Analysis of Hipster Subcultures

Analysis of Hipster Subcultures Nowadays we often come across the terms hipster or hipsterism in different newspapers and magazines as well as watching TV programs. Some people in our society even cannot imagine the meaning of this word. However, the term hipster is a well-known term for any sociologist, especially if he or she is interested in different contemporary subcultures of our society. A great deal of articles concerning the hipsters lifestyle and culture have already been written. Among them are the articles which were written by the specialists in the field of sociology. For example, Mark Griefs article The Hipster in the Mirror which was published in New York Times on December, 11 in 2010 touches upon some important issues concerning this interesting theme from the experienced sociologists point of view. My goal in this paper is not only to develop the theme of this contemporary subculture but also to make head or tale of how it is that the term hipster can simultaneously be so ambiguous and yet so meaningful to certain people in our society. Ill try to analyze Griefs discussion in his article The Hipsters in the Mirror, and Ill give my own thoughts regarding this theme. To achieve this goal, I have organized my paper into three main sections, one of which has some sub-sections. In the first section, Ill give the main characteristics of hipsters. Moreover, Ill match each of three hipster sub groups which were identified by Mark Grief in his article. In the second section of my essay, Ill touch upon the Marxist idea concerning the culture as a form of power, and Durkheims ideas concerning the reflection of our mental representations in particular social groups, and find out Bourdieus conception on these issues. In the third section of my paper, Ill discuss Griefs argument that terms like hipster do not make very good sociological concepts and Ill give my own point of view concerning this issue. In conclusion, Ill summarize the main points of my essay and express my opinion. Now I am going to turn to the first section of my paper. HIPSTERS IN OUR SOCIETY. THE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS SOCIAL GROUP The term hipster is a slang term which stands for a young man or a girl who adhere to non-mainstream fashion and created their own culture. It is not difficult to recognize a hipster in the crowd of people because the representatives of this group are usually dressed according to their certain rules and aesthetic norms. Hipsters usually wear skinny jeans and big eyeglasses. (Greif) It is known that this term hipster appeared in 1940th and initially stood for a representative of a special subculture and the admires of jazz music. Nowadays this word has a little bit another meaning. It describes the young well-to-do people who usually live in big cities and who are interested in fashion, culture, modern music, indie rock, popular magazines such as Vice and Clash, arthouse films and modern literature and so on. (Haddow) Mark Griefs Ideas Concerning Hipsters and the Role of Taste. Mark Grief, a writer, professor at New School University in New York and editor/co-creator of literary magazine n+1, a person of wide interests, a Harvard graduate, who got PhD from Yale, studied literature at Oxford gives some interesting ideas about hipster. (Rawlings Sundin) Mark Grief insists on the fact that nobody thinks of himself as a hipster in our society, nevertheless, most of the present day young people belong to this social group. Not only the clothes they wear give them out to be hipsters. Although this fact is also very important in this issue. Their way of life, their world concept, their special interests unite them together. In his article The Hipster in the Mirror, Mark Grief turns to the work of a famous French sociologist Pierre Bourdie Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste which is considered to be one of the most important sociological books of the 20th century. The author of this book makes investigations and gives the ideas how different social groups define aesthetic concepts such as taste. (Bourdie) His investigation gives such results that the tastes which are considered to be personal, unique, justified only by sensibility depend on the social class including your profession, your highest degree and your fath ers profession. (Grief) Moreover, he identifies three main groups hipster sub-groups which have absolutely different tastes, interests and philosophy. Mark Griefs Division of Hipsters into three Main Groups and Difference between them. In order to explain the above mentioned statement, I should use Mark Griefs words: Taste is not stable and peaceful but a means of strategy and competition. What does it mean? It means that all the representatives of hipterism can be divided into several classes according to their financial standing. Those superior in wealth young people who are at the top of this diagram use taste to show that they are superior in spirit. The other sub-group of hipsters includes the young people of upper-middle class who move to cities after college in order to find work in the creative professions. (Grief) Of course, they are ignored by the urban hierarchy but have some skills to make a superior body of cultural cool. The third sub-group of hipsters is represented by couch-surfing, old-clothes-wearing young people who belong to the lower-middle class fraction. Mark Grief calls them the most authentic and the most s ocially precarious. However, they have no any financial support from their parents. They work as servitorial staff in bars, shops and so on. Their cool clothes can easily make them superiors among all the hipsters in spite of the fact that they practically have no extra money. The struggle among these three groups is based on superiority. To be the best, to know more about lifestyle and culture, to wear the most cool clothes are the main aspects of this struggle. The representatives of each group of hipsters consider themselves to be the best possessors of taste. The main purpose of representing hipsterism is to prove that the tastes of this or that social group depend on the economic, social and cultural aspects. BOURDIEUS IDEAS REGARDING TWO PERSPECTIVES ON CULTURE BY MARX AND DURKHEIM, THE EARLY THEORISTS OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF CULTURE It is known that such researchers as Marx and Durkheim made a great contribution to the development of cultural sociology. According to Marxs ideas concerning culture, the most powerful members of our society are those who belong to the upper class. They set up culture of the society in their own way, according to their rules and concepts. Moreover, he states that the economic status plays an important role in the formation of values and ideologies of society. The other perspective on culture which was used by Bourdieu in his work relates to another famous sociologist Emile Durkheim who has his own opinion on culture. According to his opinion, culture has many relationships to society including logical, functional and historical ones. The first ones state that power depends on some cultural categories and