GEEK CHIC

Geeks are cool now which really seems to annoy my sister who has been a self-professed geek for years now. Everyone is dressing like her and becoming interested in the things that she was into "before they were cool". The old clothes she brought from op shops for a dollar are now being sold for hundreds in designer stores.

This social development fascinates me and Lev Grossman (2005) outlines this in his well-written article ‘The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth’. I found myself agreeing with nearly everything he said and realised I’m probably one of the people my sister is hating on. I only started watching the x-men and other super-hero movies when they became mainstream I guess I am guilty of being “geek chic” as Henry Jenkins (2010) puts it. 

Jenkins (2010) interviews Ethan Gilsdorf, the author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks and they discuss the geek stereotype as well as the ‘cooling of the geek’ mentioned by Grossman (2005). Gilsdorf explains how hard it’s becoming to the nerds apart from the jocks and I have to say I agree. The pale, over-weight, acne-covered stereotypes we all imagine when the word geek comes to mind no longer applies.

Dmitri Williams (2008) explores this phenomenon in his study 'Who plays, how much and why? Debunking the stereotypical gamer profile'. One of the most fascinating and surprising findings from that research was that gamers are apparently healthier and in better shape that non-gamers (Williams, D 2008) whereas all pre-conceptions would usually point to the contrary.

The universe is turning upside down; geeks are looking and fit and non-geeks are over-weight and out-of-touch with what’s cool. Who saw that coming?

References

Jenkins, Henry (2010) "A Kind of Vast Game": An Interview with Ethan Gilsdorf (Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks)

Grossman, Lev (2005) "The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth", Time Magazine

Williams, Dmitri, Yee, Nick, and Caplan, Scott (2008), 'Who plays, how much and why? Debunking the stereotypical gamer profile', Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication vol. 13 pp.993-1018.