They Say the Geek Shall Inherit…
Time has an article on Geek Chic, an interesting phenomenon whereby those of us who read sci-fi, watch Buffy re-runs, purchase comic books and blog get to finally be cool and feel validated by the world at large. Fantastic! But I don’t buy it.
I concede there are some segments of the population that can manage to be simultaneously nerdy and cool, and I salute you. I suspect this feat requires quite a bit of support (or at least a few mitigating factors) to pull it off, though. Consider:
-Hot librarian glasses: Only hot on a hot woman.
-Napolean Dynamite-style thrift store wardrobe: Cool if worn ironically and skillfully (it does take a sense of style to wear bad clothes successfully). But when bad clothes are worn in earnest, it’s usually a sign of either social cluelessness or low income. And sadly, kids in either situation are more likely to be outcasts than not.
-Cute young thing who reads J.R.R. Tolkien: Cool. But even a cute young thing who reads Tolkien will very likely hide the piles of Star Trek fan fiction before her date comes over.
-Tina Fey: Cool. But she’s an actress, she’s attractive, she’s funny. The real test of whether nerdiness is truly sexy would be the number of people lining up for, say, an autographed photo of Janet Reno in a bathing suit.
-Rappers writing songs from Boba Fett’s point of view: Hilarious, clearly intended to be so, and as such, not to be taken seriously as a sign of geek supremacy.
When I start seeing teenage girls swooning over actors with asthma and acne, or kids swapping Famous Chess Player trading cards, or when I go out with my ex-cheerleader mom friends and they talk excitedly about their kids trying out for the audio-visual club and discuss what they’ve blogged about recently, then I’ll believe it’s hip to be square. If that day ever comes, I’m breaking out the debate trophies and scrabble board and having a party. You’re all invited.
*and if any of you are geeky enough to pick up the reference in the title of this post, not only are you invited, I’ll buy you a root beer and challenge you to a Stratego death match.
Alas you are right, Allison. True nerds are not nerds by choice. Coolness will always be associated with beauty, fame, wealth, and intelligence. If a person has none of these they will never be considered cool, or even socially acceptable by most people.
Comment by Geoff J — September 28, 2005 @ 6:58 pm
Oh. I never wanted to be socially acceptable, anyway.
Comment by Susan M — September 28, 2005 @ 8:30 pm
I agree that they need to have at least one of the above, but I think even with all or most of the above, nerdiness is possible. Does anyone think Bill Gates is cool? He’s accomplished some cool things, but on a personal level? I’d say despite being famous, rich and smart, he is still a geek. An uber-geek, even.
My point is that it’s difficult for almost anyone to successfully combine nerdiness with hipness (even more so for women), no matter how much a geeky writer for Time wants it to be a trend.
Comment by Allison — September 28, 2005 @ 8:38 pm
Susan M, you might be the exception.
Comment by Allison — September 28, 2005 @ 8:39 pm
I don’t know. I’m a little too sleep-deprived right now to be coherent, but I keep thinking about something my husband complains about all the time.
We were punk rockers in high school, back when it wasn’t cool to be punk. And he was a skater. He got beat up and picked on all the time by the rich preppy jocks (it didn’t help that he was also dating a beautiful preppy girl–I swear our high school was straight out of a John Hughes movie).
But nowadays, the same types of kids that were beating him up for being a punk rock skater are now skating and dressing punk.
Comment by Susan M — September 28, 2005 @ 9:00 pm
Suddenly, I see more clearly what you mean.
Comment by John C. — September 28, 2005 @ 9:12 pm
Say what you will, but I definitely see a trend in the increasing numbeer of women who are publicly embracing geekiness (not super recent, but over the past ten years or so, maybe). I didn’t know any geek girls growing up, and only one or two semi-geeky girls in college. Then I moved to Durham and lived in the same neighborhood as you and Alison Unsworth. I wouldn’t have pegged either of you for the geek type, but you both are, apparently. I guess there’s just something about blond, Mormon women from Utah named Allison/Alison.
Comment by Bryce I — September 28, 2005 @ 10:02 pm
Bryce,
I never noticed anything remotely geeky about Alison Unsworth. Maybe she is a super-secret geek. I think the fact that you never knew nerdy girls growing up probably points to clandestine nerdiness. I would bet money some of those girls played D&D when nobody was looking.
Sadly, now Alison or anyone else who googles her name will know you think she’s geeky.
Comment by Allison — September 28, 2005 @ 10:21 pm
Alison’s geekiness isn’t much of a secret — on snow days, she and Andy would spend the day playing Myst or Riven together. She’s the one who suggested to me and Kristen that we watch the X-Files starting from the beginning, and she was totally geeked up for the LOTR movies (Andy had never read the books until the movies came out, and Ali was jealous because he got to have the experience of reading the books for the first time). And she even reads (gasp!) Robert Jordan, which even I don’t do.
