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Subcultures as social phenomena started to be known many decades ago. Subcultures represent groups or identities that exist within a bigger cultural group or society. Currently, the list of subcultures that are popular or used to be well-spread some time ago is rather long and diverse. In his article titled “Hipster: The dead end of Western civilization”, Ted Polhemus celebrated and admired the diversity of the subcultures that were popular in the 20th century. In this paper, the article and the perspective of Polhemus will be compared to that of Douglas Haddow, who provides criticism of hipster subculture – a contemporary mainstream counterculture.
Ted Polhemus introduces the concept of style tribes – groups of people counteracting the mainstream culture through a distinctive style of clothes, adornment, appearance, and behavior. Style tribes emerge in order to satisfy the need for belonging (which is particularly urgent among adolescents) and can expand to an enormous scale (some of them become global). Thus, most of the members do not even know each other – they are connected only through the media that prescribes certain identifying features to them (typical clothes and music preferences). It is quite impossible to find the exact meaning of the appearance of this or that tribe and the idea that stands behind each of their rituals. However, they are easily recognizable – it is evident even for an outsider that different tribes support drastically different worldviews. Pholemus indicates that the dreams of every style tribe or subculture to be timeless and unchanging are futile. Historical analysis reveals that mainstream cultures usually dismiss style tribes: they quickly become outdated and give way to emerging ones (though their influence on the direction of changes is rather strong). Despite their rather short life, Polhemus expresses admiration of versatile features and trends within different subcultures and sees a deep meaning, symbolism, and purpose in them (par. 1).
The key to Haddow’s article is different from that of the works of Polhemus. At the very beginning of his article, Haddow expresses his key argument; he refers to the hipster culture as a “self-obsessed aesthetic vacuum” (1). The main point of the author is that the subculture under discussion is pointless and practically represents a useless trend that exists only for the purpose of being a trend. The author accuses the hipster culture of being an empty trend, a collection of attributes of the other subcultures that he calls shallow (Haddow 1). Moreover, the writer compares this youth subculture with the previous ones and emphasizes that it exists without any particular purpose. Despite the fact that Haddow’s views are more radical than those of Pholemus, the latter also points out that not every subculture shares specific values or has a unique purpose that makes it stand out. He suggests that many of them are based purely on aesthetic belonging, which implies no deep meaning. However, unlike Haddow, Pholemus does not express any criticism and finds subcultures interesting and provoking (par.1).
The two authors discussed two phenomena that could be considered opposites – Polhemus celebrated the “cultural inversion” (Polhemus par. 1), a trend where a homogenous culture broke down into many diverse streams; and Haddow wrote about the artificial merger of the diverse subcultures into one that had no particular uniqueness or outstanding traits (Hill et al. 136). Differently put, Polhemus was extremely excited by the multiplying trends and tendencies that provided every individual with a subcultural outlet for self-expression and identity; and Haddow criticized the pretentiously unique subculture that in reality was an ultimate attempt of conformity melding together the diverse trends and blending them into a chaotic and unrecognizable subculture killing the uniqueness of the other streams and not producing anything new (Luvaas n.p.).
I agree with Haddow’s opinion that the hipster subculture was a bland mixture of so many different styles that are failed to form any outstanding features. However, I disagree with the statement that it is suicidal and symbolizes the cultural decadence of Western civilization. In my opinion, the previous generations that had to struggle for acceptance and face obstacles due to their unconformity were forced to create very provoking and risky trends, such as punks or mod. However, contemporary youth do not suffer from as many cultural limitations and standards. As a result, their desire to find recognition is satisfied and the need to provoke and make a statement is not as powerful and does not lead to shocking styles and loud protests. They are much more peaceful and far from being destructive (unlike punks) or suicidal (as compared to emos). The emergence of this subculture after a long sequence of more distinctive and provoking ones makes it fade in comparison. This accounts for the fact that it is rather difficult to define them as a unified movement. That is why the bland hipster subculture is the symbol of the contemporary West – very diverse, fragmented, and turned into a wild mixture of everything by the process of globalization.
To conclude, Haddow and Polhemus described two phenomena that are almost opposite – the latter wrote about diversification, whereas they formerly criticized homogenization. Both phenomena took place at a certain time in history and corresponded with the overall trends in society. I disagree with Haddow’s description of the hipster subculture as suicidal and symbolic of the decay of the Western civilization because it merely reflects the needs of the contemporary youth – and the strong desire to provoke and shock is not a part of this subculture.
Works Cited
Haddow, Douglas. Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization. 2008. Web.
Hill, Anne, James Watson, Danny Rivers, and Mark Joyce. Key Themes in Interpersonal Communication. New York, New York: McGraw Hill, 2010. Print.
Luvaas, Brent. Street Style: An Ethnography of Fashion Blogging. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016. Print.
Polhemus, Ted. Street Style. n.d. Web.
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