Men wearing hats, aside from baseball caps or winter warmth, is generally unfashionable and young men wearing hats looked like they were doing it in a vain attempt for attention, to look different or a delusional idea that they looked like Bogart or Indiana Jones. So people mocked it and called it a “fedora” because most people can probably name three types of hat and “Fedora” is one of them. Once you’ve established that people wearing fedoras are dorks, it’s easy to work backwards and use the fedora as a symbol of what a dork would wear.
Der Trihs:
Wow, this is one memo that the Rabbis totally never got.
I’ll bet they still use the wrong cover sheet on their TPS reports too.
I think any connections between fedoras and atheism are after the fact and just another example of the standard “thinks he looks cool/intellectual/interesting” dork kit. Know Your Meme has a history of fedora shaming and atheism doesn’t seem to be a part of it.
It’s not the hat that matters, it’s what the hat is riding on.
The atheism thing sounds like a “Just So Story.”
I think this is less true than it used to be, but only with regard to knit caps of various kinds, which are a decidedly informal accessory. It’s basically impossible to wear an old fashioned “formal” style hat and NOT look pretentious or like a try-hard.
“Newsboy” caps are sort of on the border. With the right kind of outfit, you can pull them off. It has to look kind of British and sporting. It clashes with hipster gear and anything with logos.
My fedora isn’t nerdy - it’s post-ironic.That doesn’t actually mean anything - I just came up with it when my daughter told me I looked like an old fuddy-duddy.It’s only nerdy if you care about the differences between a fedora, a trilby, and a homburg. Another instance where a complete absence of fashion sense masquerades as attitude.
Regards,
Shodan
In a prior thread it was brought up that currently it’s hard to find men’s headgear that will be perceived simultaneously to provide good protection from the elements, be stylish, and look un-dorkly.
The Atheist-fedora wearing connection has been around for a number of years. Here’s a joke magazine cover from five years ago and it makes a reference to “Internet debates: a worthwhile intellectual pursuit or a cheap substitute to arguing over the existence of God at the Thanksgiving table”
People in a certain subgroup started wearing fedoras, for whatever reason. People have a negative opinion of that subgroup (rightly so in this case). People’s stereotype of that subgroup includes their physical appearance and how they dress, as most stereotypes of subgroups do. Then fedoras take on a negative connotation to people not in that subgroup, so they’re less likely to wear them (unless they’re in another group with little or no contact with that subgroup).
I don’t think the negative stereotypes of incels have much to do with atheism. Yes, many incels are atheists, but that doesn’t have much to do with why a lot of people don’t like them. If all they did was promote atheism, I would be mildly annoyed by them, just like I am by people who try to convert me to their religion, but I wouldn’t think they were a threat to anybody.
You have that backwards. Wearing a baseball cap when not playing a sport is unfashionable.
Grown men (especially those who are bald) should wear real hats.
The thread has progressed well beyond any meaningful contribution I could make, so.
Fedora, Top Hat, and Bowler. What do I win?
The current connotation for a fedora is based on the fact that it is a difficult hat to pull off looking “cool” wearing unless you are hunting for a Maltese Falcon or fighting Nazis to retrieve the Arc of the Covenant.
Maybe you might pull off a fedora if you were a member of a late 90s / early 2000s ska band (although being a member of a ska band also suffers from the same problem of wearing a fedora).
That seems like it would only be true for a tiny subset of a particular subculture.
I won’t dispute that people asociate them with atheism, although I’ve never heard it. It’s just not the cause of the stigma.
Ska is absolutely pork pie, not fedora. Those are easy to tell apart, fedora vs. Trilby is admittedly harder.
Yeah. It;s just a internet thing.Some woman decided to make fun of what she decided were "losers’ on a dating site, and noticed a number were wearing trilbies. She wasnt smart enough to know the difference between a fedora and a trilbie. But it spread.
I do wear a fedora when the weather calls for it, or the occasion.
Unfortunately, the shape of my husband’s face requires a wider brim than a fedora (and a trilby is right out), but I think hats (other than baseball caps) on men are very attractive. (Of course, when the MRA guy opens his mouth, I loose all attraction). But then I have a thing for Sam Spade.
Baseball caps on any man older than 30 - unless he is actually playing baseball - are not my thing.
If you wear a fedora but you’re not sure whether it makes you look cool or cringey, walk around while vaping on an oversized vaping device with blinking lights, then you’re definitely the coolest motherfucker in town.
In general, I don’t mind hats on guys. I think most guys manage to pull off whatever kind of hat they’re wearing–even the “fedora-like” hats. I actually don’t see very many guys with fedora-like hats, to be honest. I can only think of two off the top of my head, and while both are a bit geeky, they don’t cut the profile of an “Incel”.
I’m slightly biased, though, because I’m a hat person. When I’m out and about, I’ll frequently have something on my head, for both practical (keeping the sun out of my face during the summer and hiding “bad hair” year round) and aesthetic reasons. I don’t feel “cooler” when I wear a hat. In fact, I always feel a little self-conscious when I’m wearing a hat in the company of peers. But I do feel more mysterious and distinguished. I’ve observed that I tend to get positive attention when I wear a hat (especially from older guys), and I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m a little more confident because of this. I feel less vulnerable when I am wearing a hat. The wider the brim, the more protected I feel.
I hope sun hats never become stigmatized. I am not ready to give mine up any time soon.
Red Hat Linux dated from 1995. The parallel Fedora development dates from 2002. From which we see that the association of hats (and particularly Fedoras) with hipsters dates from long before the wider community became aware of it.
Fedora shaming dates at least as far back as 2009-2010 though so I’m guessing a c.2012 image was drawing from the already established “Fedoras are for dorks” mindset.