It’s time to come out of the shadows. You no longer need to admit to not liking football. There’s no need to hide your sci-fi passions. You don’t have to lock away your vast collection of Marvel comics from your girlfriend. It’s okay to sit at home and watch Doctor Who! You are allowed to have hobbies that aren’t sports. You can wear your Iron Man t-shirt when you’re out on the town.
It’s finally okay to embrace your inner geek!
And this is good news, especially for those of us who do possess geek credentials. We don’t all fit into what used to be societal norms, and while this is okay now, it was only a few short years ago that this was looked down upon.
If we wanted to wax lyrical about the merits of Marvel over DC, or why Star Wars will always be better than Star Trek, we would have been bullied mercilessly by those cool kids, the ones who preferred to talk about sport and fashion, those subjects that were actually supposed to ‘mean something.’ Computer hobbyists were on the lowest rungs of the ladder when compared to their sports-loving peers, and those who played video games were considered nerdy by teachers and parents alike. The stereotype of the geek sat alone in his bedroom in front of a computer screen wasn’t a false one, because let’s face it, the geeks among us probably didn’t favor social company for fear of being derided for our passions.
Times were bleak for those who wanted to explore their inner geek! But times have changed.
In 2019, the world now embraces geek culture. Geek chic is in and has become a fashionable trend. If celebs like Justin Timberlake can pull off those geeky specs, then so can the rest of us and these days we don’t even have to go out to buy them – we can avoid stores by purchasing our geek chic specs online, which is, after all, the geeky way to do it. Though if you want to follow your own fashion trends; that’s okay. You don’t need to wear the big fashion labels, as it’s perfectly acceptable to mix and match your own outfits – if Matt Smith’s Doctor Who can wear braces, bow ties, and fezzes, then you can too!
We now hold former computer hobbyists in high esteem; those people who would have been stereotyped for being nerdy in their youth. Thanks to geeks like Apple’s Steve Jobs and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, it’s finally okay to take courses such as this MS in Computer Engineering instead of a law degree or a sports scholarship. Computers and gadgets are now considered ‘cool,’ as well as extremely profitable for those who follow Jobs, Zuckerberg et al. into techy careers.
Video games are more popular than ever. You were considered geeky if you spent your hard-earned pocket money in the arcades back in the ’70s and ’80s, but gaming is now a multibillion-dollar business. It’s no longer about sole computer programmes coming up with gaming software from the confines of their bedrooms. Today, gaming studios such as EA and Activision employ a vast array of people in all aspects of gaming development, from art design to storyboarding. Technology has come on in leaps and bounds, and there are very few households that don’t have a Playstation or an Xbox nestled under their televisions. While there are still gamers who sit alone in their bedrooms, this has become acceptable because nearly everybody is doing it. Though we rarely play solo these days, as online functionality gives us the scope to play the world, whether that’s engaging in the fantasy worlds of The Elder Scrolls series, participating in epic warfare in Battlefield, or (whisper it) actually playing sports of the virtual kind with Fifa and Madden. And as a further blow to our gym teachers and sports-pushing parents, video gaming is now recognised as a sport, thanks to the explosive growth of eSports, where today’s sporting celebrities are attracting millions of viewers, not for running around a football field, but for sitting in front of a screen, gamepad in hand, competing for million dollar prizes.
Let’s say a big thank you to Marvel Studios who have brought superheroes into the mainstream too. While there have always been decent superhero movies – 1978’s Superman, 1989’s Batman – it wasn’t until 2008’s Iron Man that such films really came to the fore of our multiplexes. If it wasn’t okay to wear a Tony Stark t-shirt before then, it is now! There are now more superhero movies than ever before, with countless films on the horizon, and for those of us who were derided for our comic-book passions before, this is no longer the case. These are the big tentpole pictures and are now considered the norm. Though let’s not forget those other filmmakers who have brought geekdom into acceptance. Steven Spielberg has often appealed to the geek in all of us, none more so than with 2018’s Ready Player One which brought nearly every facet of geek culture onto our cinema screens. Then there’s James Cameron with Avatar, Christopher Nolan with Inception and The Dark Knight, and The Wachowskis with The Matrix Trilogy; just a few examples of big-hit movies that are geeky, yet decidedly mainstream.
And then there’s television. Doctor Who and Star Trek were always considered nerdist entertainment, but with the recent reboots, this is no longer the case. And how many people do you know who aren’t watching The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and despite the fond stereotypes within, The Big Bang Theory? These are the shows that would have been considered niche and geeky a few short years ago, but they are now must-see television programmes watched by millions.
In short, it’s okay to be a geek. We can now watch what we want, play what we want, and wear what we want; without the contempt of our peers. We can choose courses that propel us into techy careers, instead of those ‘proper jobs’ that our teachers and parents tried to push us into. And we can openly talk about our passions, whether that’s in the English or Klingon language, without fear of being criticized for declaring our geek credentials.
It’s finally okay to embrace your inner geek, so celebrate that today, book yourself a place at Comic-Con, and watch your Star Wars Blu-rays at your leisure. And whether you wear your Wonder Woman belt or Superman underwear while doing so is completely up to you!