When nerds become cool, do jocks become nerds?
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007
According to the Washington Post Americas is in the throes of a Nerdy revolution. Writing articles with titles such as “Geek Pride Blooms Into a Real World Subculture”. The trend of reporting about the rise of nerdcore is nothing new. The early adopters which are so saught after by marketing focus groups gave up the goods. And they told MTV, H and M, and Coca Cola that being nerdy is cool. The most difficult step is making the transition between visionaries (early adopters) and pragmatists (early majority). And currently the nerdcore revolution is hitting the early majority hard. In her latest article from the Washington Post, Ann Hornaday wrote
“This summer, teens ruled, especially teen boys. And not just teen boys, but teen boys at their pimpliest, stutteringest and downright geekiest. As Post reporter Anthony Faiola fearlessly reported from the pen-protected trenches in July, America is in the throes of a “nerdcore” movement, catered to in gearhead fetish fests like “Transformers,” celebrated in hit comedies like “Knocked Up” and “Superbad” and tenderly evoked in such modest sleepers as “Rocket Science.”
So the question is that since the mainstream has now embraced nerdiness, and in many instances cast beautiful actors and actresses in nerdy glasses, have the jocks become the new nerds ? These days everyone you talk to was “the biggest geek in high school” with people try to out geek each other talking about how they “used to play Dungeons and Dragons all the time” and were a total nerd because they took a few AP classes. Maybe they will stress their athletic inability as a gauge of their nerdiness. But I’m here to tell most of you who have stumbled onto this blog. you weren’t Nerds in high school, and you know it. Here’s why.
I never made the basketball team when I was in eighth grade, I played Dungeons and Dragons, I didn’t have a girlfriend (or even french kiss one) until I was 17, I loved art history, and I read Dragonlance novels in school, and guess what. I wasn’t a nerd. I was fairly popular, and this was 13 years ago in an ultraconservative midwestern town where being the football quarterback also meant that you would be homecoming king. Today as the internet begins to replace television, and alternative media begins to replace mainstream media. I’m saying to myself. Should I feel happy that the mainstream media is beginning to embrace nerdiness? As Douglas Rushkoff points out in his latest lecture “Why johnny Can’t Program” if these nerds posed any threat to the status quo, then they would never let them free.
This is one reason that here at Nerdarts.com I have always strove to highlight the individual, rather than the company. I’m more interested in a guy who made a garden which you can control via a robotic arm through the internet than a new game for the Wii (even though I think it’s a great console:). Nintendo is going to be ok without an extra shout out from my little blog. As nerdcore soaks farther and farther into mainstream culture, us early adopters and visionaries have to make sure that we highlight the culture and not the company, highlight insight and reflection of our own personal stories instead of doing the bidding of major corporations who want that extra free link to make their product go viral. It’s only a matter of time before we see space invader motifs on sweaters at Abercrombie and Fitch, and just as studded belts and punk has now become safe enough for christian fundies to use to promote Christ, Nerdcore will be used to sell seemingly iniquous products to make the same people rich. The beast has been unleashed and its only a matter of time before the popular girl from the rich suburbs starts talking about how she was a “total nerd”.
Let’s tell our own stories, and if those personal stories involve Atari Games and Dungeons and Dragons dice then they are ours to use! They are as much a part of us as the air we have breathed throughout the years. These corporation have rammed advertising down our throats for years, and then they are going to sue people for using imagery, or songs which they collectively tried to get us to remember? Fuck em. Fair Use has a Posse. Nerdcore is Dead - Long Live Nerdcore! From this point on I will never again publicize a company, or a movie, only individual artists who are reinterpreting the world around them and telling their own stories. If those stories involve nintendo games or star wars characters then these artists have the right to use these images.
