We don’t concern ourselves with punk porn or preppy porn, so why should we bother with hipster porn? Does, perhaps, the answer lie in the fact that both elements bring together two shameful words? No one boasts about being a hipster, and it is rare to hear people boast about how much they enjoy porn. Simply Google those two words together and the lack of results speaks for itself. Funnily enough, hipsterism is a big trend, as well we know, and pornography is probably the most searched of subjects on the internet. Yet those two popular themes, when combined together, are close to non-existent. What if we take a historical background check on the world of porn? After all, hipsters are all about the vintage and vintage means history, right…sort of!?
Let’s consult vintage aficionado Cult Jones about the matter , he specialises in rare cult books and prints. His Instagram profile hosts a steady stream of old-school art which focuses on the world of sex and porn. He also has numerous followers that fit the hipster profile. How do we know that? Well, we clicked on some of his followers and we could see a lot of the classic tell-tale hipster signs! The ‘B triangle’ – no, not bi-triangle – the beanie, a bike and some beer. It’s not the most scientific way to assess a profile, but for the purposes of research, it will have to do!
So, now that we’ve explain why we are attracted to this fundamental question. A question, I believe, needs to be answered for us to take the next step on the sexual evolutionary ladder – hipsters will be, after all, the next generation of parents! Let’s get stuck in: is there such a thing as hipster porn and if so, what is it and where is it? The first step was to do some research and find what already exists and how it is defined. According to the Urban Dictionary, ‘hipster porn’ is: “in the realm of film–specifically, indie film and short film, it refers to anything that is so obnoxiously unique, preachy, or hipster-ish that a hipster would surely have a heart attack or leave a love stain in his/her pants.” Let’s agree, that’s not the most useful of definitions! Continuing the research, and filtering away all the results with “hipster girl gets fucked“, I came to find a great deal of discoveries.
One of the best is a YouTube video about hipsters wanting to become porn stars, in a sarcastic way – HOW HIPSTER IS THAT!? More seriously, if this is a topic which can be taken seriously, Paper, the New York culture obsessed magazine, offer a guide on how to become a hipster porn star, with a hipster rating to gauge the porn potential. But the main discovery seems to be that hipster porn is associated with gay porn. From the Gay Hipster Porn blog to Hipster Porn Project on Tumbler (beware Not Safe For Work!), there is a trend not for the porn but for the way to take a picture of it. Butt Magazine, also a gay online fanzine, is very much hipster orientated too, even if it is more about the word content than the image content.
But that’s the research online, for the sake of the question and trying to go beyond what exists on the web, I wanted to ask the hipster demographic concerned. As a researcher on a genuine quest for results, I took a panel of 12 people: nine guys, three women, all from a variety of nationalities and backgrounds, including: French, Swedish, American, English, Australian and Russian, all between the ages of 22 and 40 and discovered through a variety of means, but none of whom I knew personally. In exchange for anonymity (I am not sure if they were more embarrassed to talk about porn or acknowledge they were hipsters), I asked them questions about their preferences in the domain of porn.
But before I start, let’s define porn so we’re all on the same level of comprehension; by porn I did not ask them about their sexual preferences or the status of their sex lives (even if their answers were to make that obvious), the core of my questioning was to establish what turned them on or what kind of visual “help” did they need to get their “rocks off”. In my mind, and perhaps in yours, porn is the additional external stimulus to one’s sex life to improve self-performance of masturbation or simply put spice in the sex life. Now that’s clear, back to the fundamental study of hipster porn. The first questions were always the same: 1- Are you a hipster? If they answered “no” then I knew they were (!!!) and I could ask the next question: Do you watch porn? If they said “no”, then I knew they did (!!!).
The following questions were more diverse: What kind of porn do you like? What do you like in a porn movie (the storyline – or lack thereof, the acting – or lack thereof, the special effects, or lack thereof, but mainly what was it about the movie they really liked? To end the assessment, I asked what would you like to see in porn that you miss and what is it that makes it special to you? Too often we came to a specific argument: no one fashion genre enjoys a blowjob – that seems pretty universal! But is there some common factors between the style in the porn and who you are or what you want to be identified with? Or perhaps what you like to wank over or watch while you have sex with your partner?
And that’s when it got interesting! Hipster are “cool” but they give a sense of being a bit, how might I say this?… nerdy (no offence hipsters, I am far from cool myself). When it comes to porn, they are very classic: three in a bed seems to be a crowd, so goodbye gangbang and bi-curiosity does not seem to be the order of the day – except for the Swedes, so it would seem! What is important to them? The light – mentioned by 8 out of 12 – should be well executed so their TV rooms (or computer rooms) doesn’t become a bright disco dance floor. Outdoor sex seems to be a bit of a plus for both men and women (6 out of 12) and suggestive POV camera work also gets a lot of preference. But the main understanding seems to be that what defines hipster porn is not the porn itself, but the way it is presented in the pictures, the movie or even the design of the website. What the movie should not be: a costume-period movie (5 out of 12), the woman should not look vulgar or be wearing too much make-up (4 out of 12), music should not be too loud or cheesy (3 out of 12), storylines should not be complicated (well, it’s a porn movie, not Inception).
When it comes to hipster fashion and accessories, there was no mention of either, not to the hipster world or the porn world. No dildo, no bicycle, no dildo on a bicycle. What came back regularly was that the more normal the clothes, the better. When I asked the definition of ‘normal’ I got 8 out of 12 agreeing on jeans, sneakers and a white t shirt. It felt very surprising to talk so much about clothes when it is about porn and the lack of clothes in the first place. But if you go back to those websites mentioned above, you will see that there are a lot of clothes involved.
And that is the second conclusion about hipster porn. There is a style of porn that hipsters like to watch with the light on and now with some clothes involved. A pair of boobs will be visible very often in an open jacket, a girl will often wear a hat or a flower crown, a guy will often have a beard or facial hair and tattoos… the hipster style goes within the style of a hipster porn star, it seems. Goodbye to the hunk and the trashy baby doll, hello to ‘look like me’ porn stars. A fun fact with all this however, is that 8 out of the 9 guys, when asked how the woman should be dressed, mentioned a short skirt and preferably no panties. Apparently hipsters like their girls going commando! A side note to gay hipsters, could gay hipster porn be more niche!? As previously said, apart from the Swedes, bi-curiosity is not a big thing and guys actually would not mind only watching lesbian porn. A penis on their screen, while using theirs in a girlfriend, seems to be a turn off.
Girls are way more open to experimenting with the same sex. Funnily enough, the three of them would not mind watching male gay porn. Funnily enough as well, all of them would not mind watching porn with a girlfriend and letting things… escalate! But then it’s all about the porn and the girl – there should be no guys. Hipster girls, while experimenting, won’t share! But wait, is all this really hipster porn? Isn’t it just porn with a different light and specific clothes? Is hipster porn, after all, nothing else than a way to make porn on your computer trendy, to make masturbation cool or simply hipster porn is just a way to make one feel even more belonging to a community that won’t even say they are a community?
Generally speaking, hipster porn is just porn. Isn’t it in the sex life of everyone? You, your neighbour, me … well, not really me!
Accessories in the pictures provided by our friends at APLACE in Malmö
