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Geek Chic v. the Real Geeks
LibrarianThorne
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I am, by my own admission, a fairly hadcore uber-nerd. Warhammer, Star Trek, Star Wars, pen and paper RPGs, anime, video games, the whole nine yards, and I've gotta confess something. I am perturbed by the emergence of geek chic, mostly because it's totally throwing me off.
Take, say, X-Men 3. People want to talk about, and I can't help but say "Man, if Apocalypse or the Sentinels would have been in that movie..." and people go all "What? I thought Wolverine was pretty cool." Or how people say they're gamers, I ask what they play, and it's "Halo, Madden, GTA." I want to scream, I really do. This is in large part, I think, due to my childhood.
You see, I went to a Catholic elementary school until about halfway through 8th grade, and I was a nerdy kid. I took a lot of crap for it. I got in fights, some of which involved fractures and breaks on my arms and ankles. I stood up against all this because I enjoyed all of that, even as a kid, and I wasn't going to change because some doucheholes thought it wasn't cool. Now, said doucheholes have basically stolen my culture from me, only not really and I find myself begging for the day when the geek chic thing is over.
I'm probably alone in thinking this, and likely a bit crazy. Anyone have any other input?
tl;dr: Nerd rage from mainstream semi-acceptance of geek culture. Rambling anger. What do you think?
Take, say, X-Men 3. People want to talk about, and I can't help but say "Man, if Apocalypse or the Sentinels would have been in that movie..." and people go all "What? I thought Wolverine was pretty cool." Or how people say they're gamers, I ask what they play, and it's "Halo, Madden, GTA." I want to scream, I really do. This is in large part, I think, due to my childhood.
You see, I went to a Catholic elementary school until about halfway through 8th grade, and I was a nerdy kid. I took a lot of crap for it. I got in fights, some of which involved fractures and breaks on my arms and ankles. I stood up against all this because I enjoyed all of that, even as a kid, and I wasn't going to change because some doucheholes thought it wasn't cool. Now, said doucheholes have basically stolen my culture from me, only not really and I find myself begging for the day when the geek chic thing is over.
I'm probably alone in thinking this, and likely a bit crazy. Anyone have any other input?
tl;dr: Nerd rage from mainstream semi-acceptance of geek culture. Rambling anger. What do you think?
LibrarianThorne on
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Just because I know what sed and awk are and know how to use them doesn't make me a bad person.
I enjoy the geek label, but I'm not sure it really applies.
I think you should look to be more inclusive. Share your knowledge with others and invite them into your world. I do all the things you do, and in addition i Larp. When i first tell people about larping they're usually you do what? what's wrong with you. After a few minutes of talking about it, most people want to know where to show up to check it out. The more people that share your culture and things you enjoy the better. Don't be the guy constantly wanting to be in on the ground level of something and get annoyed when it shows signs of success and others begin to find out about it.
That isn't "geek chic", that is you being an elitist. Just because they don't play the games you think gamers have to play doesn't mean they are not gamers.
My sweet, untouched Miranda
And while the seagulls are crying
We fall but our souls are flying
Not to call you out specifically (since a lot of people do this), but I honestly never understood this mentality. Why exactly is it a personal affront to you if someone who shares your interests doesn't share them as deeply? I can certainly see you feeling like you are more into it, since you obviously are, or know much more about it, since you obviously do, but why exactly does their lack of knowledge or interest effect you?
Go ahead and tell them about the bastardization of some great storylines for X-men 3, but that doesn't mean they can't like the movie for what it was (not that I do, but I'm sure I like worse things). Talk about all the great games under people's radar, but let them enjoy the great games they already like.
The mainstreaming of geek is an opportunity to have more people enjoy the things we do, not another way to look down on people for not measuring up to a standard that only exists in your head.
I think that's basically it. I don't think that the guys who beat me up over my culture have a right to it.
I mean, as an adult, I know that for the continued survival of the hobbies I enjoy they need to keep growing, and as such they should in no way limit themselves to a given audience. I love that the Xbox, PlayStation, and Wii are household names and stuff like Beast and Cyclops are in the popular culture. There's so many wonderful things about it, but what infuriates me is that for people who really enjoy these things they're still excluded and looked at as odd.
I guess what really gets me is people who are faraid to revel geeky and/or nerdy habits. Dammit, with all the crazy nerd crap everywhere in the last seven years geekery should be a badge of pride but it's still a rather shameful thing, especially for adolescents. It's like, it's cool to be a fake nerd but if you're a real nerd, you're fucked (or, well, actually not).
21st century American society is pretty fucked up in this regard. Don't get me wrong, I'm comfortable with the geek/nerd/dork label and I embrace it, but I feel like society as a whole still persecutes guys like me, only they're not as blatant about it as they were when I was a kid.
This cannot be anymore true than it is already. Unless, like, you add in something about pancakes being delicious.
So you're mad that the cool kids raged on you and your geekdom, but now you're mad at them because they accept it?
Naw, I won't do that.
I'm willing to admit that I was a geek/nerd in Junior High and High School, and maybe early College, but that's about it.
