Hippies And Hipsters Essay

“When nothings right, go left” (anonyms). This quote is defines the underlying philosophy behind two distinct, yet commonly confused counter cultures hippies and hipsters. One marked the time of the 70’s, while other plays a role in society today. The hippies are stereotyped as peace lovers, bell-bottoms aficionados, and supporters flower power; the hipsters are immersed in indie rock, avoiding labels, fitting into skinny jeans, and being as non-mainstream as feasible. These two cultures are sometimes considered interchangeable is due to their left wing values; focus on the arts and music, unique fashion choices, and offbeat ideals, but when comparing their codes, meaning, “a set of practices familiar to users of the medium operating within a broad cultural framework,” it communicates two very distinct stories (Chandler 148).
The most apparent difference between hippies and hipsters is their clothing styles. Hippies embrace psychedelic colors, flowers, and outrageous patterns. The girls are known to wear flowered headbands over their wavy, uncombed, long hair. Their tops were flowy and paired with either a long skirt or bellbottom jeans with patches of
Though both men in the hippie and hipster cultures love their beards the hipsters have shorter hair styles while, the hippie men have hair that is as long as girls and sometimes even longer. Savannah Cox expresses this unique fashion in “A Brief History of Hippie,” “Donning psychedelic floral clothing and growing beards that rivaled Rasputin’s in length all became part of the evolving counter-culture” (Cox). Both men of each culture are not into muscles and it is a rare sight to see either of them hitting the gym. As far as the hipster and hippie women they both tend to have messy hairstyles, the hippies wear more braids and flowers in their hair while the hipsters love their hats from beanies to