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Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It’s A Different Person
Recently, MIT Technology Review posted an article, titled ‘The hipster effect: Why anti-conformists always end up looking the same.’ And in an incredibly ironic turn of events, it almost instantly proved itself right.
The article was an analysis of recent research by Brandeis University mathematician Jonathan Touboul on “the hipster style effect,” specifically how “the population of hipsters initially act randomly but then undergo a phase transition into a synchronized state.”
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However, it was the inclusion of a Getty Images stock photo of a bearded man that prompted one reader to contact the magazine. “Your lack of basic journalistic ethics in both how you ‘reported’ this uncredited nonsense, and the abusive, unnecessary use of my picture without permission demands a response, and I am, of course, pursuing legal action,” the angry person wrote.
MIT Technology Review Editor-in-Chief Gideon Lichfield explained everything in detail on Twitter.
Image credits: glichfield
Image credits: glichfield
“We haven’t received a similar claim that I’m aware of in the time I’ve been editor (but that’s only 15 months),” Lichfield told Bored Panda. “[And] that was the only communication we had with him.”
“I looked at what his accusation was, and I said, he seems to be accusing us of implying that he’s following hipster fashion. I’m pretty sure that can’t be prosecuted for slander,” Lichfield said. “My second thought was, you know, I’m sure that we used this photo following the license and we got it from a reputable agency, so there shouldn’t be a problem with using it even if the photo model in the picture doesn’t like the implication.”
“So I forwarded the email to our art department …, and their response was, “Yes, we have the right license. But, you know, we can take the picture down anyway if he’s annoyed. But our creative director said no, this was an image that we used with permission and perfectly under our rights. We shouldn’t take it down just get somebody doesn’t like it.”
Image credits: glichfield
Image credits: istock/PeopleImages
Image credits: glichfield
Image credits: glichfield
And that’s how a 34-page study got proven in a brief round of email ping pong. “They wrote to him and … said, ‘We don’t think this stock photo model is you.’ And he replied, ‘Oh, I guess you’re right, it’s not,'” Lichfield explained. “No apology, but, you know, I’m happy that it’s resolved.”
However, he’s not saying that the reader was crazy to convince himself that was indeed his photo. “I mean, you know, the picture is in profile. He’s wearing a hat, so it covers his hair. And, you know, as a no-longer-in-his-30s white man with a beard, I know that a lot of white men in their 30s with beards look kind of similar. So I guess it doesn’t surprise me that much.”
People had a lot to say about the whole ordeal
Image credits: realnzall
Image credits: kithrup
Image credits: logotrix
What do you think ?
Ronald Burggraaf 5 years ago
https://youtu.be/KHbzSif78qQ Monty Python Life of Brian. Brian: "You are all individuals" Man in the crowd: "I'm not"
Catlady6000 5 years ago
Gibson girls in the late 1800s, Flappers in the 1920s, beatniks, hippies, punks, goths, rockers, country, hipsters, Republicans, etc all have their uniforms
Wyndmere 5 years ago
(So do democrats.) -- This happens with every generation and nich/facet of society.
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Sara Johnston 5 years ago
As I read the comments I think, well unless you sew all your own clothes it's pretty impossible NOT to look like a clone of whatever cultural group shops in the same milieu of stores. We all need to feel a sense of belonging. It might be in a tiny group of close friends or a big social strata where we work. Part of the signal you belong is tied up in appearance. That's only the superficial part that identifies the stuff inside the individual. The trick is not to bad-mouth the appearance of the groups you're not a part of. We all look like somebody else, a little or a lot.
David Oland 5 years ago
While you shake a finger trying to stick up for them, I say back to you "They stole the look to appear like strong real men." The Pacific NW has loggers, farmers, fishermem, and hunters who include men and women, and for over a century wore a checker or plaid flannel shirt, jeans, thick soled boots, and stocking cap, and men wore suspenders and beard too. Think Paul Bunyan and you get the idea. And these hipsters are from cities, who hate and have never used a rifle to get deer meat, likely cannot tie a fishing line, would never want soil under manicured nails, and please never hold an ax near their hugging tree! They stole the look just like they have stolen afros, and stolen looks of other countries. Should my region feel flattered? Nah, we want to spray paint CITY BOI on their macbooks and Prius. We don't though, because we know they would start lecturing us like you.
Load More Replies... Ronald Burggraaf 5 years ago
https://youtu.be/KHbzSif78qQ Monty Python Life of Brian. Brian: "You are all individuals" Man in the crowd: "I'm not"
Catlady6000 5 years ago
Gibson girls in the late 1800s, Flappers in the 1920s, beatniks, hippies, punks, goths, rockers, country, hipsters, Republicans, etc all have their uniforms
Wyndmere 5 years ago
(So do democrats.) -- This happens with every generation and nich/facet of society.
Load More Replies... Sara Johnston 5 years ago
As I read the comments I think, well unless you sew all your own clothes it's pretty impossible NOT to look like a clone of whatever cultural group shops in the same milieu of stores. We all need to feel a sense of belonging. It might be in a tiny group of close friends or a big social strata where we work. Part of the signal you belong is tied up in appearance. That's only the superficial part that identifies the stuff inside the individual. The trick is not to bad-mouth the appearance of the groups you're not a part of. We all look like somebody else, a little or a lot.
David Oland 5 years ago
While you shake a finger trying to stick up for them, I say back to you "They stole the look to appear like strong real men." The Pacific NW has loggers, farmers, fishermem, and hunters who include men and women, and for over a century wore a checker or plaid flannel shirt, jeans, thick soled boots, and stocking cap, and men wore suspenders and beard too. Think Paul Bunyan and you get the idea. And these hipsters are from cities, who hate and have never used a rifle to get deer meat, likely cannot tie a fishing line, would never want soil under manicured nails, and please never hold an ax near their hugging tree! They stole the look just like they have stolen afros, and stolen looks of other countries. Should my region feel flattered? Nah, we want to spray paint CITY BOI on their macbooks and Prius. We don't though, because we know they would start lecturing us like you.
Load More Replies...
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