5 ms·

Am I alone in thinking this is a little strange? If my teenager decided to live their life in a comic book costume, or cosplaying and pretending to be an anime

by avree 3y ago

Am I alone in thinking this is a little strange? If my teenager decided to live their life in a comic book costume, or cosplaying and pretending to be an anime character, I would say they are too attached. There are YouTubers like "ReportoftheWeek" who like to dress in an older style, but choosing to not learn to use a cellphone and bypassing understanding modern technology seems to be going too far.

Solvency 3y ago
Apparently it's about going all the way. Wear just a fedora? You're a neckbeard. Go fully 1940s in every way? Darling.
- maximus-decimus 3y ago
  That is very interesting to me. I never understood why people hate so much that neckbeards mix a fedora with t-shirt and jeans. Does anybody get mad at Jensen (from Nvidia) for wearing a biker leather jacket without being a biker?
  - solarmist 3y ago
    It's not about the fedora, it's about the stereotype that caused that association to mean something.
    - PhasmaFelis 3y ago
      It's middle school cliquism. Assuming that stereotypes about clothing tell you everything you need to know about a person.
      - AussieWog93 3y ago
        No, it's plain old pattern matching. People wore fedoras to identify them as part of a subculture (Reddit gentlemen). Most people who weren't part of the subculture pretty quickly figured out that removing their fedora meant people didn't assume they were a part of it, so they took it off. Same thing with hipster glasses, mullets, dreads, swastikas, list goes on...
        solarmist 3y ago
        > Reddit gentlemen Is that where that came from? It sounds right. I used to wear nice hats regularly including a couple of fedoras, but I had to retire them because of this.
        PhasmaFelis 3y ago
        Except for the swastikas, everything you mentioned is just more lazy stereotyping. How many times have you met an actual douchebag wearing a fedora? How many times have you heard people saying that all douchebags wear fedoras? I bet the ratio is at least 1:50. It's like how people who insist all vegans are smug outnumber actual smug vegans by a huge margin.
    - maximus-decimus 3y ago
      So they just hate neckbeards no matter what and just pretend it's because of the hat?
  - allenu 3y ago
    I think some of it is just the poor aesthetic combination of fedora with a t-shirt and jeans. The fedora feels like an attempt to be stylish without going the full effort to coordinate the look. It’s a lack of self-awareness that probably comes across as the wearer saying “I am now stylish because of this hat” where that clearly isn’t true to an observer.
echelon 3y ago
This is completely harmless and 100% awesome. This kid has so much character and will have so many stories and connections as opposed to most average kids of the same age. This world needs more unabashed individualism like this. It leads humanity to richer culture and more discovery.
- mariuolo 3y ago
  > This is completely harmless Except that a 1938 car is a death trap.
  - echelon 3y ago
    So is riding a bicycle on a busy street. We need to stop coddling and worrying about everything. (I guess we were all raised by helicopter parents and are doubling down?) In my state practically any self-built car is able to become road-legal. Old cars, rebuilds, kit cars, etc. And it's fine. People are fine. We're not imposing this choice top-down at a population level. We're not about to have (current accident rate) * (1938 car crash outcome). Someone doing this for fun is bound to be more careful than your average driver.
- nomdep 3y ago
  As his father I would be worried about his dating prospects, but if he had that already sorted out, cool! Lots of easy birthday presents to choose from :D
- WentFullRetard 3y ago
  [dead]
dfxm12 3y ago
I think it's a little strange, sure, but if I'm being honest with myself, I'm a little strange too. As a famous cat once said, we're all mad here. Aside from (maybe?) driving under the speed limit, no harm no foul. Not mentioned in the article, but I do hope he's OK with modern medicine, like the polio vaccine, and will be willing to eschew his aversion to cell phones if his grandmother has to get in touch with him in some sort of emergency...
modeless 3y ago
Sure it's strange, but I guess the difference is nobody has ever been a comic book or anime character, but plenty of people lived in the 1940s.
chasd00 3y ago
as the father of a teenager and a former teenager myself, teens are strange in many many ways. This is about as harmless as it comes though.
asylteltine 3y ago
No you are not alone. This is really strange and unhealthy.
cafard 3y ago
In the 1950s, there were British "Teds" who affected the clothing of the Edwardian days forty years before. Some of them, I guess, were thugs. But deliberate anachronism isn't entirely new.
- Gormo 3y ago
  And there's a fair subset of this very site's audience who spend time repairing C64s, telnetting into BBSes, and building Gopher sites.
Cthulhu_ 3y ago
I'm not convinced, if anything, teenagers of today seem to have less of anything unique going on (note that this may just be perspective, I'm not up to date on teenagers), whereas back when you'd have a number of subcultures. I mean you mention anime characters, but there's a big greaser / rockabilly subculture in Japan - grown men dressing like they're from the 50's. Then there's of course the survivalist / homesteader subculture, people who live off the grid. There's LARPers who - usually only at events - dress up as elves and co. There's medieval re-enactors who have full suits of armor. There's renaissance faire people. There's Dickensians. Furries. Peaky Blinders. K-Pop stans. The list goes on. This is normal human behaviour. While I also think it's a little strange, it's harmless. Let people have things.
- quelltext 3y ago
  > I mean you mention anime characters, but there's a big greaser / rockabilly subculture in Japan. There isn't, though. There are probably a dozen or so in Tokyo and about the same number in Osaka. Granted, I don't have an exact number but it is super niche. If you ask a random Japanese person the chances of them even being aware of that subculture is very low. > This is normal human behaviour. While I also think it's a little strange, it's harmless. Let people have things. No, it's not. Some of your examples are but going all in isn't normal even if we ignore the fact that being part of a subculture kind of isn't normal by definition. If it were normal we wouldn't get an article about it from the BBC, would we? But what I rather mean is, doing that as a dress up thing or LARPing is reasonable. Using some old items or wearing old fashion for their unique appeal is also reasonable. Putting anachronism above all else isn't normal, though. Those Japanese greasers use mobile phones. Arguably, we don't know how much of what the article describes is tongue in cheek, and perhaps it's mostly a character the guy is playing. But if not, hating to or avoiding to use modern technology because it's not from the era you happen to like (because of your grandpa's POW diaries, another can of worms right there) is quite off. I'm not saying he shouldn't enjoy what he's doing or "become like the rest if us" but no, really, it's not normal (and maybe that's okay).
  - dudul 3y ago
    If by normal you mean "part of the norm" I guess not, but so what? People have hobbies, passions, etc. What criteria are you using to be the judge of what is harmless or not? What Is reasonable and abnormal?
csdvrx 3y ago
> There are YouTubers like "ReportoftheWeek" who like to dress in an older style, but choosing to not learn to use a cellphone There are also HNers. Count me in the "refuse to use a cellphone" camp. I want to learn how the hardware and software stacks work, but I don't want to carry one ever.
- billnad 3y ago
  I do remember having a Blackberry and my IT Manager at the time thought it was crazy to have to reply to emails after work. So I guess there is quite a bit of freedom lost
Zambyte 3y ago
> Am I alone in thinking this is a little strange? This article wouldn't be upvoted enough for you to see it if you were

