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| Source: Mid-90's mediocrity. Babble.com |
A common question we get at DC Geeks is: what does it mean to be Geek? How is it defined? There is an upcoming DC Geeks post on how the individual contributors at DC Geeks answer this topic; so instead I want to take a moment to focus on the broader, shifting societal idea of the geek. I am sure anyone reading this is already aware of the broad strokes. The geeks of our parents age, the geek of Revenge of the Nerds, the Urkels, dominated the cultural narrative.
This image of the geek was an archetype of the 1950s that just would not die. It was a product of an era of supreme conformity in which, responding to the narcissistic chaos of World War II, the existential threat of nuclear annihilation, and the invisible threat of communist spies dismantling our nation from within, anything different was promptly stomped into the ground. Pop-culture at the time was lumbering and stupid, an anti-intellectualism thug. But in the 80's, things started to change.
All culture observes the same pattern. New culture begins with the edge crowd. These people are outside the mainstream, and never accepted. But, be it music, art, clothing, whatever, all changes in pop culture begin here. It is then adopted by the poorly named trendsetters. These adopters are seen as “cool” by the mainstream and facilitate the movement of new ideas from the edge to the mainstream by functioning as a intermediary. Back when "meme" was used to discuss an infectious idea, the edge was where the virus was born. The trendsetters are the Ebola monkeys that spread that thing to the rest of the world. In the 80s, edge culture was all up in the internet's soup about a decade before trendsetters knew what the internet was.
The idea of the cool geek, the nerd in control by virtue of those qualities that mark him as nerd and other (socially isolated but brilliant), began to grow in popularity in nerd subculture. Sci-Fi heroes began to look more like Matthew Broderick in War Games and less like like Sam Jones in Flash Gordon. By the new millennium, everyone wanted their own website, a computer capable of network access, etc., and suddenly nerds and geeks had cache. They were desirable acquaintances. Today, when everyone carries a supercomputer in their pocket, geek is so mainstream is practically is pop-culture. The biggest movies of the last four years have all been comic book movies. The Avengers and the last two Batman movies had a combined world gross of $3.6 billion dollars. The top 20 highest grossing movies in the world are, in order:
| 1 | Avatar | Fox | $2,782.3 | $760.5 | 27.3% | $2,021.8 | 72.7% | 2009^ |
| 2 | Titanic | Par. | $2,185.4 | $658.7 | 30.1% | $1,526.7 | 69.9% | 1997^ |
| 3 | Marvel's The Avengers | BV | $1,511.8 | $623.4 | 41.2% | $888.4 | 58.8% | 2012 |
| 4 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 | WB | $1,328.1 | $381.0 | 28.7% | $947.1 | 71.3% | 2011 |
| 5 | Transformers: Dark of the Moon | P/DW | $1,123.7 | $352.4 | 31.4% | $771.4 | 68.6% | 2011 |
| 6 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | NL | $1,119.9 | $377.8 | 33.7% | $742.1 | 66.3% | 2003^ |
| 7 | Skyfall | Sony | $1,108.1 | $304.0 | 27.4% | $804.1 | 72.6% | 2012 |
| 8 | The Dark Knight Rises | WB | $1,081.0 | $448.1 | 41.5% | $632.9 | 58.5% | 2012 |
| 9 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest | BV | $1,066.2 | $423.3 | 39.7% | $642.9 | 60.3% | 2006 |
| 10 | Toy Story 3 | BV | $1,063.2 | $415.0 | 39.0% | $648.2 | 61.0% | 2010 |
| 11 | Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides | BV | $1,043.9 | $241.1 | 23.1% | $802.8 | 76.9% | 2011 |
| 12 | Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace | Fox | $1,027.0 | $474.5 | 46.2% | $552.5 | 53.8% | 1999^ |
| 13 | Alice in Wonderland (2010) | BV | $1,024.3 | $334.2 | 32.6% | $690.1 | 67.4% | 2010 |
| 14 | The Dark Knight | WB | $1,004.6 | $534.9 | 53.2% | $469.7 | 46.8% | 2008^ |
| 15 | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone | WB | $974.8 | $317.6 | 32.6% | $657.2 | 67.4% | 2001 |
| 16 | Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End | BV | $963.4 | $309.4 | 32.1% | $654.0 | 67.9% | 2007 |
| 17 | The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey | WB | $959.9 | $300.3 | 31.3% | $659.6 | 68.7% | 2012 |
| 18 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 | WB | $956.4 | $296.0 | 30.9% | $660.4 | 69.1% | 2010 |
| 19 | The Lion King | BV | $951.6 | $422.8 | 44.4% | $528.8 | 55.6% | 1994^ |
| 20 | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | WB | $939.9 | $292.0 | 31.1% | $647.9 | 68.9% | 2007 |
Source: Box Office Mojo
Take a look at the dates on those movies. 17 of the those 20 are from the last decade. All but three of those movies are essentially hard-core nerd porn. There has never been a better time to be a geek. Nerd has vaulted out of the sub-culture to establish itself firmly as the culture. And so entertainment companies, who pride themselves on being trendsetters but are probably the last people on Earth to adapt well to seismic culture shifts, have been falling all over themselves to capitalize on geek culture. And yet, pernicious attitudes about geeks as socially awkward dweebs persist.
