A Conversation with Chris about Nerds
Chris: I was a little surprised at the number of women there, to be honest.
Nick: Why’s that?
Chris: Just didn’t seem like there would be many there. I guess I underestimated the appeal of sci-fi across the genders.
Nick: I don’t think it’s just sci-fi. It seems like DragonCon is an all inclusive nerd fest. Even on their website they call it a “multi-genre” convention. It’s like, “Hey, are you weirdly obsessive about a particular game, TV show, cartoon, movie, book, website, blog, vlog, fetish, person, character, or real or imaginary animal? WELL THEN BY GOLLY YOU BELONG AT DRAGON CON!”
Chris: Sure, but how many women do you know that are weirdly obsessive about things outside the typical female bailiwick? We typically pressure chicks to be attending wine parties at the Sex and the City movie premiere, not anime cons.
Nick: Well I think you see a lot more girls at stuff like that because right now there’s sort of a “nerd chic” movement going on. But that’s a bunch of bullshit anyway.
Bob and I talk a lot about this topic. I actually posted a picture on his wall that lays it out pretty succinctly:
Chris: I don’t know if I quite follow the cartoon.
Nick: You may be over thinking it. The people who you always here go “OMG I’M SO NERDY!!!!” aren’t actually nerds. There are real nerds but they’re so socially maladjusted they don’t know they’re nerds. So basically if you call yourself a nerd you’re probably not one. Hence this weird “nerd chic” movement that’s been going on the last few years.
Chris: Mmm, I don’t agree with that assessment. Being “nerdy” isn’t binary, on-off. There are huge gradations, for a huge segment of the population. Nerds can also self-identify as such. How long do you think it takes high schoolers to recognize their nerdiness when they’re excluded from the popular social circles?
Nick: Well I supposed it depends on how you classify “nerd” If just reading books or liking one nerdy TV show like Dr. Who makes you a nerd then we’re all nerds. But generally speaking, what I classify as a nerd is being weirdly obsessed with at least one thing. This of course opens up a range of possiblities, yes. There are TV nerds, anime nerds, literature nerds, hell there are even sports nerds.
I’m not a nerd because I’m not creepily obsessed with anything. For instance, I like my record collection, sure. But I’m not a record nerd because I don’t cruise the record store every Tuesday looking for new releases and shit. And I won’t talk your ear off about the difference between wax qualities during WWII and the post-war era when they developed polymers which makes the audio quality blah blah blah…
And as far as self-identifying I suppose a particulary self-aware nerd could look at him/herself and self-identify but then again most of the actual nerds I’ve known have strongly believed THEY were the normal ones and THEY would NEVER EVER EVER want to be a part of the “cool kids.”
Chris: I guess so. But that’s a shifting, blurry line these days. How many 1980s TV shows would’ve portrayed nerds as likable, attractive, and moderately sociable the way Chuck and The Big Bang Theory do today?
Nick: But that’s all part of the “Nerd Chic” craze going on right now. Probably the biggest nerd portrayed on TV is that skinny guy from TBBT and it’s funny to the viewer because he doesn’t know he’s a nerd. He thinks he’s perfectly fine and everyone else in the world has a problem for not understanding quantum theory and D&D (or whatever.)
Chris: Then maybe I’m just misunderstanding a point from your original argument. If there are more women than “usual” at Dragon*Con, it’s because of nerd chic. But you also call D*C an all-inclusive nerdfest. So is D*C for nerds or nerds lite?
Nick: A little bit of both maybe. D*C was designed as an all-inclusive nerd-fest. Where any nerd of any type could come and enjoy himself. In the past, only real nerds would attend because only real nerds would be interested.
With the proliferation of this nerd chic culture, it’s become more socially acceptable (dare I say even cool) to go to cons, because it reinforces your “nerd cred” — something a real nerd would never care about anyway. The reason you’re seeing more girls at D*C is because for whatever reason the nerd-lite thing seems to appeal to girls and like I said it reinforces the construct in their head that they’re nerds. Plus they get to brag about it, like, “OMG U GUYZ I DID SOMETHING SOOOOOOO NERDY THIS WEEKEND”
By the way, this hasn’t gone unnoticed by the real nerds. In fact, I was talking to an actual nerd friend of mine last year and she was saying that last year was probably going to be her last year to go to D*C because of all the poser nerds ruining the experience for the actual nerds. Well, that, and she didn’t like how it had become so much of a party. She wanted less fun and more informative talks, seminars, and lectures.
Chris: That makes a very bizarre sort of logic to me, I suppose. Seems like a very shortsighted way to go through life, though.
Nick: Well like I said, a lot of real nerds I’ve known are incredibly bitter and see their way of life as the only, true, and correct way to live and anyone who is opposite or challenges that is a “jock” or a “slut” or simply “doesn’t get it”
Chris: Which doesn’t say much more for them than any of said jocks et al. who disparage the nerds.
Nick: If they are in fact even jocks to begin with. Maybe they’re just normal dudes who aren’t into [whatever X nerd is into].
