Cool

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Being cool has usually been considered a desirable social quality (see How Do You Know If You Are "Cool?") although its antithesis may be desirable in many workplaces (at least from the employer's perspective and perhaps some of the coworkers).

I think part of the reason we have trouble with dating and romantic relationships is that people with Asperger's syndrome are usually not perceived as being cool. What's cool has changed over the years; it used to mean wearing a black leather jacket, sunglasses, a white t-shirt and blue jeans, and perhaps a Fonz (Happy Days) hair style while riding a motorcycle (without a helmet) or driving a red convertible sports car. Cool and hip used to be synonymous, but nowadays they are nearly opposite. Hip applies to hipsters and anything "indie" while cool labels something more "mainstream" (as hipsters would deride it). Thus the people who were considered popular in high school may have been considered "cool" although they may not be considered "hip"; there is a possibility the hip had some popularity although they may only embrace the cool "ironically" or, once the hip becomes "cool," it becomes unhip.

Cool then is the product of Viacom's marketing department (MTV, Comedy Central, etc.) and the major music labels (Sony, Warner Bros., etc.) and movie studios. Jersey Shore is cool but is definitively unhip; Zooey Deschanel is hip. Cool is the hive mind of the popular girls of junior highs across America; hip is the hive mind of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and fine art, theater, and humanities majors in universities across America. Someone who's hip will unironically describe himself as having "always been a bit of an art fag" as a badge of pride and without implying actual homosexuality (and yes, I heard this at a coffee shop near a college campus once).

Cool Look



Hip Look



A cohort also diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome speculates that it's easier for someone with Asperger's to become hip than cool.
Characteristics of Coolness

• Typically young
• Athletic or muscular
• Stylish
• Popular
• Drinks, parties, has sex, listens to loud music, and drives fast ("thrill seeking")
• Avoids too much focus on academics or intellectual pursuits (avoids the "nerd," "geek," and "dork" labels)
• Owns the latest or most desirable consumer goods
• Not easily upset but buoyant and upbeat
• Can come across as shallow

• Cultivates a style that is quirky with things like black-rimmed glasses, handlebar moustaches, skinny-fit jeans, etc.
• Listens to indie rock music
• Watches art-house movies
• Prefers to avoid anything deemed "mainstream"
• Gender bender or androgynous
• Politically liberal
• "Ironic"
• Avoids too much show of enthusiasm or optimism (at times, strikes a quasi-melancholic pose)
• Flamboyant emotionality (neuroticism) is acceptable if it makes one appear "deep"
• Asexual or deprioritizes sexuality from life

Thanks for sharing this. Interesting stuff.

can hipsters be athletic / muscular?, which I'm not Just curious.

I don't like indie music much. I sometimes wear polarized Aviator or sport glasses.

I have a personal dislike for skinny jeans (meaning that I just don't like wearing skinny jeans).

I wear a baseball cap with a flattened brim but never move it sideways or to the back.

I once wore a leather jacket and white T-shirt, minus the Fonzi haircut.

I'm not THAT interested in sex but if a girl asks for it, (and is my GF of course ), I'll take the chance?

Is there an in between?

I've always thought that people who are cool willingly allow themselves to be sucked into the "mainstream" (i call this collective entity) and portray a beastlike/animalistic nature. And by that, I mean shallow, obnoxious to lesser favored people (nerds/dorks), intellectual indifference, prejudice/bias, self glamorizes, and above all; showing the same animalistic quality of seeking dominance over those who one believes is different or inferior symbolizing their superiority by physically or emotionally discouraging or degrading them; A.K.A. bullying.

Hipsters, as I understood, portray the same conformitive and animalistic qualities except they idolize intellect, uniqueness, and creativity. But rather than working hard to obtain or show these qualities, they instead do what they can to pretend and put up the illusion to pass off themselves as intellectuals, individuals, and even artists, but not incontradiction to their conformitive qualities. Admittedly they do portray a flamboyant and quirkey style. But they are just pretenders to me, like people who buy the motorcycle helmet so people think they drive a motorcycle. In general, a hipster is literally "one who follows trends".

But this is in my own opinion.

Hipsters follow "alternative" trends, but they only follow something because it's popular—not because they like or understand it. Cool people are the same with mainstream trends.

They are very proseur.

I think that the men in the pictures have a certain swag or charismatic trait, celebrities, people who are famous tend to have exaggerated facial expressions and that's something that people on the spectrum struggle to even grasp.

I think people that are hipsters fit in that group and can be extremely expressive and animated. I have met people that work in the IT industry and none of them fit this stereotype of being hip so I guess it's more of an art college trend.