Disclaimer: I’m aware the CollegeHumor article is a bit old. But I only saw it recently.
LOL! So check these silly women who think they’re nerds cos they wear glasses. Ha, what fakes! Let’s take Tweeted pics and make an article mocking them for thinking they’re nerds!
LOL, high five bro!
We’ll show these dumb womin that it’s wrong to call yourself a nerd because… well, because! It’s too difficult to explain and if I have to explain then you’re obviously not a true nerd. And who doesn’t want to aspire to be a self-loathing, hateful, vengeful manchild — I mean “true nerd”?
What you mean let people call themselves what they want because it has no fucking impact on my life? That makes no sense! I must defend the kingdom of nerdom if people aren’t nerding in the perfectly right way that I’ve arbitrarily determined! Dammit! People can’t just enjoy themselves: they need to enjoy the things I love in the right, special, sacred way I’ve determined!
This is for men. When you come in here, with your women parts, it upsets the balance. And that’s wrong because… you know. Because it is upsetting! Stop it, just look at that list and laugh at those silly women that deserve to be shamed on a widely read site for doing a harmless activity!
Hey! We mock men, too, so it’s fine! Things are equal! How come feminists always talk about how people are equal but then when they get targeted they want special treatment??! Huh: What you mean recognising the world is unequal doesn’t negate treating people equally? That makes no sense. Women are just being hysterical as usual! They should get over themselves, they just need a man in their life.
Everything is fine and I’ve never seen or experienced an environment that constantly judges and negates me for my sex, race, sexual orientation – THEREFORE IT DOESN’T HAPPEN TO ANYONE ELSE. That’s logic! And I should know, bro, I’m a totes true nerd! Let’s go be offended by Star Wars…
I’ve always found that attitude interesting. As a person who was a nerd “before it was cool” I remember getting ridiculed, shamed, and physically attacked for being that kid who liked to read too much. I suppose this kind of reaction could be something similar to how, for example, a Native American would react to seeing a bunch of people suddenly starting to claim (upon Native ancestry becoming “cool”) that they are Native Americans when they look and act totally white, but they had a great-great-great grandparent who was Native. There’s a feeling, I think, that these people never really had the experience of a True Nerd, and that may cause some resentment. There’s a bit of a crucial difference, of course, in that nerdom isn’t anywhere near as easy to determine as race (ironically, since race itself can be a pretty nebulous concept when you look at it close enough), so the gate keeping, especially when they focus so much on the accused fake nerd’s gender, is rather inappropriate.
I would have thought that the crucial difference would be the lack of 500 years worth of genocide against nerds, but then I’m just a cray cray social justice warrior or something.
No, that’s certainly a crucial difference in other contexts. Here, though, I’m talking about victims’ reaction to victimization, and while being bullied due to being a nerd and being sysyematically discriminated against/enslaved/killed are certainly on different levels, I would hesitate to say that a victim of bullying due to being a nerd should not feel as bad as a victim of genocide. In any case, that’s really beside the point, as while this may be where the feelings come from, just as a particular brand of feminist would be wrong to question whether someone was a “real” woman because she was born with genitals typical of those who would typically oppress her, it’s equally wrong for nerds to question a woman’s “nerd cred.”
It’s funny how you keep mentioning how this is something only perpetuated by men.
It’s not. The comments on that six month old article is evident of that. Did you read them? I can see several men and women with the same attitude towards these women in the pictures, with some (both men and women) mentioning how calling into question their “nerdhood” is sexist with both men and women arguing against the notion. How does this become a situation where “bros” are berating women? It doesn’t say whether the article was authored by a man or a woman; are you just assuming?
For no discernable reason, you made this an excuse to attack men and to defend the honour of women.
(For what it’s worth, I agree with you that there is no such thing as a “fake nerd girl”, but I’m disagreeing with you on another thing so that probably makes me a “bro.”)
As for the t-shirt, it doesn’t say “girls”, it says “fangirls”, a concept of fandom that is prevalent in both men and women. Men gets called “fanboys” and it is equally derisive. There’s nothing sexist about being called a “fanboy” or a “fangirl.” In light of this, this sentence:
… makes no sense.
How is the fact that both men and women can both be mocked and insulted for their fandom not an acknowledgement that they’re being treated equally in that respect? How does it morph into women being hysterical and needing a man in their life? I don’t really get your reasoning. Unless I’m not really supposed to. Ironically your rationalising of this situation to become where they ARE being treated unequally COULD ACTUALLY be seen as vying for special treatment, but I’ve given up on trying to decipher radical feminist thinking.
BORING, SWEARY COMMENT ALERT, PLEASE BE WARNED – TM
F you and your encouragement of the cultural appropriation of nerd culture:
Cultural appropriation is the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different cultural group. It describes acculturation or assimilation, but can imply a negative view towards acculturation from a minority culture by a dominant culture.[1][2] It can include the introduction of forms of dress or personal adornment, music and art, religion, language, or social behavior. These elements, once removed from their indigenous cultural contexts, can take on meanings that are significantly divergent from, or merely less nuanced than, those they originally held.
Here’s a quiz Tauriq, how do you feel about Dartmouth canceling a Cinco De Mayo Fraternity fundraising “Phiesta” because one young woman complained about the cultural appropriation?
http://campusreform.org/?ID=5576
Fake girl nerds, with the emphasis on fake
+ have no understanding of what it was like to grow up a nerd
+ were usually the oppressors of nerds
+ take on nerd costume as a way of seeming cool
+ oppress the real nerds still. That is, in their new fake girl nerd role, they still shun nerds
Oh, it’s cute. Oh, what does it matter? Oh, it’s just a name.
No, it’s cultural appropriation, it’s disrespectful, it’s oppressive.
Portlandia, written and starring two nerds, including a real nerd girl, understands what you are too much of a dipsh*t to understand
Portlandia – Real Nerd
I think someone should, at the VERY LEAST explain to commenter number 5 what satire is…
I mean, obviously trying to teach them about cultural appropriation and oppression isn’t going to work, but satire should be a thing that nerds understand.
@Alexvdl
Well maybe they should explain it to me too. Satire is supposed to be funny and I didn’t feel the urge to even smile while watching that.
Oh yes. Satire is supposed to be funny.
Like those great comedic masterpieces Animal Farm by George Orwell and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
Sometimes a pair of glasses is just a pair of glasses.
So nerds are exclusively white, middle class, cisgendered, heterosexual and male. I did not know that!
Didn’t those used to be called WASPS?