Name: Cheulando Gayle

STS 221 002

April 28, 2014
Reading Response 15
According to PBS Idea Channel, cultural capital is defined by French
anthropologist and sociologist Pierre Bourdieu as the social worth of a particular
object, style or language to a particular class or subclass of people. It is normally
used to gain status in the hipster or nerdy society through obtaining these materials
via transactions or hard work. For nerds, they show their cultural capital through
nerd core music, wearing nerdy clothing such as educational memes or studying in
the library constantly. For hipsters, they show their cultural capital by wearing
clothing that does not represent their work/norm such as wearing a red flannel coat
without wielding an axe or growing their beards while listening to orchestral music.
One way in identifying hipsters is how they present themselves. Normally,
hipsters tend to show different aspects of other cultures, combining them without
embodying their meanings (PBS Idea Channel). So a person who wears a stud
jacket, wears a Scottish skirt, plays a saxophone and wears oxfords is just combing
the cultures of a different classes and ethnicities. Another way of identifying
hipsters is how they enjoy the culture capital. Most hipsters express their enjoyment
through an arrogant, self-centered mannerism that normally ironic.

Bibliography
PBS Idea Channel. Are You A Hipster? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios. Online
video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 16 January 2013. Web. 28 April 2014.