Basically, I just really despise the whole "tech as fashion" craze that's going on right now. People buying shittons of electronics just to be cool, not because of any demonstrated need or that they're really into technology. I have to install a bunch of dual monitors at work. Not because anyone needs to look at two screens, but some administrator decided it would look cool. Society has deemed ipods and iphones and etc to be cool, therefore they lap it up. People will refer to themselves as "geeking out" when they buy those things and I just roll my eyes.
Enlist in Star Citizen! Citizenship must be earned!
My sweet, untouched Miranda
And while the seagulls are crying
We fall but our souls are flying
It could be because "geek" isn't the only thing I identify myself as, so I don't feel like I'm losing anything by other people being geeks. Any prejudice against geeks rather than against particular mannerisms is going to be motivated by the notion of "geek". "Prejudice" against particular mannerisms common to the category "geeks" such as closet-misogyny and couch-potato tendencies aren't actually prejudices so much as regular, justifiable judgements. I don't want to hang out with a couch-potato because sitting on the couch all day isn't very fun. There's no prejudice there, it's a legitimate judgement-call. However if I were to say "I don't want to hang out with geeks because sitting on the couch all day isn't very fun," that would be a comment made of 190-proof prejudice. The preppy-lookin' freshman girl who thinks she's a geek because she likes Zelda 64 isn't going to make or even think the latter comment, even though she almost certainly subscribes to the former.
What I'm getting at is that if being a geek is defined by something other than a slew of negative stereotypes pertaining to social-ineptitude, poor hygiene and whatnot, more people are not only going to be willing to identify themselves as geeks but also abandon a lot of prejudices against geeks. Which is great for geeks because sex is pretty sweet.
Also I believe that many people learn that the person they were in high-school was a huge prick and am open to the possibility that they've adjusted their attitudes and/or behaviours to correct such. It would be silly for me to slap them in the face to reward them for trying to embrace a more friendly and positive view of their fellow humans.
That thing is so terribly wrong. Someone really needs to make one that even vaguely reflects actual hierarchies of 'geekiness'.
My sweet, untouched Miranda
And while the seagulls are crying
We fall but our souls are flying
So hilarious.
It's important to realize that some of the arrows point both ways, because contempt is a two way street and everyone's got road rage.
However I do disagree with some parts.
Like Larpers being less geeky then 13 year old gamers. I really don't think there's anybody that blind to their social standing.
It is pretty funny for the most part though.
Whatever. I've had consensual sex before, and if I can do it anyone can.
I should totally be a motivational speaker.
Also, wrt geekiness. It's something I mostly keep to myself, except with people I know will relate. So, yeah.
Speaking of Transformers and cartoons where robots change into other things, which Transformer was it that was actually a Valkyrie from Macross?
jetfire i believe.
It's not that I don't enjoy games like Halo (GTA and Madden are pretty ass, in my opinion), but for me a term like gamer has a totally different connotation and meaning. Well, not totally different, but something far more personal. I took a lot of shit growing up as a gamer, so to me it's like they've stolen the word I fought for. I know they really haven't, that it's just gamer culture finally hitting the mainstream, but my head and my heart are in total disagreement on the matter. A gamer, to me, doesn't include the Halo/Madden/GTA only crowd because that's all they play. They won't, say, play Half-Life/2 or Street Fighter or all of these various other games because if they get really into games they take on a negative social connotation. It's like, there's a select few series that are socially "in" and other games are not quite so, and if you enjoy the latter group you're pretty much screwed.
I do enjoy that I can talk about things like, say, Superman or Batman now and it's in the common parlance but these huge movies aren't doing much to the actual comics that I enjoy. Sure, the movies spike sales for a month maybe then everything's back down again. I suppose a large part of my frustration is that I can't share my passion very well, and so when opther people just don't "get", say, Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman I'm inclined to think less of them. I will fully admit, here and now, to elitist tendencies when it comes to comics.
I would say that, objectively, I'm way too fucking passionate about my interests and that's my problem. I love nerd culture, I love hanging out with the geek crowd and talking fluently with people about the minute changes in the King of Fighters series or why Mark Millar is a hack, and that's really the only social circle I've ever been comfortable in. I'm so into nerd culture that non-nerd culture leaves me pretty much flabbergasted.
I own a computer, so people assume I know all about computers. I've had people get upset that I'm "refusing to help them" when they come up to me with problems I have no idea how to solve.
Even other geeks do it! A friend of mine will ask me questions about what sort of RAM his mobo needs and something about DirectX10 and video cards, and I have to tell him that all I know is that the disc with the PS2 logo on it goes in the PS2 console, and the game works! I once told him that I never look at Slashdot, and he didn't believe me.
Now, I don't have a "thing" about it, I don't get upset by it, but it is a bit irritating to have to deal with mainstream types who consider themselves "geeks" simply by virtue of the fact that they enjoyed a hollywoodized comic book movie.
-Robert E. Howard
Tower of the Elephant
If your speech at one point broke into the song "afternoon delight" that would up the motivational factor.
Man, FF9 was actually a lot of fun.
I don't think much of JRPGs in general, though. Far too samey. Give me Baldur's Gate or KOTOR or Elder Scrolls over Final Fantasy any day of the week.
Jetfire. Had to be renamed Skyfire and have his appearance changed for the cartoon because a different toy company had the rights to Macross in the US.
Edit: beat'd already? Man, this thread is moving fast.