Assorted Tomfoolery Thursday: On hipsters, racism and offbeat homes.
It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for me to unveil a new weekly series for the blog: ‘Assorted Tomfoolery Thursday.’ Sometimes I just feel like sharing weird or offbeat stuff on the blog that would ordinarily feel really out of place. Enter ‘Assorted Tomfoolery Thursday,’ your weekly dose of bizarrely aggregated nonsense.
First on the list, a new television favorite of mine: Portlandia. Many a friend of mine have accused me of being a hipster - or, more kindly, an “accidental hipster,” a bit of an anomaly in the alternative sphere. This parody of hipster culture, while obviously based in Portland, could just as well be Austin. I mean, really; all the stills of the city look exactly like Austin, as do the locals. And to damn myself even further, the show kinda made me want to move to Portland. Cue me crawling under my local coffeeshop table in shame.
On a more serious sociological note, it came to my attention that a response video had been formulated to counter the ever-popular (and hilarious, if you ask me) “Shit Girls Say.”
GOOD magazine covered this story this morning with their “Intermission” post by Lifestyle Editor Amanda Hess.
I’m not exactly sure how I feel about the whole matter. I’m certainly conflicted on my perspectives on racism, but it’s a sticky subject. Last year I took a course on Asian American History in which I was essentially made out to be a flagrant racist (primarily in a lecture in which I asked the professor why he felt a “white identity” was purely negative or non-existent). I would like to emphatically state that I am not in any way sympathetic to racist views of any type. However - even at the risk of being deemed so - I feel like this counter video might be equally demeaning. While she does reiterate racist statements towards African Americans, isn’t it counter intuitive to present “white girls” as a ditzy and racist majority? It is, of course, in response primarily to “Shit Black Girls Say.” But still! How did we go from a lighthearted commentary on women’s communication to a meta-knot of derogatory memes? The whole matter has left me shaking my head.
In a final burst of tomfoolery, I present Offbeat Home, the über-alternative folks’ answer to Apartment Therapy. From the same lovely ladies that brought you Offbeat Bride and Offbeat Mama, here’s a website I can frequent without guilt… because I do have a home, and not a baby or fiancé.