beliefs, e.g. God. The second ones state that certain ceremonies and myths build social order. The historical relationships to society state that the origins of culture lie in socie ty. Lets relate the ideas of Bourdieu described by Mark Grief in his article The Hipsters in the Mirror to these perspectives on culture. Speaking about Bourdieus ideas regarding the freedom of our mental representations, Id say that he appropriates some claims of the famous French sociologist Emile Durkheim who is known also for the establishment of the academic discipline and social science. As a matter of fact, Emile Durkheim asserts that our mental representations are not freely and randomly chosen but really represent our membership in particular social group. It means that the representatives of this or that sub-group of hipsters cannot change themselves due to their mental representations. For example, Bourdieu and his researchers held an opinion poll of 1200 people among which were the representatives of all the social classes. The questions which were included into his public opinion poll touched upon the aspects of French domestic life. Among them was such a question: Which of the given subjects could be the most appropriate to make a good photo? There were three variants given by the researchers to choose: a beautiful sunset, a pretty girl with a cat and a terrible car crash. It is interesting to know that the representatives of such professions as college teachers and artists began to look conditioned to the variant of a car crash. Of course, much depends on the social status of a person.(Grief) If we are going to speak about the representatives of the upper class who are well-to-do people and who feel a great power over the other social groups, their culture will really represent a form of power. Everything they do will be considered the best, everything they say will be highly appreciated. They are those who always take center stage. Of course, as a result of it, they ignore other young people and even make fun of them. Mark Grief touches upon the Bourdieus discussions based on the Marxist idea that culture can operate as a form of power. He says that the philistine wealthy, who have money but have no idea of what culture is, convert real capital into cultural capital. They create their own subculture as if it were ready to wear. (Grief) At the same time Bourdieus approach criticizes the Marxist perspective in a way and Mark Grief states this fact in his article. He says that the habits of hatred and accusation are rather typical for hipsters of all the sub-groups. The main reason of this fact is that they feel the weakness of everyones position including their own. (Grief) They feel their own weakness. So, as a result of this emotional state, young people who not long ago had a great power over the other representatives of hipsters and considered themselves to be the best in lifestyle, culture and fashion, feel low and insignificant in the presents of the other hipsters. In this situation we canno t say that culture can operate as a form of power. SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPTS OF THE TERM HIPSTER IN OUR SOCIETY It is very important to notice the fact that Griefs argument that terms like hipster do not make very good sociological concepts cannot be used for describing the social world in scientific terms. If we try to analyze the meaning of this word having read a great deal of articles regarding the lifestyle, behavior, fashion and culture of hipsters, well be able to give a certain characteristics to the term hipster. May be, it will be something with negative meaning but, nevertheless, it will represent the main true features of this word. So, hipsters are young people, the representatives of a certain social group or class and subculture which do not aim for anything, which do not dream of anything, which do not exclaim against anything or rebel, which do not invent or change anything. The response to the term hipster is striking. People do not hate hipsters. It is an obvious exaggeration. Anyway, people refer to this phenomenon as if it is the main source of culture fall because hipster s can easily change one thing into another. Id like to represent the results of a survey which will help us to see if this term can be used to describe the social world in scientific terms. People of different professions and social status took part in this survey on the question of hipsters. Among them were students, designers, journalists, workers, businessmen. Here are some examples of their answers. Question: Does the word hipster have a positive or a negative meaning? Student: Hipsters represent our modern youth and its quite normal. Journalist: If a hipster is a one person in the crowd, its positive, but if there are hundreds of them gathered in one place, it irritates a lot. Designer: I think if a person wants to distinguish himself from the crowd, its a good idea! I cannot say anything negative about hipsters. Worker: I dont know what are you talking about. Businessman: Its not interesting for me. Photographer: I am sure that hipsters make our life bright and merry. Their clothes, their glasses, everything is Okay. These are only several answers. However, we can easily prove the fact that the public opinion concerning hipsters is positive in most answers. So, I think that the term hipster can be used to describe the social group in scientific terms. Although there are many articles which prove the contrary. For example, Douglas Haddows article Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization considers hipsters to be the representatives of narcissism and spiritual shallowness which may lead to the end of civilization. He says that we came to the point in our civilization where counterculture has mutated into a self-obsessed aesthetic vacuum. (Haddow) At the same time another article Are Hipsters Really the End of Western Civilization written by Joseph Mohan calls down this opinion. The author of this article is sure that hipsters are simply kids in a phase theyll eventually grow out of it, just like the Gen-Hers, punks, hippies, beatniks, and flappers before them. (Mohan) CONCLUSION In conclusion, I should say that the issue discussed in my paper is a topical one. It is clear that different people have different opinions concerning hipsters in our society. The proverb says: So many heads, so many opinions. That is true. Mark Grief used the work of Pierre Bourdieu to discuss this issue. Having analyzed some aspects in his article and some other articles which also touch upon the question of hipsters, I can agree that the term hipster can at the same time be so ambiguous and so meaningful to certain people of our society. Of course, this phenomenon is not dangerous for our civilization. Not all the people of our society can be hipsters. Nevertheless, we can easily use this term to denote a certain social group in our society. I think that its a very interesting question for any sociologist to carry out researches and have public surveys, to learn new things and study social science. Such people as hipsters help us to explore our society and draw corresponding conc lusions.

