Is the word "hippie"even more of a dirty word than it used to be?

I know that those who call themselves hippies have allways had to cope with negative stygmas attached to the word. But is it just me, or has the word hippie become even more of a derogatory word than it was say, 20 years ago?

It seems like it's becomming common for even a person who smokes pot, is anti war, environmentalist, is a left-wing activist and protests the corporate plutocracy and believes in the ideals of peace, love and freedom, to still be skittish about calling him/herself a hippie!

There is so much positive change that has come about in the last 50 years thanks to the hippies! What are we ashamed of?! There is so much to be proud of ! What's the big deal about calling yourself a hippie?

Of course I live in a pretty low hippie population area, so I could just be getting the impression that it's worse than it really is, but even here on this website I read people talking as though it's a shamefull dirty word!

I know the media keeps pushing the stereotype of the dirty, smelly, stoned to the point of mental retardation, irresponsible, idiot hippie, but I have never once met a hippie in real life who is like that! I'm sure there are probably a few out there, but all the hippies I've run in to have been the most concientious, intelligent, socially aware, and beautiful people around!

What other group is doing as much to make a positive change in society, the Bushies?
I donno. Maybe I'm just trippin, but it really seems to me like the whole hippie movement is starting to internalize the BS to the point of having an identity crisis. Does anyone else see this happening or is it just me?

One more question I'll just tack on here since I don't know where else to ask. How do you do that cool picture with your post thing?

 

The media have somehow turned hippies into a shameful thing to be. They've made it into a halloween costume. I was searching for bell bottoms the other day and all I could find were sites advertising "hippie fancy dress costume"
I didn't get mad, I just laughed! It was so funny!
I refer to myself as a hippy. I have no problem with it but some people think it's an insult to yourself to label yourself. I think they have a good point but I really do like referring myself as a hippy, I'm not labelling myslef, I'm not a product, I'm a human and I can't be labelled. Hippie is just who I am. It gives me an identity, a persona, See, I used to think I was alone in the world but I now know that there are other free-spirits who's minds are in tune with mine.

I think conformist people don't see the good we're trying to do in the world. Anyone who is vaguely outside the box is a "freak" in their terms. (Well I'm a freak and proud!)
Soceity doesn't react well to unique people. They get scared.

We can only hope that one day people's strange ideals will change and they'll allow people not to conform.
(kids at school throw apples at me when I wear flowers in my hair)

Peace and love wished your way brother!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

BTW, The cool picture is called a sig. You to have have posted one hundred posts before you can get one. Once you've done that you click on your options, edit signature.

 

People believe what ever the media tells them. Their is no other way to get info or most people besides TV whoch makes constant jokes about hippies. Which are sometimes funny. I can take a joke, but then everyone goes around thinking becuase they saw it on TV they have to think that way

 

I totally agree with you guys and i'm not at all ashamed to call myself a hippie no matter what my friends and family says or the media!

 

I think of labels in general as a kind of necessary evil. They are limiting and carry with them unwanted baggage, yet at the same time, they allow us to easily state our values and alliances. Yeah, hippies are made fun of a lot in the media, and the TV-head masses absorb the idea that hippies are living jokes, but I also believe that anyone who refuses to internalize the oppression and proudly "strut their stuff" regardless can also become influential because people will look at them and respect them for being themselves despite the oppression and think to themselves "Hmm that person must have things to be proud of." (The thoughtful ones anyway---the rest are like what the Tao Te Ching calls "straw dogs" (mindless masses who prefer to blindly be led rather than think their own thoughts)) It takes inner strength. I often dress flamboyantly hippie, but there are many days when I just prefer to look like everyone else because I'm not in the mood for any BS from anyone. On the days that I have the right energy though, I kind of get a kick out of people looking at me like I just stepped off of a flying saucer.
Thanks for the tip, Forget me not, ...let's see three down 97 to go. lol
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^Awwwwwwwww, you'll get there brother!
Time flies when you're having fun!

Peace and love brothers and sisters!
xxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

I proudly call myself a hippie... well, someone's got to!

 

Yes, it's outdated.

Why should they? Besides that, it's not seen as cool anymore.

 

Oh, yeah, that's right. We have to change our names like changing clothes to keep up with the latest image of whatever the media god is currently presenting as "cool". But what's cool about tap dancing to the media's music every time it snaps it's fingers? I'll dance to my own music, thank you, because that to me is what being a hippie is about. Sure there are other values and ideals that are part of it too, but none of them mean anything if we all just decide to be whatever the mainstream mind tells us to be.

 

That's indeed what a pretty large part of society expects you to do. However the names aren't the biggest issue, just as the word hippie shouldn't really matter for you. If I think about the word hippie I don't associate it with stinky bums or something. Neither do I think about conscience people who care about their environment and fellow men, or groovy musicfans. At first instance I think about the 60's subculture, that isn't really around anymore.
Each his own definition though, it shouldn't really matter.

Ah right, that's typical. I dance to my own music because that's what makes me feel good. That I don't conform to society's fashion standards doesn't make me a hippie and I generally could care less about what being a hippie is about. All subcultures are part of society in the end, and acting like 'that's what being a hippie is about' sounds like you're just conforming to something else then the mainstream.
I'm sure that you didn't ment it like that, but my point is that seeing through society's layers and do what seems good even if it doesn't match the mainstream's standards doesn't necessarily have to make you a hippie. Since it's just a word in the end.

