Like punk and cosplay, it comes with a lifestyle that is alluring to norms. Whatever it is, hip-hop, hardcore, riding waves and robbing banks, there will be vultures. Skateboarding is cool. Subcultures need protecting because easy access to information has made them vulnerable. The second you start to think about yourself and your style as authentic or not is the second it slips away.

Off my wave, kook! But as we all know, no one stands for anything anymore, so has poser become obsolete? If you were a poser, you were a fraud, a phony, a faker and you probably couldn't even kickflip. It questioned everything you stood for-your authenticity, your integrity, your commitment.

In it's prime, poseur, or poser as most of you posers probably spell it, was amongst the lowest insults one could deploy. Hardcore kids, goths, even surfers or, as I like to call them, sea posers, have used it to defend their turf. Point is: There will always be someone to whom you are a poser. The term has made the rounds through various subcultures, not just punk and skate. Marks with track marks and a pitbull asleep on your lap, then we can talk. Wake up slumped against a telephone pole on St. In other words, a safety pin in your ear and a bunch of Offspring lyrics written in Wite-Out on your JanSport did not you a punk make. The smell test is different these days, but the reek is all the same.īefore the skaters who kicked your ass in middle school adopted the term, punks used it to label those who wore the fashions, but weren't down for the cause. Mall grab your board? Same. It was an important word because not only did it make your adversaries feel small and pathetic, but it identified frauds and protected your tribe. If you didn't skate, but you wore an Alien Workshop T-shirt, you were a poser. That's because, before taste was democratized into a bland salad of C-grade street style and endless meme imitation lemon parties, the word poser meant something. It's been a while since I called someone a poser and meant it. But summer is here, so it's time we had a serious talk about posers. There's nothing more tired and predictable than a rant about how the Internet changed the culture, especially when its purpose is to chastise so-called millennials for their digitally-savvy, fast-typing, presumptuous lifestyle.

Poser skate quiz