A long while back, I took singer Amanda Palmer to task in my music blog for her incredibly insensitive hipster racism/ableism, as I burned my fancard. I posted several incredibly astute links on the subject that even educated me beyond my initial knee-jerk “what the cunting fuck, bitch?” indignation. My inner academic was also on board with my heart, and spitting mad.
Well, here comes a new version of hipster idiocy: a Hobo Wedding.
No, really: this couple thought that the Great Depression and the lifestyle of hobos was so dreamy and romantic, they would theme their wedding around it. And, because they sourced so many of their vintage items at Etsy (the site that consistently shits out faux-artsy crafters that April Winchell thankfully dissects for all our enjoyment at Regretsy), that site’s blog featured this wedding. Because, y’know, with unemployment raging in the United States, poverty is just so charming and quaint!
First of all, I love how well-researched the bride claims this wedding was, considering that she believes in misguided fashion that the term hobo was a shortened version of ‘homeward bound’ (that meaning only applied in the 1800s, not during the 1930s era that she themed her wedding on; by then, hobo referred to ‘hoe boys’). I also love that in all of this research, not once did it occur to her pretentious artist ass that she might offend people – guests, even! – with such a theme, and perhaps consider a close alternative. Did she actually read of the brutality of the hobo lifestyle, or did she simply gaze upon Norman Rockwell-esque ‘clown hobos’ and swoon?
Perhaps most grating is her husband’s obnoxious Tweeting about the matter, completely unapologetic and downright disgusting at times. Defending your wedding as frugal because the ‘average wedding’ costs $27K and theirs cost only $15K is sad enough, and shows a piss-poor understanding of mathematics (newsflash: that figure is so high because it includes $100K weddings as well as the more common $5K or less shindigs many brides discuss on The Knot). But these comments?
Keep it classy, Faux-bo Groom. Of course, coming from the husband of a woman who actually used the term hobo chic, I’d expect nothing less.
Look: if you love the 1930s style, fine. If you wanted a simple style of dress and a fun, relaxed wedding that felt more like a jamboree, all the power to you. You could have called it a 1930s country wedding and not offended a ton of people who have actually lived in poverty or do so right now. Are your outfits cute, if the theme was left unknown? Well, yes; without any label, it’s obviously a down home vintage wedding, and perfectly decorated as such. But to romanticize some of the most impoverished people of that time period is an insult to their pain.
Hipster classism. What will they think of next?
Maybe I should rethink my own wedding. Chernobyl style? Special Olympics, with all of us in decorated wheelchairs and braces? Japanese Tsunami chic? Am I doing weddings wrong by having tact, taste and class?
The original blog for their wedding
Their privileged registry, complete with $200 self-cleaning litter box
Regretsy takes them to task for their idiocy
Butterflies and Hurricanes 