Eighties nerds are contemporary hipsters
Yesterday I watched The Last American Virgin, at the suggestion of Eli Roth. Okay, he didn't personally suggest it, but he did say it was one his five favorite films on the Rotten Tomatoes Show. I liked the film. It starts as a madcap comedy, and then like an Apatow production, it turns into melodrama. Film scholars could write for hours about the liberal attitude towards drunk driving, the boner contest, or the bleakness of the ending, but I'm no film scholar.
The most striking thing to me about this film was in the depiction of nerds. I didn't pick up who was supposed to be the butt of jokes, because I didn't know that the nerds were nerds.
It took me a while to realize that Victor & Rose were the token nerds. I had been applying 2009 standards to this 1982 film. Because in 2009 Victor & Rose look a lot more fashionable than resident cool dude, Rick.
To further evidence this phenomenon, Thrift store fashion has contemporary hipsters literally wearing the clothes of people who lived in the nineteen-eighties, many of whom were actual nerds.
The most striking thing to me about this film was in the depiction of nerds. I didn't pick up who was supposed to be the butt of jokes, because I didn't know that the nerds were nerds.
It took me a while to realize that Victor & Rose were the token nerds. I had been applying 2009 standards to this 1982 film. Because in 2009 Victor & Rose look a lot more fashionable than resident cool dude, Rick.
The eighties nerd dresses a lot like the contemporary hipster.
In 2009 these guys hang out with Mark the Cobrasnake, but in 1982 these guys look like they'd be hanging out with Victor:
The only stylistic difference between the characterization of a nerd and a present-day hipster, is that the filmic interpretation tends to have braces. Though this gentleman could easily pass between both worlds (especially with that time-traveling app on that cellphone)
Think Rose's style is a little bit to ostentatious for contemporary hipsterdom? Think again. Not only has her nerdly fashion-sense hit the ironic dancefloors in Williamsburg and Hackney, it's become high fashion.
To further evidence this phenomenon, Thrift store fashion has contemporary hipsters literally wearing the clothes of people who lived in the nineteen-eighties, many of whom were actual nerds.
1980s jocks don't know what's coming for them.