by avree 3y ago

Solvency 3y ago

Apparently it's about going all the way. Wear just a fedora? You're a neckbeard. Go fully 1940s in every way? Darling.

maximus-decimus 3y ago
That is very interesting to me. I never understood why people hate so much that neckbeards mix a fedora with t-shirt and jeans. Does anybody get mad at Jensen (from Nvidia) for wearing a biker leather jacket without being a biker?
- solarmist 3y ago
  It's not about the fedora, it's about the stereotype that caused that association to mean something.
  - PhasmaFelis 3y ago
    It's middle school cliquism. Assuming that stereotypes about clothing tell you everything you need to know about a person.
    - AussieWog93 3y ago
      No, it's plain old pattern matching. People wore fedoras to identify them as part of a subculture (Reddit gentlemen). Most people who weren't part of the subculture pretty quickly figured out that removing their fedora meant people didn't assume they were a part of it, so they took it off. Same thing with hipster glasses, mullets, dreads, swastikas, list goes on...
      - solarmist 3y ago
        > Reddit gentlemen Is that where that came from? It sounds right. I used to wear nice hats regularly including a couple of fedoras, but I had to retire them because of this.
      - PhasmaFelis 3y ago
        Except for the swastikas, everything you mentioned is just more lazy stereotyping. How many times have you met an actual douchebag wearing a fedora? How many times have you heard people saying that all douchebags wear fedoras? I bet the ratio is at least 1:50. It's like how people who insist all vegans are smug outnumber actual smug vegans by a huge margin.
  - maximus-decimus 3y ago
    So they just hate neckbeards no matter what and just pretend it's because of the hat?
- allenu 3y ago
  I think some of it is just the poor aesthetic combination of fedora with a t-shirt and jeans. The fedora feels like an attempt to be stylish without going the full effort to coordinate the look. It’s a lack of self-awareness that probably comes across as the wearer saying “I am now stylish because of this hat” where that clearly isn’t true to an observer.

echelon 3y ago

This is completely harmless and 100% awesome. This kid has so much character and will have so many stories and connections as opposed to most average kids of the same age. This world needs more unabashed individualism like this. It leads humanity to richer culture and more discovery.

