It’s a good time to be a geek.
A Medieval fantasy epic series written by a man who looks like a dorky Friar Tuck has a monopoly on the emotions of television audiences. Thanks to a certain fruit-producing genius, the black turtleneck is back in fashion—as is respect for any tech-minded brainiac who can help you make sense of the multiple gadgets that likely power your life. A car that operates more like a laptop than a traditional automobile is making even the sleekest gasoline-powered inventions of the past look like oxcarts. And a hip-hop video parody that celebrates being nerdy has gained a total number of views that numbers more than twice the population of Canada.
In short, nerd-dom has gone mainstream. So much so that just a few years ago July 13 was appointed as national Embrace Your Geekness Day, an unofficial occasion when those “into dungeon games, comic books, and doing vampire dress-up” or spending “endless hours going strange places on the internet” could celebrate their identity.
As Tom and Ruth Roy, the Renaissance Fair–producing pair who cooked up the holiday, declared: “You’re a geek, and this is your day to roar!” Never mind that the duo’s other proposed copyrighted celebrations—including Cat Herder Day and The Slugs Return from Capistrano Day—seem a little bizarre.
Needless to say, it’s high time that geeks everywhere—word nerds (like us!), lords of Lego, drama geeks, sci-fi freaks, brogrammers, etc.—put their sectarian elitism aside, unite, join forces, and rally.
After all, it was only a few decades ago that the word geek was not so favorably looked upon. True story: in the early 1900s a geek was a carnival performer whose act involved biting the heads off live animals.
Bleak, right? Over the years, thankfully, the definition evolved. At one point it included anyone freakishly devoted to a certain intellectual pursuit. Later, it became especially associated with those who had a deep knowledge of computers or technological fields.
Those explanations don’t sound half bad; they even sound appealing. But the reality is that regardless of the specifics of the etymology, a common thread connects all of the definitions. Geek—and its siblings nerd and dork—have, until very recently, always been derisive terms, and they’ve been linked to similarly negative stereotypes.
As Benjamin Nugent, author of American Nerd: The Story of my People, told Salon.com, “Nerd implies being an outsider, being picked on as a kid, social awkwardness.”
More tangibly, and as anyone who proudly bears the label will know, it means sandbox torture sessions, swirlies, long loner lunches, and generally feeling bullied or excluded.
But why? Why do people classified as nerds, geeks, and dorks face such persecution?
After all, being a geek isn’t about antagonizing others. It’s about being yourself. It’s about liking what you like, being interested in what you’re interested in, and doing what you want to do without concern for popularity and conformity.
But in fact, these same qualities provide others with motivation for ostracism. As child therapist and developmental psychologist David Anderegg explains, nerds and geeks are the people who, as children, are the last to develop the self-consciousness of adolescence. This means that they don’t find “the weird enthusiasms, the willingness to cooperate with adults, and the lack of social skills” pathetic and shameful, as do more self-conscious children.
Instead, they either don’t perceive or don’t choose to follow the same social hierarchies that others do, which can lead to discomfort and a frustrated lashing out from their peers.
This isn’t simply to say that geeks have some innate power to defy social norms and pursue the kind of rugged individualism that America thrives on. It’s still largely unclear how much a person’s geekiness is inherent or learned.
What is clear, though, is the fact that these kinds of labels are, as Anderegg asserts, “complex stereotypes that exist in cultural space.”
And that’s where embracing your geekness comes in. As adults and full-grown geeks, nerds, and dorks, we have the power to destigmatize terms that not only cause children pain, but also stifle their development.
To tear a page out of the success story that is Alcoholics Anonymous, it’s about saying, “My name is Stephanie, and I’m a geek.” By proudly identifying as geeks, nerds, and dorks, and by encouraging children to make positive connections between taking a pointed interest in things and these terms, we can start to lift the stigma.
Taking it one step further, now that people like Richard Branson have started to claim these titles with pride as a result of the tech boom, it’s also time to recognize that geekdom isn’t limited to certain pursuits like gaming and computer science. Rather, it’s about general self-expression and the freedom to truly be passionate about what you want to be passionate about. Approving of a person who spends every waking hour embroiled in MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) while judging someone who wants to sew till they drop or ponder punctuation until the cows come home is simply shifting the negativity of the old geek stereotype onto new people.
As Star Trek: The Next Generation star Wil Wheaton so perfectly put it in a video message to his unborn daughter, “It’s not about what you love; it’s about how you love it.”
So, let’s find some solidarity this year on Embrace Your Geekness Day. If you’re a grammar guru, hug a programmer. If you dig cosplay, high five a drama buff. If you’re a sports nerd, chest bump a historian. Just take some time to recognize and celebrate your inner nerd-dom, and give others the space to do the same.
To help you assert your geekness, we’ve made the following cover photos for you to share on your social networks. Simply click the link for the network you use and download!
Also, find out which kind of language geek you are with our newest quiz!
Stephanie Katz is a San Francisco–based writer who, contrary to the way it may seem, won’t correct your grammar over beers, coffees or any other normal life interaction. She tells stories about health, history, travel and more and can be contacted via email at stekatz@gmail.com.
from http://www.grammarly.com/blog http://www.grammarly.com/blog/2015/why-you-should-fly-your-geek-flag-high-on-embrace-your-geekness-day/
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