While blessedly the trend seems to be ebbing we are still inundated with hipsters. Close your eyes and you could compile a character in mind quickly, from the nerdy specs, the anti-fashion clothes they pay top dollar for, the tattoos — the beards!
Recently a piece covering this social group was published at the MIT Technology Review, entitled “The hipster effect: Why anti-conformists always end up looking the same.” It details some of the curious aspects behind such trends and references another college study about the effects on societal change and possibly even how this may influence financials. But the focus here is on the header image.
The Editor In Chief at Tech Review, Gideon Lichfield detailed a process he endured immediately after the article was posted.
We promptly got a furious email from a man who said he was the guy in the photo that ran with the story. He accused us of slandering him, presumably by implying he was a hipster, and of using the pic without his permission. (He wasn't too complimentary about the story, either.)
— Gideon Lichfield (@glichfield) March 5, 2019
Now, as far as I know, calling someone a hipster isn’t slander, no matter how much they may hate it. Still, we would never use a picture without the proper license or model release. It was a stock photo from Getty Images. So we checked the license. https://t.co/uFPXXNlEid
— Gideon Lichfield (@glichfield) March 5, 2019
The header image on the piece does have a caption crediting Getty Images, so at this point all seems above board. But Lichfield performed due dilligence.
The image does have restrictions—e.g., if you use it “in connection with a subject that would be unflattering or unduly controversial to a reasonable person (for example, sexually transmitted diseases)”, you should say that the person in it is a model. https://t.co/sYNmqJYZ2g
— Gideon Lichfield (@glichfield) March 5, 2019
We weren’t implying that the model had an STD, only that he was a hipster. We didn't think this met the definition of “unflattering or unduly controversial.” Still, we recognized that others might disagree. So, just to be on the safe side, we contacted Getty.
— Gideon Lichfield (@glichfield) March 5, 2019
The article itself does not make any negative comments about hipsters, it only was about charting the effect of their being created and the influences leading to them. All is delivered in an even handed manner.
Then comes the punchline:
Getty checked the model release, and gave us the news: The guy who complained wasn’t even the guy in the picture. He'd misidentified himself.
All of which just proves the story we ran: Hipsters look so much alike that they can’t even tell themselves apart from each other. /ENDS
— Gideon Lichfield (@glichfield) March 5, 2019
This means of course someone spotted their image being used in an article about hipsters, resented that he was classified as someone who fit the stereotype of so many others trying to non-conform, and ends up finding out that in fact it was not his picture, meaning that he misidentified himself because he does in fact closely resemble others trying to not comform with the masses.
Sounds like someone needs to hike his Eddie Bauer snow boots to the craft brew house, take off his Sundance skull cap, and sip a pumpkin porter until he calms down.
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