Geeks are so Mainstream

Hey, you. Yeah, you there, no, you the person who is raging about there not being any "real" geeks or nerds anymore and who thinks that we should be trapped in a narrative that puts people into a permanent high school dynamic, that's right, I'm talking to you. Stop it.

Millions of people all over the world watched Star Wars. A huge number of those people loved it or at the very least enjoyed it. Star Wars is un-fucking-believably popular not because of people who make it a point to know about every detail of the world but because of everyone who saw the films and enjoyed them. Almost everyone I have ever known has seen this movie. It has entered pop culture and even people who have never seen this movie know the characters and are familiar with the basics about it. Star Trek, Babylon 5, Buffy all of these shows were on national television. Millions of people watched at least some if not all of these shows and many, many more.

Just because you call yourself a Geek or a Nerd, you aren't special. Lots of other people like what you like, too and even if they don't know as much as you or didn't watch as many episodes or didn't go to that convention last month, those people still have just as much right as you do to label themselves any way they want to. What people mean when when they say "You aren't a real, Geek/Gamer/Nerd" is "You aren't a Geek/Gamer/Nerd the way I am or I find acceptable." This is hardly a standard by which legitimacy can be determined.

If a cheerleader wants to put on a pair of thick black glasses and call herself a nerd, I say, more fucking power to her. If she wants to post pictures to the internet about it, so what, that's what the internet is for! If someone who is popular and accepted in her school is calling herself a Nerd/Geek or whatever, then that means that we won.

When I was in public school, being a nerd or a geek was a sure way to be bullied, tortured, harassed, assaulted or generally made miserable. Now it is becoming accepted, Nerd is a point of pride. Does it end bullying? Fuck no, but it takes one more tool away from the little shits who think that calling people names is funny. It doesn't matter that I was bullied or that you were bullied if what we are doing is turning around and bullying people because they aren't fitting into our stereotypes properly. Why the obsession with being an outcast? Accept that people don't think it's that weird to watch Sci-Fi shows or play video games and just be fucking happy.

I am.


Oh and by the way, Hipster is not synonymous with condescending, arrogant asshole. Just like Geek isn't synonymous with intelligent, tolerant, awesome person. Both are just references to what part of pop culture a person identifies with, that's it.