Take The Big Bang Theory (TBBT). What complete garbage. People have jokingly referred to this show's portrayal of geek culture as "geek face." Any serious comparison of prejudices towards geeks to the sort of systemic violence and abuse visited on gays or racial minorities in this country is of course offensive. Geeks don’t face lynchings; the worst a geek was likely to endure was a serious wedgie. But it remains true that TBBT wallows in offensive geek stereotypes like a pig in shit. The jokes break down into five broad categories (1) geeks are all effeminate virgins who fall apart when confronted by breasts; (2) geeks are book-smart but in all other ways stupid; (3) geeks are all man-boys; (4) people with Asperger’s syndrome are funny. Notice how virtually all the humor revolves around men? (5)* Hot girls are stupid; smart girls are socially train wrecks. It’s like the show was written by the 1980's stereotype of a football player. The show has introduced “geek females,” but they still conform to anti-geek stereotypes. They are the "Beautiful All Along" girls of the forgettable teen comedies of the early 2000s. Book smart, socially awkward, but they would never do a BOY activity like crack a comic book.
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| Source: My nightmares. And comicbook.com |
What about King of the Nerds? Full disclosure, I've never seen it. Some people say it is pretty good. But it sure was marketed as the kind of crap that cannot even conceive of geeks as competent adults capable of contributing meaningfully to their communities. I mean, check this crap out:
You know who the real King of the Nerds is? This guy:
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| What kind of silly name is POTUS? Source: Whitehouse.gov |
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| Sorry Vader, there is a new blackest brother mastering the force. Source: Charles Dharapak - Associated Press |
Mark Zuckerberg? He’s like Bill Gates but without the awkward baggage of being a geek Pre-2000. He is the nation’s second largest charitable donor, the worlds youngest billionaire, kicks it with TV and music celebrities and, oh yeah, supposedly has an autism spectrum disorder like Aspergers but manages to treat his employees with respect and positive regard instead of acting like a intolerably superior douche nozzle.
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| Source: Unknown |
The geeks I know work as government contractors in positions requiring security clearances, teach art and English in high schools and universities, work for NGOs fighting for government transparency, are lawyers or med-students. But that is just what they do during the day. They are men and women. They come in all shapes and sizes. Some are heavy, some are fit. One geek I know reads She-Hulk comics, is a lawyer with a degree from an Ivy League law school, writes scholarly papers about economies of scale in Word of Warcraft, and is a competitive racer who routinely places among the top 5 female finalists in races nation-wide. My friends have beautiful or handsome spouses and children. They are aged 2 1/2 to 65.
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| This photo is basically J.J. Jameson's wet dream. Source: Time LightBox |
In the 21st century, geek is the new mainstream. High school sucks, and I imagine is the last refuge for the stupid and dim-witted bullies who like to pick on the geeky kids. I expect many kids around this nation who like Star Wars or Dungeons & Dragons or My Little Pony* or Ender's Game are struggling and see mind-cancer like TBBT on TV and think they can expect to be forced to swallow more of the same crap once they get out of High School. But I promise you, the adult world? It belongs to us. We are the new media. We are the future of entertainment. We are the future of the world economy. Hell, we took the damn White House. Twice. And we did it in a manner that should make your inner-nerd proud.
It's the age of the geek, baby.
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| Source: http://www.etsy.com/shop/sharpwriter?ref=pr_shop_more |
* Yeah, I showed the Bronies some love. DC-Geeks is a big tent, y'all.
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