 

Sure. It's just a word. Which is kind of my point as well. If you generally like what the hippies stand for and it's a group of people you feel you fit in with and feel like being part of, what's the big deal about calling yourself one? I have no problem with assuming a label and even conforming to some extent to the fashions and expressions of that group if it's a group I believe in strongly enough. I wear hippie clothes from time to time, and part of it is wanting to rebel against the idea that I must look like other people to be accepted in society, but another part of it is that I want to represent a whole movement of people who oppose the establishment.
I suppose the hippies could find another word to call themselves that means the same thing, but how long before that word becomes seen as no longer cool? because the establishment doesn't want people to feel unified under one "flag" (so to speak) they want people to feel isolated in their opposition to the establishment, so they make sure that any flag people rally around in said opposition becomes seen as uncool or icky in some way. So yes, it's just a word, but it's a word that unifies people who oppose the establishment. "United we stand, divided we fall."
If they already have us in the mind to disown the label, how much further is it to disowning the ideals the label represents? It's just a word, and love, peace, freedom, they're just ideals. Anything is only as important as one makes it. I don't care if we call ourselves hippies or jelly beans as long as we have a movement with an identity, but why change? Why not use the word that has history and heritage? because, as you say, it's just a word.

 

Well, everybody should use it as they like. Although I want to make clear that there are a lot more effective namens and very different ways of opposing the establishment. Why I don't want to use it myself: because like I said, I associate it with the 'movement' of the sixties. Also, lots of people who love peace and are active demonstrating against war and environmental issues don't see themselves as hippies at all.
I unite myself with all mankind, even if a whole lot of people can annoy the hell out of me. I don't wanna be part of a select group of people who calls themself hippies, I'm more then that, I also unify myself with just conscience people who care for the world, who prefer to be seen as a part of society and even mainstream and don't feel the need for a name like hippie, beatnik, environmentalist or whatever. Although the latter makes the most sense to me.
What also keeps me from associating myself with the hippiegroup are the many people with the superior attitude (which I have to admit is probably part of any other kind of group), I'm for peace and love, you're not, you're not good kind of thing, and all the don't worry be hippie kind of folks. Very strange slogan by the way.

 

I can understand wanting to unite yourself with all human-kind rather than an "in-group". The thing that makes that hard, in my mind, is that if I exclude myself from all in-groups, I am excluding myself from the large majority of that human-kind which are all in some exclusive in-group or another, and I end up just becomming part of the most exclusive in-group of all.
In a way, I'm with you---the idea of having no label at all is more appealing to me.
I'd like to just be me---not a hippie, not a redneck, not a this or a that, but as long as I live in a culture that still tries to force a rigid set of vestigial values and beleif structures down everyones throat, I would rather show my support for a group that advocates freedom and tolerance than have an identity that's independent of any label or group.
Then again, advocating freedom and tolerance means allowing people to call themselves whatever they want to. My problem isn't with anyone not calling him or herself a hippie, my problem is with the word being turned into something shameful and those who formerly called themselves hippies buying in to that perception because that is what the establishment wants.

 

I think hippie is one of the more flattering names I have been called in my life. LOL

 

i agree. but when someone calls me a hippie who are doing it to offend me or as if they think they're better i say : wow, groovy man you like called me a hippie man, far out, can you dig that?! then they know i don't mind and they feel stupid. after that i usually laugh and say thank you! :daisy:

 

Unfortunatly Hippie is a dirty word in alot of peoples minds.My exwife has told me she often has to defend me after she tells people I'm a hippie.They,instantly say "Oh he's a lazy drug addict!" She told me she gets so pissed and tells them how it is.

 

I once had a conservative friend who enjoyed calling me a hippie. I will never really know for sure if he was doing it to annoy me or to just joke around, although he said he was just kidding. Later, a lot of my other friends started calling me a hippie, so I went along with it and joked that I am a hippie. I never saw it as anything deragatory, in fact, I saw it as a compliment to be compared with such a beautiful era. A lot of people, however, don't see it the same way. I blame it mainly on the "dirty hippie" stereotype that a lot of cartoons and other shows portray (the filthy hair, red lowered eyes, repeated use of the word "man," and a joint in one hand). To side with what someone else has said, this is a very misleading image. Also, I believe a lot of the people who see it as a dirty word don't realize the true accomplishments during the 1960's. They know hippies were for peace, but they are ignorant to what they actually did, outside of attending Woodstock.

Personally, I think there is nothing wrong to identify with hippies or any subculture, as long as labels don't consume you. Humans, naturally, categorize everything. Even when people don't realize it, they are categorizing. It helps us to make sense of the world. However, it does become a problem when someone is so wrapped up in being part of a group that he or she views that group as being superior, or feels the need to be the perfect example of that group (i.e. "can I be a hippie and not do drugs?"). That is when stereotypes and other negatives are created. In the end, we are all just creatures of Earth.

 

That sums it up nicely, lunar. And it's good to hear from folks who are OK with the word. I think the dirty drug addict image of the hippie will always be around. Still, I wear the label proudly and at the same time feel a responsibility to be the best example of a hippie I can be. I keep myself clean, don't loose control of my drug use (stick to pot and an occasional psychedelic) and try to be polite and respectful toward everyone without looking down on people who aren't hippies. Of course a lot of people will only see what it is in their mind to see regardless of what is actually there, and that will never change,but the more people who have good experiences with hippies the more accepted hippies will be.

 

:agree: very, very well said! i try to do the same to try to clear the hippie name and clear the typical stereotype! :applause: