Anatomy of a Hippie

Flower power

When the Hell's Angels threatened too beat up any hippies who showed up at a planned march to protest the draft, Beat poet Allen Ginsberg suggested protestors respond by handing out flowers as a token of their peaceful intention. A symbol was born. The flower became associated with the hippie rejection of violence and coercion. They would meet oppression with love (and literal flowers).

Flower

Peace and love

Hand

Peace was at the heart of the hippie movement, and anti-war protest played a critical role in the counterculture generally. Hippies summed up their philosophy in the slogan "Make love, not war." The peace symbol, originally created in the 1950s to advocate for nuclear disarmament, was picked up by the hippies in the 1960s. The two finger peace hand gesture was popularized by them as well. A desire to end the violence associated with the Vietnam War and Jim Crow racism animated a movement with peaceful coexistence at its heart.

Sexual Revolution

Hip...?

The 1960s counterculture was marked by changing attitudes toward sexuality, relationships, and personal freedom. A rejection of traditional values coupled with widespread legal access to birth control for the first time changed the new generations attitudes toward sex. Hippies especially (though not exclusivley) were willing to experiement with public nudity, non-monogamous relationships, sex outside of marriage, and acceptance of homosexuality.

Mainstream culture used the sexual revolution to depict the hippies as libertine, even as Americans more generally pushed for more liberal divorce laws and legal abortion.

Drug culture

Eye

Part of challenging the status quo was seeing the world in a new way. The counterculture did this through exploring alternative ideologies, especially Buddhist and Hindu spirituality, but also through expanded use of recreational drugs, especially psychoactive and hallucinogenic drugs like marijuana and lysergic acid (Acid or LSD). Psychologist Timothy Leary famously linked pyschadelic drugs and spiritual awakening in a San Francisco speech: "Like every great religion, we seek to find the divinity within and to express this revelation...These ancient goals we define in the metaphor of the present—turn on, tune in, drop out."

Folk Music Revival

Ear

The 1960s saw a folk music revival and the rise of protest music. Folk musicians like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez reinterpreted traditional songs, using acoustic instruments to convey social and political messages. Protest songs like "Blowin' in the Wind" and "We Shall Overcome" became anthems for civil rights and anti-war movements. Unlike rock'n'roll, folk music could go everywhere hippies did with just a guitar or harmonica. Simple tunes and melodies made singing along an easy, communal experience.

Fashion

Bell bottoms

Hippie fashion moved away from the stricter dress codes of the 1950s for a more androgynous look, the same for men and women. Both wore denim, including bell bottom jeans; both wore flowing tops; both wore sandals; both grew long hair. Meanwhile, more conventional youth fashion was bucking the 1950s in a different way: the mini-skirt. A 1961 Life Magazine article noted a (scandalous) trend of girls wearing skirts as much as one inch above the knee. By the end of the 1960s, it was considerably higher than that.

Hippies would often hitchhike to "anywhere." The going was more important than the destination.

Alternative Communities

Feet

Hippies rejected the stability and suburbanization of the 1950s. In their pursuit of a more harmonious and communal living, they often wandered the country in search of like minded people and authentic experiences. Hitchhiking and cross country (or international) journey's of self-discovery became common rites of passage. Many embraced the idea of communal living, where they shared housing, resources, and responsibilities.

Free speech

Mouth

Free speech was a cornerstone of the counterculture in the 1960s. Rejecting the censurious consensus culture and blacklisting of the 1950s, the 1960s counterculture valued free speech as a means to openly critique government policies, traditional values, Jim Crow racism, and the Vietnam War. Hippies and other counterculture figures would no longer accept being told to keep quiet to blend in. They wanted to speak to stand out.