Pokemón

Sensitive Content Notice ⚠️

The following article contains and discusses content that may be distressing to some readers.
Reason for Warning: This page mentions a few sexual and violent references, which can be uncomfortable to some users. Reader discretion is advised.

Disclaimer: This article is about the Pokemón subculture from Chile. It is completely unrelated to the Pokémon franchise (see the Philosophy section).

Pokemones, formerly known as HxCitos, were (or are, if they still exist) an urban tribe and youth subculture that surged in 2006 in Chile^[1]. They were teenagers who pretended to lead sad lives despite being happy and extroverted. They appeared as a result of mixing values from various other subcultures: they adopted characteristics from Otakus (hobbies and mindset), Emos (hairstyle inspiration), Hip-Hop (sense of fashion) and Punk (political mindset) and they also mixed it with their local influence from other Chilean subcultures such as Flaites (musical taste) or the Chilean Hardcore Punk scene^[2]. They enjoyed listening to Reggaeton music and participating in perreo, ponceo (looking for partners at night) and other activities including physical contact, such as kissing with several people. Along with that they also had their own ways of dancing, called Pokemoneo; its origin is unclear but some claim it directly comes from the Pokémon franchise. They were heavy internet users and their main communication platform was the image-sharing app Fotolog and MSN Messenger. It's not known if this subculture is still active to this day because around the late 2000s they received many violent threats and hate over the internet, which made the urban tribe slowly go downhill.

Fashion[]

Some common characteristics of Pokemón fashion are:

Wide white/black t-shirts
Polo shirts
Long polo shirts with stripes or polka dots
Mini-skirts
Tank tops
Belts
Leather jackets
Converse sneakers
Skinny and decayed pants
Hip-Hop-inspired fashion
Colorful makeup
Makeup featuring symbols or drawings
Black eyeliner
Decora-inspired bracelets
Dyed black hair
Emo and Anime-inspired hairstyles (called Piñas)
Bright colored clothing
Glitter

Philosophy[]

Pokemones have a political mindset similiar to those of Punks, and to a lesser extent Emos and they see the world from a optimistic point of view^[3]. They were pacifists and open-minded. Apart from that, those who are part of this subculture often have a childish mindset revolving around fantasy and an obsession with Alternative fashion and hairstyles. They cared way too much about their appareances and many of them would refuse to mentally grow up and be responsible. Because of this, they were named after the Pokémon franchise by their haters, and went viral on Chilean media by this name, although they also went by other names in the past such as HxCitos. Another reason included the fact they tried to style their hair like anime characters such as Goku from Dragon Ball. A large part of Pokemones were also LGBTQ+, often identifying as bisexual and/or polyamorous.

Activities[]

Some activities practiced by Pokemones included:

Using Fotolog
Socializing in real life during the evening (mainly to avoid violence)
Socializing at night through the Internet
Dancing perreo and Pokemoneo
Kissing and hugging with various people (known as Ponceo)
Listening to Reggaeton
Discussing musical genres and fashion

Criticism[]

As mentioned before, many people in Chile (ranging from normal people to many people part of alternative subcultures) didn't like the Pokemones, mainly because they plagiarized aspects from other subcultures, or simply because they thought they were "cringe", or because some of its members (including minors) engaged in public sexual activity^[4] which led to the subculture getting demonized by the media (a few Pokemones would use public indecency as a way to seek attention). Some Chilean scenes who were against Pokemones included Punks, Skinheads, gatekeeper Emos, "Hardcoritos", Metalheads and Hip-Hop fans. This led to the Pokemón subculture getting sent violent threats (although mainly by alt-right people and Chilean patriots) or getting insulted by other alternative subcultures. The situation got worse and many people part of this subculture started getting beaten up or attacked at clubs and bars. The problem got so out of hand that the Chilean government had to start an anti-violence campaign called "Foundation for a Better Future". Due to this, the Pokemón subculture started dying out in the late 2000s and was pretty much gone by 2012.