Artist can't get laid: Claims female cosplayers are whores

[Key-Glyph]

Thanks for posting the Cracked article. It felt so good to laugh along with that as a follow-up to the first one.

I wish I were immune to Tony Harris' brand of bile, but I'm not. It gets my goat. I'd say that I don't care what he thinks, but that's somewhat incomplete. Disregarding someone's opinion as irrelevant or not worthy of respect is not always the same as not letting that opinion get you down. I might think Tony Harris is insane, and his diatribe might not affect my idea of self-worth or my behaviors in the slightest, but that doesn't mean he can't make me feel kinda crappy anyway. The jerk.

If someone thinks you're a fake nerd, we all know it doesn't take the nerdiness out of you. But I think it can make you feel taken out of the nerdiness, in a way. As an analogy, I still answer the "where are you from?" question with the state I grew up in, even though I haven't lived there in about a decade, because my hometown is there and I still feel very emotionally bonded with it. But if someone got up in my face about how I shouldn't identify as being from that state anymore, it would bother me. It wouldn't make my hometown less a part of me, but it might make me feel less a part of my hometown, if that makes any sense.

I know labels shouldn't matter, but somewhere along the line I got attached to the "nerd" concept because it turned out to be the best way to quickly describe my general interests (and self-labeling as such could occasionally deflect imminent teasing). If someone tried to bully me out of my emotional claim to the culture I first felt comfortable in... I'd get over it, of course. But it would bother me in a similar way.

Anyway, I apologize that this is only tangentially related to the articles. I just get all torn up over the "are you a real nerd?" kinds of questions, or "you're not a real nerd if you identify as one" sorts of statements. I ponder on them a lot.

[Flake]

One thing that frustrates me about modern nerd culture: The seeming need to earn your place.

I know I am not the only person who remembers being a nerd in the 80's and 90's. It was the ultimate in all-inclusive groups. Anyone who wanted to roll dice, play games, role play, or watch Trek was welcome.

Who knew that the most egalitarian of demographics would turn into what it has? Even Football jocks don't give the ladies so much shit when they want to paint themselves up and root for home team to score the foot ball touch downs.

[AppleQueso]

Nothing a nerd hates more than a different nerd.

Haha nice to see that comic getting some traction.

Ya know what... I'm friends with plenty of non-nerdy "normal" attractive women, and not once have I ever heard one of them say, "You know what would be fun to do this weekend? Google image search a random female comic book hero and wear a skimpy outfit to a convention just to tease some guys!"

Dudes who complain about "fake nerd girls" are creepy as hell and typically have issues with women in general.

Yeah... Honestly I find it very hard to believe that this "fake nerd girl" stereotype even actually exists.

One thing that frustrates me about modern nerd culture: The seeming need to earn your place.

I know I am not the only person who remembers being a nerd in the 80's and 90's. It was the ultimate in all-inclusive groups. Anyone who wanted to roll dice, play games, role play, or watch Trek was welcome.

Who knew that the most egalitarian of demographics would turn into what it has? Even Football jocks don't give the ladies so much shit when they want to paint themselves up and root for home team to score the foot ball touch downs.

That's kinda what I was getting at with the "nothing a nerd hates more..." comment.

I think it goes back farther than you think though. I mean Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons is parodying that very attitude, so it had to have been around before then.

[Flake]

But not to the point that it is now.

I'm pretty damn nerdy but I can't help but hate on the demographic sometimes. One of the local comic book stores employs a few ladies that I am friends with and I have to hear about the most horrible fucking things they deal with just for having the audacity to have a vagina. If the nerd guys aren't hitting on them (having just not bathed) they are treating them like crap. If the nerdy girls aren't hating them (for intruding on their nerd queen territory) they are, you guessed it, treating them like crap.

Being a nerd used to be about wonder. Daydreaming, imagining stuff, creating stories together. What happened? Less and less am I surprised that lady nerds deal with the crap they do. Even guy nerds cannot get along without judging / hating each other.

[MrPopo]

Even guy nerds cannot get along without judging / hating each other.

It's because nerd has become mainstream. So the real nerds need to find a way to exclude all the fake nerds. Eventually the real nerds will become mainstream and the real real nerds will need to exclude the real nerds. It's a vicious cycle that ends with the human race destroying itself.

[flojocabron]

Even guy nerds cannot get along without judging / hating each other.

It's because nerd has become mainstream. So the real nerds need to find a way to exclude all the fake nerds. Eventually the real nerds will become mainstream and the real real nerds will need to exclude the real nerds. It's a vicious cycle that ends with the human race destroying itself.

I've posted some thing alot like this in the other thread

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=33833

yeah. we always have a need to put down or despise something that isn't your own.

It makes me shudder to think that the lowest rung right now on the Nerd ladder is the bronies/furries.

When they (bronies) become mainstream and MLP is the norm, who will they look down on and hate?

yeah, the nerd is the new jock.

[Menegrothx]

One thing that frustrates me about modern nerd culture: The seeming need to earn your place.

I know I am not the only person who remembers being a nerd in the 80's and 90's. It was the ultimate in all-inclusive groups. Anyone who wanted to roll dice, play games, role play, or watch Trek was welcome.

Many people who were into computers, programming and hacking back when it wasn't "socially acceptable" dislike the fact that people who never put the kind of effort into the hobby like they did are now claiming to be nerds because it has become socially acceptable and cool, while originally it was a derogatory term meant to slander people like them. It's the same kind of opportunistic behavior as only liking a sports team when they win the championship, it's for the sake of gaining momentary social currency not for genuine passion towards the sport or the team.

I dont see why so many people want so badly to be identified as nerds anyways. It's a derogatory word and very few people are "qualified" enough to be considered as nerds. Why do people want to label themselves?

[J T]

I dont see why so many people want so badly to be identified as nerds anyways.

[AppleQueso]

I dont see why so many people want so badly to be identified as nerds anyways. It's a derogatory word and very few people are "qualified" enough to be considered as nerds. Why do people want to label themselves?

So they can get laid by fake nerd girls in cosplay outfits?

[MrPopo]

I dont see why so many people want so badly to be identified as nerds anyways. It's a derogatory word and very few people are "qualified" enough to be considered as nerds. Why do people want to label themselves?

So they can get laid by fake nerd girls in cosplay outfits?

Because a career in being a nerd can make 100k+/year?