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By RM Peavy
@Rmpeavy
I am a writer nerd. I love Science Fiction, Horror and anything that has a good story. I love the process of how these stories come about. Whether it’s a TV Show, a graphic novel – I will devour it. I love Star Wars, Harry Potter, Batman, Star Trek, Joss Whedon, Damon Lindelof, Guillermo del Toro, anything with Zombies… I am open to all of it. I don’t get angry with people for liking the same things I do, and for the most part, there are wonderful fandoms out there.
In this article: I will respond in regards to some general and specific comments that I have received and read on other sites regarding “geek chic” which seems to outrage them. Geek Chic from what I can put together, is people who like stuff like Star Wars or Dr. Who and wear the clothes, talk a little of the talk, to look cool, but aren’t quite at the level of people who go to Conventions. And When a Con-Curmudgeon sees these people; they have hate-seizures equal to the Gestapo. I think some of these people need to take some Xanax and maybe quite possibly rethink their “real lives.”
I have written a couple articles about pop culture, and whenever I get a negative comment it always seems to be about the same thing. “You’re not a real nerd.” I have read comments on other sites by “real nerds” calling other nerds “fake nerds.” I have asked some IT’s but none could really answer coherently, “What exactly are real nerds to you?” This tends to be mostly males talking about females, or males talking about other “lesser nerd” males.
From my understanding, if you’re nerdy or geeky about something- you like it a lot. You’re passionate about it. For instance: I’m an office supply nerd. I can spend hours upon hours in an office supply store, and would rather do so than go shoe shopping.
I don’t pretend to be a gamer nerd but I know about them. I read about video games. Can I ask a question about them without a horrid, hostile, swamp-assed (a lot of times chauvinistic) dude getting all riled up about it?
I have been called: A media-loving dude who doesn’t know anything about comics.
Welp, I don’t know as much as I should about comics. I have read all the graphic novels that interest me, and I don’t know as much as most comic book fans. But I have never said I did. I like to think of myself as a student of comics, and I know more than the average person, but not as much as an avid reader of comics would be. I consider myself a comic book fan, just not an expert.
Also, I am not a dude. My nom de plume is androgynous for a reason… and it seems to be working. I am assuming that in the context of the rant, “media-Loving,” meant I love TV shows? Ok. So what? My gender doesn’t really change my opinion, nor should their opinion of me change once they find out I have a vagina. But it does for some folks apparently.
Most of the curmudgeons are old Simpson’s Comic Book Man types. They are the stereotypical unmarried, basement people who get really riled up about details. They’re sweating the small stuff. But I know why, it’s because other people are invading their world and they don’t like it. Some of them have evolved into Internet trolls, which pretty much makes them disgusting. And the new saying is, “Those who can’t, troll.”
Comment: Just because you slap on a Dr. Who tee shirt doesn’t make you a real-fan, you stupid, hipster.
I got a similar one of these, worded a bit differently, but I read this specific comment on a Whovianish site. I think it relates to a lot, because I (wrongfully) agree with some of it. If someone is wearing a Dr. Who shirt and doesn’t know what it is, then they aren’t a fan of Dr. Who. Maybe they got it at Nordstrom or they liked the look of the Tardis. Or maybe they want to impress someone who is a Dr. Who fan.
But the actual point is, who cares?
Why does this anger people to the point of calling someone a “stupid hipster?” and isn’t that hipster of someone to say that? If someone is wearing a shirt of something you like, why does it piss them off? What qualifies someone as a “real” fan of anything?
What do you have to do to get a nerd card around here? Is it based on “time” spent on something? Or what percentage of your income you spend on stuff in that fandom? How you dress? Your level of like? How do you measure how much? In ass-loads or shit-tons? And if I like Soccer or Baseball too does that disqualify me completely?
Random Advertisement: If you sign up at www.thenerdmachine.com, you can get an actual “Nerd card!” Cool eh?
Comment: Go watch you’re Superbowl you idiot.
This was in response to a girl’s reaction to someone saying they liked sports and they liked Star Wars. *Slaps forehead* I totally forgot there was an intergalactic rule that you couldn’t like two things at once. And it’s “your” not “you’re”
And why on earth can’t Internet trolls SPELL?
It is painful to read abusive comments, and even more painful when words are spelled incorrectly. Are they just so angered that you lose their shit and forget to spell or do they just not know how?
Don’t get me wrong; I do pull out the Simpson’s Comic Book guy voice once in a while when I have to correct a youngling on the basics of anything. But it’s to teach, and I welcome new geeks all the time. I also give some of my friends a hard time, but that doesn’t make them idiots. It just makes them misguided.
Please, keep in mind that I am going to write this disclaimer and people are STILL going to troll me, but I don’t really care. I am making a stereotypical judgement based on the comments I get and read from people. This does not apply to all the lovely, passionate people I love, the geeks. There’s nothing wrong with me or other geeks, there’s something wrong with internet trolls.
I didn’t put any screen shots on here because I don’t want their trolling to get any more attention than they deserve.
For the most part, I try to not read the comments. But I do, because it’s my version of reality TV that I do not prefer. But, I do feel myself age a few years every time I do. In fact writing this article and having to look at the comments probably aged me about 5 years alone.
I know, I know, there are more questions on here than actual answers. But I have been thinking about this a lot lately. And I invite anyone to answer them. But try to spell better. Tip: If you’re kind, I will overlook the spelling errors.