Idiot Nerd Girl Meme
We all know them, we all hate them. The gamer gurlz and idiot nerd girls are why we can’t have nice things. They ruin it for the rest of us. By “us” I, of course, mean the multitude of real gamers who happen to be anatomically a girl but who do not fall under the typical female archetype. Think of us as womanly dudes who really dig reading and video games, have a wicked competitive edge, like shoes, and have to worry about having the proper supply of tampons once a month. Despite what we all strive for, female gamers are not yet smoothly integrated or accepted into the world of gaming. In fact, there is a War of Extremes between the RPG / MMO crowd, where any and all women are worshiped by hordes of geeks; to the polar opposite found in Modern Warfare / COD players with their caveman mentality, who would sooner waste away in a nearly full lobby than to play with a single girl on their team regardless of her skill. On top of these difficulties, there has been a recent need to defend ourselves as “real” nerds from wannabe gurlz who suddenly want the attention of being the offbeat one for liking “retro” look of 8-bit gaming and YouTube unicorns. Suddenly, this influx of faux nerd girls is ruining our collective reputation!
Well, wait a minute. Why should there be something to ruin? Who has qualified themselves as the sacred gatekeepers of All Things Nerd? What makes me more qualified to determine the parameters of nerd-dom instead of letting each person define it for themselves? Prominent voices in the Nerd Community (which is located primarily online, duh! when not on the floors of your nearest sci-fi & gaming convention) such as Wil Wheaton and Nika Harper have voiced opinions against any and all idiot nerd wannabe shaming. As they should. The biggest responsibility of being a true Nerd is not passing on the social pain that has been delivered unto us by Normies. That is what allows us to be different. Judgment and shaming are generally two very big No-No’s in the collective Nerd Community.
The basic problem here is of semantics or, definitions. There is a smooth continuum of Nerd. All things Nerd have steadily infiltrated popular culture in the past two-three decades. Now, anything barely outside of strict “normaltude” qualifies as Nerd. Love of cartoons, deep obsession with cars or wrestling heroes, anything at all requiring an iota of passion devoted to a subject other than boys and clothes now lands a girl square into Nerd nomenclature territory. Being a Nerd, if not all things Nerd then at least dressed like a “nerd”, is now fully in fashion. That means there is extra peer pressure for girls and some boys to identify themselves as Nerd, even if they aren’t all that into it. It has really reached a paradoxical status where being non-mainstream is actually mainstream.
I propose a finer distinction to what we call a “nerd” … but something so fluid as a definition is likely to be re-written by future self-proclaimed linguistics and etymology activists. My definition would go something like this:
- Genuine prescription glasses
- Love of reading as a child that never really leaves
- Indulgence in board / video games
- Unending love of science fiction, and
- Going to fantasy and gaming conventions.
That is my basic list of being and actual Nerd girl, and most of us Nerds would agree that it is spot-on. Wearing plastic square frames, hipster attire, talking about Bronies and dropping the occasional Dr Who reference, while being a step in the right direction, is still light years from being called a genuine Nerd. It’s about what you do for your own pleasure not what you do for appearance. It’s Function not Form.
Defining these things is like splitting hairs and, frankly, a little masturbatory. Yes, I want to keep the label of Nerd (especially for us girls who had to earn that name through quiet suffering during school years) pure and untainted by nerd virgins just dipping their toes in this alternative pool. I also don’t want to designate myself the leader of “Police Force for Nerd Purity in All the Land” either, as much as I may think that’s a great idea, when in reality it is just my opinion. Collective and agreed-upon opinion however becomes law and, to some, Fact — so we should all decide together. We either let people define themselves as Nerds for whatever their reasons, be it appearance-based agenda or true-to-fact self assertion OR we remain elitist about “true” Nerds and keep whatever private checklists of true nerd attributes to ourselves.
I feel there will always be this divide in attitude as to what things can change and which must remain pure. Where you draw the line between the two, you must decide for yourself.