You, on the other hand, were (are?) a total closet geek in real life. I had no idea you were so geeky (or as I like to put it, cool).
Comment by Bryce I — September 28, 2005 @ 10:34 pm
This with apologies to my older brother Bryce, but this thread brings back a nice memory - my mother used to quote our high school principal who used to say that “nerds will rule the world” with obvious reference to Bryce. I think that’s mostly true. I think Bryce will admit he’s a nerd in many ways. He’s certainly the nerdiest in our family - I think he’d definitely admit to that. He’d surely never admit to being cool, or try to be cool. Nor would he admit to being a nerd just because it’s trendy to be a nerd, which nowadays is trying to be cool (I guess). That’s the best kind of nerd, imho.
As for me I would never admit to being either a nerd or being cool. I guess I try harder to be cool than to be a nerd, though I guess that now means I should try harder to be a nerd? This is hurting the part of my brain that controls my social life. It’s an uncomfortable place to be sometimes. Anyways, Bryce, you are a big nerd.
Comment by Dallin I — September 29, 2005 @ 11:20 am
Yeah, Dallin, but we’re talking about geeks here.
Nerd.
Comment by Bryce I — September 29, 2005 @ 11:22 am
But does Bryce rule the world? I’m not up on these things…
Comment by D. Fletcher — September 29, 2005 @ 11:25 am
Actually, I find myself a bit puzzled. Is it socially acceptable for self-identified geeks to call other self-identified geeks a geek? Or is the term geek universally perjorative?
Comment by Bryce I — September 29, 2005 @ 11:34 am
Okay, so does it take a nerd or geek to know one? What’s the distinction between a geek and a nerd? Will this show up on the SAT? geek::nerd as apple::
a) Granny Smith
b) oranges
c) Pie a la mode
d) spinach?
Please clarify. I’m not up on this.
D. - Bryce may someday rule the world. If he ever does, be sure to have plenty of encyclopedias and almanacs on hand because it will be one giant quiz bowl. Right now, I don’t think he even rules his household.
Comment by Dallin I — September 29, 2005 @ 11:34 am
Well, D., I can barely get my kids to clear their dishes from the table, let alone rule the world.
Comment by Bryce I — September 29, 2005 @ 11:35 am
Is it the intelligence factor?
Comment by Dallin I — September 29, 2005 @ 11:37 am
man, the comments are coming too fast to keep up right now. Looks like Dallin had it nailed re: my ruling my own home.
As for geek/nerd, in my mind at least, geek refers to attitudes towards cultural objects: movies, (comic) books, video games, computers, whereas nerd is more descriptive of academic interests: math, science, astronomy, chess club. Sure, there’s plenty of overlap.
Comment by Bryce I — September 29, 2005 @ 11:39 am
I’m sure these definitions are all my own, but I have always thought it this way: geek = somebody who isn’t very attractive (read: thin and pimply) but still funny and smart. Nerd = somebody totally out of it, without a single social skill.
I’ve been a geek all of my life (I hope) but my self-awareness of this means, I have never been a nerd.
Comment by D. Fletcher — September 29, 2005 @ 11:43 am
I always thought geeks could be identified by their hobbies, and nerds by their lack of social standing, with obviously tons of overlap between the two. Additionally, excessive enthusiasm for just about anything (but especially computer stuff, math or grammar) could be placed in the nerdy category. I consider myself geeky and fairly nerdy (while remaining social), but I’m neither thin nor pimply.
Comment by Allison — September 29, 2005 @ 12:49 pm
Allison: Is the title from a certain Simpson’s episode involve a trip to Canada and lost love?
Comment by Greg — September 29, 2005 @ 12:58 pm
Greg: No. It’s from a song title in a musical.
Comment by Allison — September 29, 2005 @ 1:20 pm
For us the geeks were in band. The nerds were in the AV (audio visual) lab. Bill Gates is the president of nerds. The geeks are cool cause they know how cool should be.
Susan, in school we were asked on the street, or the beach if you were a surfer or an SA. The surfers were exactly that, the SAs were skaters. The twain has been met nowdays too.
Comment by chronicler — September 30, 2005 @ 12:32 am
Technically, my poorly constructed earlier comment was an attempt to reference another song from the musical in question. (If your references are too obscure for geeks, what does that make you?)
Comment by John C. — September 30, 2005 @ 2:58 pm
John C., you get bonus points. Stratego death match?
Comment by Allison — September 30, 2005 @ 3:23 pm