Get nerd culture out of my goddamn face.

It's 2013 and it's finally the nerd uprising. For decades nerds, geeks and enthusiasts of books, cult tv shows and movies, and anything considered intellectual have been ridiculed  - or, at least, popular culture has told us so. Teen movies have shown us the popular jock/cheerleader/socialite character bullying and abusing the nerd type character for simply being 'different'. The book reader, the tea drinker, the loner, all social outcasts. But no more! These days, it's almost trendy to be a nerd.


Thanks to the internet, nerds all over the world (and I use the term 'nerd' very loosely) have been interacting on forums, twitter and blogging sites like tumblr. They might still be hiding in their rooms, but, hell, they are gathering together like virtual packs of wolves, ready to fight, yell and defend the things they love. Fanart and fan fiction are unavoidable. Sounds like a dream to the traditional nerd, right? There seems to be no stigma to be nerdy now.

Unfortunately, like any large group of people with a mutual interest, this group of seemingly innocent nerds tend to take their views and opinions to the extreme. There are plenty of examples. In the Doctor Who fandom? You must take a side on the Moffat debate! You must either love him or hate him! You are not allowed to be impartial! 'Shipping wars' are another problem - fans of The Hunger Games franchise must be either for Katniss and Gale's relationship or Katniss and Peeta's (which is a ridiculous argument because Peeta signifies Katniss's new life after the games and Gale is a representation of her old life so therefore she must end up with Peeta, but that is a discussion for another day).

But the biggest problem I have found with nerd culture is their judgment of people when are not too similar to them. The discrimination of anyone who doesn't sit in their bedrooms until 4am, reading Thor/Loki fanfic and drinking endless amounts of tea because it makes you feel more British, and god knows you love your BBC drama, such as Doctor Who and Sherlock and um... you know, other good ol' British shows is becoming an epidemic. Of course, I'm exaggerating, not all nerds are like that, of course they aren't. Shouldn't make generalisations. But there are some extremists like this who think they are better than everyone else because they are 'intellectuals'.

The whole mindset that being introverted, unsocial or too awkward to function makes you better than more outgoing people is ridiculous. For some reason, the tables have turned on 'popular' people (eg, not nerds). Apparently wearing (any amount of) make up, partying it up with friends, hooking up and, god-forbid, having a socially acceptable standard of hygiene are suddenly being mocked by nerds. Let's not even talk about how it's now trendy to have a mental illness - social anxiety and depression being the most popular. These aren't things to joke about. But I digress.

It's more popular to like more alternative bands than to enjoy mainstream pop. Pop is considered too silly, a disgrace to music and mainstream musicians are mocked. In fact, many people on social sites like tumblr wouldn't give Ke$ha the time of day until they find out she's actually highly intelligent and uses her music to her advantage.

Another nerd rant I haven't got time for here is cosplaying (dressing up as a character for a convention or just for fun) and the idea that you shouldn't be allowed to dress up as someone who is not your race/gender/body type. That's pretty problematic.

I saw a text post on my tumblr dashboard that read "If you’d rather go to a club than a museum, you deserve to be unhappy." This text post has 32,000+ notes as of the time I am writing this blog post. That means 32k people have liked or reblogged this post to their own tumblr. Of course, it might be so popular because someone added a funny comment, but we can't know that at a glance.

It's a whole new type of discrimination and almost unavoidable on the internet these days. Any kind of ideology that sees one person or group superior to others is repulsive.

There is nothing wrong with being a person who wears tight clothes, make up, going clubbing and hooks up with people (as long as you are safe and do it because you want to). There is nothing wrong with being a person who wears hoodies and reads in their room or watches tv and prefers a bit of alone time. What is wrong is judging others and thinking yourself superior because they do something you have no interest in. Of course, doing the extremes of either of these things are self-destructive and not a great idea,

Instead of switching around who's putting down who, can society work out a way of not putting down anyone? Can we realise that our personalities are not directly correlating with our hobbies, interests and behaviours?

Personality, I don't go on the internet and engage with my nerdy fandoms to be told that because I want to go to a bar on a Friday night or have casual sex or wear something even slightly promiscuous, it invalidates my interests and makes my opinions mute. Fandom is becoming so clique-y that I wouldn't be surprised if I'm going to start seeing movies about how nerds mock the jocks and shove their heads down toilets for not liking Supernatural.

I'm done with this nerd culture bullshit.