About nerds and glasses

[Caroline (MaintenanceNM)]

So I've seen a few of these images lately.

And everyone reacting on the picture would be like MY GOD THIS IS SOOOOO TRUE OMGROFLMAO. Even people who are actually nerds would say this is true.

First things first. I totally agree on the part of "I have glasses with no lenses on, I have one shirt that has Pikachu on it (although it does have so much cleavage my boobs almost fall out) and I've played on my boyfriend's XboX once" does not make you a nerd. No. Just, no. Get out.

But. One big fat but. Am I really the only one who sees so many wrong things in this image?

What excessively irks me is that the "actual nerds" in this picture are completely stereotyped too. They look unhappy, they can't dress, their hygiene is probably lacking, and of course they all have glasses, crooked teeth and terrible acne.

This is all very "I'm judging you on your appearance". On two sides, really. There's the part of "if you don't look good you must be a nerd" (I'm not gonna get into the definition of "good".. just interpret it as what SOCIETY thinks is good-looking) And there's the opposite, which I've very much been experiencing myself. "You don't look like a nerd, so you're not one"

*Note: if anyone tells me that again, im gonna hit them on the head with the fifth Harry Potter book. The hard-covered one.

Well, let me tell you this. I am a nerd(fighter). I enjoy learning and thoughtful discussion. I value reading over Jersey Shore and Life of the Kardashians. I like gaming, and I hate it when people call me "gamer girl" cause my gender should make no difference in a game. I like programming and I spent my vacations in school, setting up computers and networks and electricity. Me and my friends don't go out getting drunk and partying, we talk, play Monopoly and drink lemonade. We set up LAN-parties in the student cafetaria, we have endless discussions about Harry Potter and about how we could improve our school website (cause oh God it sucks). I could go on for a while, but you get the gist. If you think I can't be a nerd because my eyesight is nearly perfect, I have a slightly dry skin so I never had acne, and I don't prefer Skyrim (or any other game) over showering, that's your problem. All I can say in that case is, try to stop being ignorant and stereotyping and a general idiot.

With kind regards,

Caroline

[CD]

Be yourself. Everybody else is already taken." - Oscar Wilde

Truer words were never spoken.  I mean, look at what I just said.  Obviously there's more to truth than that, sheesh. But in this context, sure, it's the case.

Back to OP:

• About 10 years ago, this "nerd pride" concept seems to have come about, after generations of school yard bullying. The rise of "Nerdcore" as it were.  The sudden realisation by non-intellectuals that being intellectual is in fact, what makes anything we value in modern life possible*.  Who put man on the moon?  Who stopped [western] kids from dying of polio through vaccination?  Who invented the internet?  Nerds, that's who.
• Once something becomes mainstreamed, it starts being watered down, through style being valued over substance.  It begins with grunge and ends with hipsters.  Then it sucks. Unless you're a hipster and think that's awesome, in which case, good for you, just don't call yourself grungy.
• OP makes the point, in my POV, that the idea of style over substance is becoming a point of cultural tension vis "nerddom".  Being a nerd is in fact a way of life and being to wit no amount of fashion could possibly exhibit.  Unless you're a fashion nerd.  Which I doubt is truly nerdy, unless you're really really enthusiastic about fashion and actually have something intelligent to say about it other than "prada is pretty"  /cynicism
• I would argue that the TV show Big Bang Theory is the bifurcation point between the chaos that is true nerddom, and the order that is being packaged under the label nerd.

????

*Let's not forget that the construction workers and tradespeople are awesome too. They invent stuff made with their hands.  And make the shit, so modern life is impossible without them too.   And they are very smart.  But you really gotta be a full-on nerd to think up ways to get shit on the moon. Period. 

[hopelesscynic]

Well, I'm not one to quote Eminem, BUT: "I am whatever I say I am, if I wasn't then why would I say I am?".

I think this "pseudo-nerdism" business is down to:

1. Society's obsession with labelling, categorising people to make them more predictable and thus "less of a threat".

2. Personal identity.

I resent people questioning other people's judgement in self-labelling. "Nah, you're not a nerd, you're more of a dork." Well thank you very much, without your diagnosis I would have been quite at a loss in terms of my own identity.

For me, "nerdy" is having the self-respect of accepting your passions, interests and original quirks, and not conforming to the Mould of Perfection that has been laid out for us by the likes of pseudo-celebrities.

"Be yourself. Everybody else is already taken." - Oscar Wilde

[A.A.I. [Forums NM]]

Carizard here is living proof that nerds look beautiful, too ^______^

Loved the blog, Car. Keep up the very rare but quality work you produce.