You’re a NERD? And a GIRL? Congradu-fuck-ulations.

There’s this trend going on. This dumb, idiotic trend where all of a sudden the things that weren’t “cool” growing up, especially for females, are the things that EVERYONE is into and are being shoved down people’s throats daily.

That “thing”, is being a nerd.

Look, I have nothing against nerds, geeks, or WHATEVER you’d like to call yourself these days because, believe it or not, there is a different between each one of those things (you can thank Wikipedia for my laziness):

A nerd is a person, typically described as being overly intellectual, obsessive, or socially impaired. They may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular, obscure, or non-mainstream activities, which are generally either highly technical or relating to topics of fiction or fantasy, to the exclusion of more mainstream activities.

The word geek is a slang term for odd or non-mainstream people, with different connotations ranging from “a computer expert or enthusiast” to “a person heavily interested in a hobby”, with a general pejorative meaning of “a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp[ecially] one who is perceived to be overly intellectual”

But seriously, people misusing the words don’t bother me. Some words get misused daily and have lost their true meanings over time (check out this article from cracked.com to see what I mean). What bothers me is this: if you are a “nerd” or a “geek”, why must you constantly shove it down people’s throats like they don’t get the message that you are what you say you are the first, second, or third time? This is what sites like Tumblr are for: if you are in a fandom, GO FUCKING NUTS! This is your wonderland. Post like mad. Reblog all your Doctor Who or Avengers posts numerous times. This is why this site was created.

What bothers me is those girls. The girls who have to add a “#nerd” to every Twitter status they make. Where all their facebook posts are about their cons they’re attending, where every picture HAS to express their “nerdiness” like it would discredit them if it didn’t. I don’t understand why those females have to try so hard to prove themselves.

Not every post has to be about you playing video games.
Not every status has to be about your love for a specific fandom.
Not every picture has to have you pointing to your shirt, displaying your geekiness (is that even a word?) to the whole world, as if you were the only female to ever love said dorky thing.

And now I come to myself. Why am I even bitching about this, you ask? Why do I get so mad at these proclaimed nerd girls? Because being a geek myself, growing up, meant getting bullied throughout my entire childhood. I wore these giant glasses (yeah, the ones that are cool now) and hung out at recess playing my gameboy because no one would want to be around me. It meant getting judged by the “popular” girls because I was into boy things. It meant putting all my time and effort into beating Zelda: Ocarina of Time and getting all the Golden Bananas in Donkey Kong 64 before the internet was really a thing because I was never invited out. It meant I had the time to kick my cousin’s asses at Goldeneye, which made me feel better about myself when there were so many people out there shooting me down.

Fast forward to highschool: did I grow out of this stage? Hah! Never. I decided to embrace this side. When I got to highschool I found friends in band, where we would have LAN parties and accept each other. We even hung out with the science and physics nerds (who awesomely just combined forces) and they weren’t considered extremely popular, but I loved that. There was no pressure to be cool or to be accepted. We just were, and that was awesome.

Fast forward to University: I didn’t make friends for a while, as I was kind of withdrawn, so I kept my PS2 in my dorm room and played the shit out of Dark Cloud 1 and 2. That’s when I decided to hide what I called “my weirdness” from people and made some friends….but you can’t hide your real self forever, so I became distant from some of those friends and made new ones that I didn’t have to hide myself from, which was really cool.

Fast forward to now: I’ve come out of my shell completely. What do I still do with my spare time? I play video games with my boyfriend who is a bigger gamer than me, I watch Joss Whedon shows, I see musicals, I read fanfiction, I obsess over Harry Potter, etc. etc. but I do not, under ANY circumstance, decide to make this my complete identity. I do not make this my opening line. I do not make this my tool to flirt, get hit on, or seek attention. In fact, I do this in such moderation that people don’t actually think I’m into these things. Part of  the reason is I’m scared of coming off as “that girl”, but also because I don’t feel like it’s necessary. 

I’m not saying this because I’m jealous or drink haterade for breakfast. I do post dorky related things once in a while, especially on facebook, because I am friends with fellow gamers and they would appreciate the discussion (like on Kotaku’s awful opinion article about the violence of Bioshock Infinite…but I’ll leave that for another day).

I never said it was bad to express yourself, and yes, I am happy that it is socially acceptable to embrace that side of myself that I hid for years. My point is that females are using these nerd or geek hobbies and interests as tools to the extreme to make themselves look cooler. To make them shine above others, to make them seem like they’re one of a kind. To make it some kind of competition on who’s nerdier or who is a bigger fan.

Worst. Trend. Ever.

Just go on Twitter right now and look up “#nerd” to see an example of what I mean. You’re seeing the Star Trek premiere? You’re watching Star Wars on your free time when you could be clubbing? You’re playing video games at this very second all while looking extremely attractive in your display picture?

Cool story, sis.

I leave you with this: