feel like a world in which they did not belong. The use of cultural capital as an integral piece of the hipster culture serves to not only separate hipsters into their own category, but also elevate that category to a place of importance of which the group may not necessarily deserve. The acquiring of cultural knowledge is completely reliant upon privilege, therefore it demeans the lower classes to a place of inferiority simply because they did not have the means to acquire this same knowledge (Sardar 72). My observations of the Brooklyn Museum affirmed the theory that someone lacking the funds and time to venture to this museum would not be able to gather the same appreciation for the art as those who did. This works in accordance with the idea that hipsters thrive on their cultural knowledge, because it separates them from the mainstream, placing them into an unattainable category.

Works CitedAlford, Henry. “How I Became a Hipster.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 May 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.Greif, Mark. “The Hipster in the Mirror.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 13 Nov. 2010. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.Sardar, Ziauddin, Borin Van Loon, and Richard Appignanesi. Introducing Cultural Studies. Cambridge, UK: Icon, 1999. Print.Wampole, Christy. “How to Live Without Irony.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 17 Nov. 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.West, Lindy. “A Complete Guide to ‘Hipster Racism’” Jezebel. Jezebel, 26 Apr. 2012. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.

Swimming Against the Current

Hipsters are unconventional individuals who do not follow social norms. A stereotypical hipster is laidback, artistic, liberal, in-terested in underground music and wears big glasses and plaid shirts. Hipsters try to go either against the trend or start the trend. They do not call themselves hipster, because by doing so, they would be categorizing themselves into a specific group that goes against the purpose of being a hipster. My journey through the coffee shops, bookstores, and record stores of the Lower East Side and East Vil-lage has led me to observe the variety of subcultures that live within the hipster realm.

Although hipsters do not put themselves in a category, they are considered to be a subculture because they deviate from the mainstream culture. A subculture is represented as noise instead of sound because of the “interference in the orderly sequence which leads from real events and phenomena to their representation in the media,”1 which is apparent in the hipster culture. They are not part of the orderly sequence because they created their very own culture. In every new subculture, there is an “establishment of new trends, [and a] generation of new looks and sounds which feed back into the appropriate industries.”2 The trends, looks, and music that hipsters are drawn to are considerably different from the mainstream culture.

My first stop was Blue Stockings, a bookstore in the Lower East Side. It is an independent bookstore that regularly hosts activi-ties such as seminars, workshops, and readings. When I entered the store, I saw a café on the right side and a workshop taking place on the left side. It was nothing like Barnes and Noble, which is a huge commercial bookstore chain. I saw differences in the crowds, lo-cations of the bookstores and the respective items being sold. Blue Stockings attracts social activists, and people who are alternative and artistic. The books vary from feminism, gender studies, African American studies, and many more eccentric topics. There is a corner for little things such as notebooks, stickers, pencils, patches, and but-ton pins. It is located in an area surrounded by bars, hip restaurants, and a mix of trendy spots. The girl in the photo (bottom left) is a perfect representation of a “hipster” – her haircut, big glasses, hoop earrings, outfit, and the fact that she works at an independent book-store. Blue Stockings seems to appeal to advocates of feminism. I noticed that there were many feminist statements on bags, pins, and stickers, and that most of the people in the bookstore were female. This was something new to me, because I never observed the gender ratio in a store, but there was a noticeable difference between the amount of women and men. While browsing the book selection, I stumbled upon books about consent and being a woman. They also hold monthly events such as the Feminist Bookclub meeting and a Feminist Discussion of Masculinity.

My next stop was a coffee shop in NoHo called La Colombe. Both the people working behind the counter and the customers were dressed up like people I would encounter when I would browse

1 Hebdige, Dick. Introduction. Subculture: The Meaning Of Style. London: Rout-ledge, 1991. 91. Print.2 Hebdige, 95.

What Does It Mean To Be Hipster?