England rural life Essay

â€Å"Out, Out†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ is about childhood in rural New England. It shows how children had to work in the late 1800s and early 1900s when Robert Frost was a young boy. The poem illustrates a negative image of growing up in the rural life of New England. It demonstrates how quickly and unexpectedly death can happen, but, also, the harsh fact that life has to go on.  The title of the poem ‘†Out, Out†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ is a quotation from William Shakespeare’s play ‘Macbeth’. It is taken from Macbeth’s soliloquy after his wife (Lady Macbeth) kills herself, and he reflects on the brevity and pointlessness of life:  Ã¢â‚¬ËœOut, out, brief candle!’ It is significant to this poem because Frost is also reflecting on the futility and shortness of life through the loss and the innocence of the child, which is illustrated through the emergency and alarm in the boy’s pointless plea:  Ã¢â‚¬ËœDon’t let him cut my hand off-‘  The poem is written in blank verse, using the iambic pentameter of ten syllables per line to imitate in the natural rhythm of speech.  At the beginning of the poem Frost uses personification of the buzz saw to create an effective opening, which is furthered by the unpleasant sounds of the onomatopoeic snarling and rattling – giving the buzz saw a frightening image, and creating a vivid negative representation of rural life in New England. Frost contrasts this first impression with the imagery of ‘sweet scented stuff’ that is blown by the breeze, and his ironic statement that ‘nothing happened’, which effectively leaves the reader unprepared for the followin g events. Frost dramatically shows how dangerous life working in rural New England can be when the boy has his hand cut of by the saw, which is sinister on its own, but the sombreness of the situation is heightened by the saw being personified even more:  Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ¢â‚¬ ¦ the saw,  As if to prove saws knew that supper meant,  Leaped out at the boy’s hand’  When the boy’s hand is lost, Frost uses repetition of ‘hand’ to emphasis the hardship of how young children were expected to work from such a young age. This point of working children is further pointed out when the boy’s work is compared to a man’s:  Ã¢â‚¬ËœDoing a man’s work, though a child at heart-‘  From this the reader can see how hard life was to grow up in rural New England. As the poem ends, it appears more sinister as Frost reflects on the young boy dying and the pointlessness of life through the illustration of sinister words such as ‘the dark of either’. The dashes create effective pauses as the boy takes his last breath, helping to highlight the hardness of rural life to the reader. ‘Little-less-nothing!-and that ended it.’  The tone of the poem is relaxed and casual in the beginning, but changes after the boy’s sister tells them ‘†Supper.†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ The tone becomes tenser and appears to be insensitive due to Frost’s bluntness about death.  Ã¢â‚¬ËœAnd they, since they  Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.’  However, Frost is stating the harsh fact of life – that it has to go on for people to survive, even after a terrible grievance. I think this fact is particularly true for rural life in New England at this time. This is because farms still had to be looked after to ensure the farmer got money to support himself and his family, therefore, they could not afford to stop everything – it was not that they did not care about the death of the young boy. The sinister tone of this poem is contrasted to the more light-hearted poem, ‘Birches’. Through ‘Birches’, Frost is reminiscence about his childhood and is thinking about a simpler and easier time in his life. The poem outlines the innocence of being a child and illustrates how harsh life can be as an adult.  Ã¢â‚¬ËœBirches’, like ‘†Out, Out†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ, is written in blank verse, using the iambic pentameter of ten syllables per line to imitate in the natural rhythm of speech.  In comparison to the previous poem (‘†Out, Out†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ) ‘Birches’ shows the more positive yet still some negative aspects of life in rural New England. It positively represents a fairly straightforward time for Frost, a time when he was able to conquer the trees:  Ã¢â‚¬ËœAnd not one but hung limp, not one was left’  The repetition of ‘not one’ in this quotation emphasises his success in climbing the birch trees. His use of alliteration on the ‘k’ sound helps describe the skill needed to conqu er the trees in this way. Climbing carefully  with the same pains you use to fill a cup ‘  In the poem Frost shows how rural life in New England can be lonely for a young boy, which shows a negative aspect to rural life in New England.  Ã¢â‚¬ËœSome boy too far from town to learn baseball  Whose only play was what he found himself’  Furthermore, this vividly shows how rural children were more independent and able to amuse themselves, but it does show how they were very isolated from other children with no-one to play in the birch trees with.  For Frost, the birch trees are a way to escape the pressures of being grown up. The poem shows how he is yearning to climb the birch trees once again and metaphorically escape from the earth. ‘I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree’  The poem has a casual tone, just as ‘†Out, Out†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ but ‘Birches’ maintains this casual and relaxed tone throughout unlike ‘†Out, Out†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ which changes to a more sinister tone. The tone of ‘Birches’ does become more when Frost personifies fate to misunderstand him:  Ã¢â‚¬ËœMay no fate wilfully misunderstand me’  Although the tone of ‘Birches’ becomes more philosophical it still maintains a casual tone. The casual tone in ‘Birches’ of the poem is captured by the colloquial language that is used. ‘But I was going to say . . .’  After reading and studying both ‘†Out, Out†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ and ‘Birches’ I prefer ‘Birches’ as I feel it makes rural life in New England more vivid. I think ‘†Out, Out†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ is a more sinister and negative approach to look upon rural life. But, Frost illustrates a more vivid image through the use of alliteration throughout ‘Birches’ which creates a more real and vivid representation than ‘†Out, Out†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ.

