Hipster - what is in a name?

"Hipster" is such a nearly hypocritcal term in today's vocabulary, that I find that I confuse even myself with it's usage. The other day I happened to mention to a friend rather sheepishly that I felt like a failure of a hipster for starting a blog after my friend did. Her response was something along the lines of 'why would you call yourself such a vile insult of a term?!', and that is not paraphrasing much.  I had to explain to her that I did not want to be one of those hipsters that is arrogant about their tastes and wears skinny jeans and Ray-Ban glasses with their nearly androgynous haircuts. I think that hipsters started out as people who wanted to like what they liked without being influenced by the general atmosphere of fashion and taste. The very fact that hipsters now have a specific subculture contradicts the very base of that which they profess.

I am not trying to claim that I am not affected by peer pressure at all, I am far from that. If my brother suggests anything I automatically like it because I am pretty sure that he is the coolest person to ever walk the Earth (besides Jesus). On the other hand, if my sister suggests music, I am bound to hate it.  Now, this mostly has to do with the fact that my brother and I have very similar tastes while my little sister is the exact opposite of me in most things, but also because I wish to identify more with my brother's subculture than my sister's preppy, fashionable one.

So, I have resigned myself to the fact that I will always be influenced by others in my choices, but also challenged myself to think for myself. If being a 'hipster' means that I have to only listen to obscure, indie music and never like anything mainstream, then I am not a hipster. However, if being a hipster means that I can rock out with a sonic screwdriver in my prom dress while blasting Celtic punk after playing Assassin's Creed, then hell yeah I'm a hipster!