Hipsters have been the highlighted subject of intense societal scrutiny over the past decade. This subset population is stereotyped for valuing eccentric, unorthodox actions and beliefs that reject main-stream culture. The mainstream culture hipsters deviate from are the societal norms supported by the typical behaviors of an average per-son. For example, at Bluestockings Cafe, the young, female, caucasian adult employees working there voluntarily were quintessential examples of hipsters. These women are qualified as so because they stray from the common roles of citizens in their particular socio-economic class. Bluestockings Cafe is located in an expensive neighborhood known as the East Village, where businesses are high-priced and tailored towards the desires of the local upper middle class community. People who work in these businesses — such as young, female, caucasians — wear costly clothing brands affordable by the above average incomes they receive. However, the hipsters working at the cafe wore plain, cheap clothing and decided to renounce a wage to work for free. Because these women do not receive compensation for their work and choose to don generic clothing, they are rejecting what is socially expected of them, therefore categorizing them as hipsters. The East Village is an area predominantly populated by wealthy citizens. These people can afford the average rent of nearly “$4,000 a month in Manhattan” (Barro, 1) in addition to the multitude of up-scale department stores and restaurants surrounding Bluestockings Cafe. Typically, a young caucasian female living in this neighborhood lives a certain lifestyle fit to her environment. She wears trendy cloth-ing brands such as J.Crew, Madewell, and Michael Kors — brands that only a certain demographic can afford. This demographic is financially stable (considering items produced by these brands sell for more than $50 a piece) as well as aware of popular contemporary fashion styles. Additionally, females in this area are well-educated and employed at firms that pay them substantial wages so they can afford an expensive monthly rent, shopping at upscale clothing stores, and the general cost of living in the East Village. Hipsters, on the contrary, live a life completely opposite to these trendy, young females. Although the cafe is located in the heart of East Village, the employees certainly did not fit within the area. Considering these females were in their mid 20s, most people in their position are working at a firm that provides opportunities for a prom-ising lifelong career. However, these employees were sacrificing their time to voluntarily help run a local coffee shop. It can only be conclud-ed that these women devote their valuable time available during the day to assist the cafe because they are financially stable enough to work for free. However, these employees still wore simple, vintage clothing that supported the stereotypical “Mumford & Sons look” (Alford, 1) hip-sters are known for. They are rejecting the J.Crew lifestyle by not only refusing to sport the typical attire of a financially stable young female employed in the East Village but also by working where they are not

provided with possibilities for a stable career. They are embodying the very essence of hipsters by doing this. Bluestockings Cafe is one of the most hipster places I have visited for numerous reasons. The cafe is fur-nished with simple chairs and tables, and the outside of the cafe looks worn out and unkept. In comparison to surrounding businesses, the cafe prominently disregards the aesthetic trends of the neighborhood. Additionally, the coffee shop sells products such as books, zines, jewelry, and political stickers at unusually expensive prices. A sticker at the cafe was priced at $2.00 — a price that supports the exclusive nature of hipsters. Because hipsters adopt lifestyles that reject mainstream culture, they create a unique and select culture. By setting high prices for products, the cafe is preserving its hipster character by making these items less accessible to the general public. People who cannot afford the expensive products are indirectly restricted from the hipster community. Hipsters have managed to remain the center of attention for their ability to blatantly oppose the accepted standards of society. The hipsters at Bluestockings cafe rejected mainstream culture by behaving and dressing in distinctive ways. The simple clothing they wore as well as the volunteer work they were doing completely opposed the typical customs of individuals in their socio-economic class. Additionally, the environment they were working in strongly supported the tendencies of hipster culture such as exclusivity, idiosyncrasy, and independence. Hipsters will always be judged by the rest of society for not only digressing from established societal norms, but for also having the courage to do what most cannot: live a life free of expectations.

Works CitedAlford, Henry. "How I Became a Hipster." The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 May 2013. Web. 04 Mar. 2016.Barro, Josh. "DEAR NEW YORKERS: Here's Why Your Rent Is So Ridiculously High." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 09 July 2013. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.