Hero vs. Tragic Hero

The Difference between a Hero and a Tragic Hero The tragic hero is one of the most interesting characters within a Greek or Roman play. They depict many emotions and often their lives end in a horrible disaster. When we think of a hero, what automatically comes to mind? To some it may be someone legendary. Others might think of a hero as someone of great strength or ability. Perhaps someone admired for their achievements and great qualities.To me, it once meant someone that showed great courage and responsibility . A real hero is someone who faces everyday challenges bravely and lives with a smile despite problems and shortcomings and sometimes even having supernatural powers of some sort. Before these two â€Å"heroes† can be compared and contrasted, it is imperative to know what a tragic hero must possess in order to be called a â€Å"tragic hero. A tragic hero must contain the following features; a tragic hero always had characteristics like greatness and a noble stature, they must have a fatal flaw, that in most cases lead them to be partly responsible for their own demise, usually their punishment outweighs their crime, and then, of course, sometime during where the tragedy takes place there should be some sort of self-realization for that character. This is where they realize their mistake.One prominent characteristic of a tragic hero is portrayed specifically in the play ‘Macbeth' by Shakespeare, the tragic hero Macbeth was a victim of his doubt and insecurity. Thus, the hero's downfall is due to his own errors and actions. A tragic hero has to suffer because of his own mistakes. He is doomed from the start; he bears no responsibility for possessing his flaw, but bears responsibility for his actions.He is usually a king, a leader of men and his fate affects not only his but the lives of a whole nation or number of people. Tragic heroes are without a doubt one of the most intriguing of characters. A Traditional hero is a person of â€Å"dis tinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities. A hero is â€Å"any person who has heroic qualities or has performed heroic acts and is regarded as a model or ideal to follow†¦ † He represents a positive image of a human being, physically, mentally, and emotionally.He is loved by all and cherished for his noble deeds. He always takes up distinctive tasks which no one else ever dares to and may come across much adversity that which he fights with his endurance and valor and eventually reaches victory with a confident heart. He has qualities like courage, honesty and willingness to sacrifice. But most of all, he stands for everything we love to see ourselves as. That is why they are so popularly favored by many.

COLLEGE PAPER WRITING SERVICE

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