mariuolo 3y ago
> This is completely harmless Except that a 1938 car is a death trap.
- echelon 3y ago
  So is riding a bicycle on a busy street. We need to stop coddling and worrying about everything. (I guess we were all raised by helicopter parents and are doubling down?) In my state practically any self-built car is able to become road-legal. Old cars, rebuilds, kit cars, etc. And it's fine. People are fine. We're not imposing this choice top-down at a population level. We're not about to have (current accident rate) * (1938 car crash outcome). Someone doing this for fun is bound to be more careful than your average driver.
nomdep 3y ago
As his father I would be worried about his dating prospects, but if he had that already sorted out, cool! Lots of easy birthday presents to choose from :D
WentFullRetard 3y ago
[dead]

dfxm12 3y ago

I think it's a little strange, sure, but if I'm being honest with myself, I'm a little strange too. As a famous cat once said, we're all mad here. Aside from (maybe?) driving under the speed limit, no harm no foul. Not mentioned in the article, but I do hope he's OK with modern medicine, like the polio vaccine, and will be willing to eschew his aversion to cell phones if his grandmother has to get in touch with him in some sort of emergency...

modeless 3y ago

Sure it's strange, but I guess the difference is nobody has ever been a comic book or anime character, but plenty of people lived in the 1940s.

chasd00 3y ago

as the father of a teenager and a former teenager myself, teens are strange in many many ways. This is about as harmless as it comes though.

asylteltine 3y ago

No you are not alone. This is really strange and unhealthy.

cafard 3y ago

In the 1950s, there were British "Teds" who affected the clothing of the Edwardian days forty years before. Some of them, I guess, were thugs. But deliberate anachronism isn't entirely new.

Gormo 3y ago
And there's a fair subset of this very site's audience who spend time repairing C64s, telnetting into BBSes, and building Gopher sites.

Cthulhu_ 3y ago

I'm not convinced, if anything, teenagers of today seem to have less of anything unique going on (note that this may just be perspective, I'm not up to date on teenagers), whereas back when you'd have a number of subcultures. I mean you mention anime characters, but there's a big greaser / rockabilly subculture in Japan - grown men dressing like they're from the 50's. Then there's of course the survivalist / homesteader subculture, people who live off the grid. There's LARPers who - usually only at events - dress up as elves and co. There's medieval re-enactors who have full suits of armor. There's renaissance faire people. There's Dickensians. Furries. Peaky Blinders. K-Pop stans. The list goes on. This is normal human behaviour. While I also think it's a little strange, it's harmless. Let people have things.

quelltext 3y ago
> I mean you mention anime characters, but there's a big greaser / rockabilly subculture in Japan. There isn't, though. There are probably a dozen or so in Tokyo and about the same number in Osaka. Granted, I don't have an exact number but it is super niche. If you ask a random Japanese person the chances of them even being aware of that subculture is very low. > This is normal human behaviour. While I also think it's a little strange, it's harmless. Let people have things. No, it's not. Some of your examples are but going all in isn't normal even if we ignore the fact that being part of a subculture kind of isn't normal by definition. If it were normal we wouldn't get an article about it from the BBC, would we? But what I rather mean is, doing that as a dress up thing or LARPing is reasonable. Using some old items or wearing old fashion for their unique appeal is also reasonable. Putting anachronism above all else isn't normal, though. Those Japanese greasers use mobile phones. Arguably, we don't know how much of what the article describes is tongue in cheek, and perhaps it's mostly a character the guy is playing. But if not, hating to or avoiding to use modern technology because it's not from the era you happen to like (because of your grandpa's POW diaries, another can of worms right there) is quite off. I'm not saying he shouldn't enjoy what he's doing or "become like the rest if us" but no, really, it's not normal (and maybe that's okay).
- dudul 3y ago
  If by normal you mean "part of the norm" I guess not, but so what? People have hobbies, passions, etc. What criteria are you using to be the judge of what is harmless or not? What Is reasonable and abnormal?

csdvrx 3y ago

> There are YouTubers like "ReportoftheWeek" who like to dress in an older style, but choosing to not learn to use a cellphone There are also HNers. Count me in the "refuse to use a cellphone" camp. I want to learn how the hardware and software stacks work, but I don't want to carry one ever.

billnad 3y ago
I do remember having a Blackberry and my IT Manager at the time thought it was crazy to have to reply to emails after work. So I guess there is quite a bit of freedom lost

Zambyte 3y ago

> Am I alone in thinking this is a little strange? This article wouldn't be upvoted enough for you to see it if you were