Recently, in the vast network you can increasingly meet the word "poseur". Various users use it during online discussions, as a rule, to insult their opponent. But who is the poser? What does this word mean? Stay with us and find out!
Word history
This information may surprise someone, but the word "poseur" has French roots. In the original, it is written as poseur, which in translation means "copycat." And, in fact, the original meaning of this word fully describes who the pose is actually (but more on that below).
Meaning of the word "poseur"
Speaking as clearly as possible, a poser is a person who is trying to seem like what he really is not. This applies to people who classify themselves as a certain subculture, but at the same time only copying its visual characteristics, without really understanding the essence of the movement. These may be "Goths" who wear black, but in everyday life behave like all ordinary people. It can be anarchists who shout left and right about the struggle with the system and the consumer society, but at the same time they work as clerks in real life, sit on social networks, etc. It can be skaters who wear the same clothes as other representatives of this subculture, but in fact they don’t know how to ride a board. The list goes on and on. A copycat does not know all the subtleties and rules of this or that movement, he simply blindly copies his external and behavioral model. Poser, no matter how much he wants it, cannot become a full-fledged member of a certain subculture.
You can also call a poser a person who, through his non-standard appearance and unusual behavior, tries to impress others. As a rule, it looks very false and pretended.
What are the reasons for posturing?
This question is much more difficult to answer than the question of who the pose is. Each person is individual, and each may have different motives. Some people begin to do this in order to quickly and without any effort to join the party of interest to them, others - to increase their sense of significance and simply show off in front of others. There are still cases when a person falls in love with a member of a particular movement and, in order to attract his attention, begins to pretend to be a participant in this “movement”. He can begin to dress like them, and even try to learn the rules and the characteristics of the subculture, which is the object of his unrequited love, but, as a rule, it does not end with anything good. To become part of a certain movement, you must first be interested in it. It is worth a poser to stop loving a member of a group, so he will immediately stop doing this (except for very rare exceptions).
The antipode of the poseur
You already know who the posers are, it's time to talk about people who are their exact opposite. The main antagonists of the posers have always been labor-participants in any movement. "Tru" is a mirror image of the poseur. Tru-participant knows perfectly the rules of his movement, its features, history, etc. In addition, the “catastrophic” member of a particular group repeatedly proved his true belonging and love for the subculture not in word but in deed. Someone might think that this is good, but, unfortunately, even here it is not so simple. Sometimes labor-participants, in their attempt to expose the poser, get to the point of absolute absurdity. Such people require the other members of the “movement” to be just as fanatical about their common cause.
In some situations, the word "tru" is ironically called the posers themselves, trying to ridicule their obvious and illiterate attempts to seem like representatives of a certain movement.
Types of posers
We have already considered examples of imitators, now it's time to talk about posturing terminology. Consider two types of pretenders, which quite often can be found in everyday life.
Wannabe (Wonabi) - a person who wants to be someone, but can not because of a lack of talent or skill. For example, a guy tells everyone that he is a cool hacker and programmer, but in fact he doesn’t even really know basic things from this field of activity. Representatives of the described subspecies of poses get out of their way to get into the hacker party, but at the same time they themselves can not even distinguish the real representative of the movement from exactly the same imitator, like himself.
Wigger is a white guy who, in all seriousness, copies the habits of black ghetto participants. This variety of posers is more relevant for residents of the United States of America, but it was definitely worth mentioning.
Poser: synonyms for the word
Like any other term, the word poser has its own synonyms. These include:
- show off;
- malleus;
- buffoon;
- crayfish;
- snob.
Now you know about who the pose is, what types of poseurs exist, and also what synonym can be applied to this word. We hope this information was useful to you.