Millennial disentitlement: Greta Gerwig’s post-recession hipster stardom

ABSTRACT

Through often derogatory mediated coding, the figure of the hipster has been positioned as an exemplar of Millennial privilege and a leading advocate for neoliberalism. However, such representation often elides how the Millennial generational cohort in which the hipster is embedded has been impacted by the 2008 financial crisis. For many young people this period has been marked by precarity, exorbitant student loans, unpaid internships and minimal opportunities for upward mobility. This paper argues that actor/director Greta Gerwig’s generationally-identified stardom in the post-recession period becomes a constructive site of interrogation for such anxieties. Gerwig’s representations of hipsterism are concurrent to the taste culture’s repositioning in the post-recession economy, where facets of hipster ‘cool’ and ‘taste’ are mined by urban economies to position cities as ‘global centres.’ I argue that her performance style also elicits tensions in the expected amiability associated with contemporary neoliberal subjectivity. By examining Gerwig’s star persona as well as her central roles in Frances Ha (2012) and Mistress America (2015) it becomes apparent that Gerwig’s ‘quirky’ affect renders the normative codes of contemporary work culture as farcical.

KEYWORDS:

• Creative industries
• Greta Gerwig
• hipsterism
• celebrity
• workplace affect

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Professor Diane Negra and Dr. Anthony McIntyre for their feedback on early drafts of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Media outlets such as The Hollywood Reporter and The Independent have described Gerwig using phrases such as ‘Hipster muse’ and ‘Hipster Goddess.’ See Romney and Galuppo for reference.

2. Norman Mailer’s divisive essay ‘The White N***o’ documented the initial incarnation of hipsterism, emphasising how the subcultures’ ‘aloof affect constituted a form of distinction from what he termed ‘square’ society.

3. See Srisavasdi and Fretts’ interviews, ‘Greta Gerwig Talks Carole Lombard & Movie Musical Love’ and ‘For “Mistress America,” Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig Serve Screwball With a Whiff of Menace.’

Additional information

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Ryan Dorrian

Ryan Dorrian currently works as a tutor within University College Dublin’s School of English, Drama and Film teaching Film and Media studies to level 1 and 2 undergraduate students. Ryan completed his MA in Film Studies in UCD in 2018, and his research interests include depictions of youth culture in media, particularly in contemporary independent film, and multi-mediated representations of alternative music artists.