The Nerd Identity

Tori Amos released a song in 1994 called “Cornflake Girl” in which she contends that womankind can be classed as two distinct groups. She identifies the two groups as “Cornflake Girls” and “Raisin Girls”. The idea comes from the distribution of flakes and raisins within certain breakfast cereals. In certain cereals as in the cereal bowl of life, the cornflakes are easier to find, they make up the largest portion of the cereal and also are kind of boring. The raisins are much rarer and some times you have to work harder to find them. But they also taste a lot better than the flakes and they make the cereal a hell of a lot more interesting. I feel that this is a pretty sound idea which can be applied to men as well as women, but even more than that, I feel that it could be even more appropriate to apply the “Raisins” and “Cornflakes” labels respectively to nerds and ordinary folk

Now before we go any further, I should probably make it clear that I’m going to be using the term “nerd” pretty frequently in this column, but not exclusively. In fairness, its pretty interchangeable in the mind of some ordinary folk with other words and terms like “geek” or “dork” or “sad git”. But “nerd” is the word that I prefer to use and it’s a good catch-all term for people who stand outside the norms of society. Basically, the word denotes life’s raisins.

On the journey in to Dublin one evening with a friend of mine, the conversation turned to a holiday I had been on in Florida a few weeks earlier and the comic convention that I attended. As I was excitedly telling him about the convention, the cosplay folk, the media guests and how much fun I had with my friends after the convention while we stayed up drinking most nights, I could see his eyes glaze over, pretty much the way mine would if he started to regale me with tales of his exploits playing hurling or rugby. But friends are allowed to bore each other with their stories, that’s what friends are for. I told him that it’s very hard not to have a good time when a group of nerds get together. At this juncture he said to me that I wasn’t really a nerd, that I was an ordinary guy in the body of a nerd.

Now, in fairness I do look like a nerd. There’d be no denying that fact whether I wanted to or not. Being a thin guy who wears glasses is going to get you labelled a nerd even if you’ve never read a book or seen a sci fi movie. The fact that I was wearing a Browncoat t-shirt and wearing the One Ring at the time meant that I couldn’t really argue with that part of the statement. But to quote Marian Call, “Nerdery is more than wardrobe deep, and I’m a nerd down in my heart and that’s where nerdhood rocks”. Nerds come in all shapes, sizes and guises from the most beautiful woman in the world all the way to the stereotypical thin guy with glasses. But no matter how you present yourself to the world, one of the best parts of being a nerd is being comfortable in your own skin.

And to be honest, it was a bit disheartening being called “ordinary”. By definition, most of the people on the planet are “ordinary” and just blend in to the background with nothing to differentiate them from their peers. Nerds have long accused of being cultish but I can’t think of any cult bigger or more insidious than the Cult of Being Ordinary.

Nerdhood knows neither borders nor boundaries. It doesn’t discriminate on grounds of race or colour or belief or orientation. There’s no membership fee, there’s no cost and you don’t have to be rich. Although having disposable income does come in handy when you want to buy a Dawn statue or a Stargate replica mirror on impulse.

Impulse buys aren’t an uncommon thing because nerds tend to get very excited about stuff, a love of merchandise is another hallmark of being a nerd. From Superman statues to framed original comic book pages to character t-shirts to Exogorth oven gloves, I’ll freely admit that we get excited about some very silly looking things at times. Hell, we get excited about generally anything that falls within our fandoms. It’s not common to find that level of enthusiasm amongst the regular folk. While I would never presume to speak for all nerds on this particular subject, I think it’s fair to say that a lot of nerds are Atheists. With Atheism comes a certainty that this life is finite and that this life is all you get, so you might as well squeeze every bit of enjoyment out of it, regardless of what it is that causes that joy. What other point could there possibly be but to squeeze every bit of joy and excitement out of your time on this earth regardless of what other people might think or how it might appear. And sometimes the simple pleasures are the best, whether it’s seeing a great movie on your own or reading a great comic book in a pub with a couple of pints or just hanging out with like minded people talking about anything and everything that comes to mind. Of course, that’s over and above the fact there’s just some very cool geeky merchandise out there that’s worth getting excited about. There’s a reason that it’s called “geeking out”.

Most of my geeking out and my social nerdery revolves to a greater or lesser degree around the View Askew Message Board and the fine folk who post there. Almost six years ago to the day, I signed up the the Board and not too long after, I took my first trip overseas and met some of the Boardies face to face. We had been talking online for a while and I felt comfortable enough in going to England to meet them but there was no getting away from the fact that I was actually in a totally different country on my own and I was going to meet a crowd of people who I actually didn’t know in person and it could have gone disastrously badly. But I needn’t have worried about meeting them, within ten minutes of arriving in the designated pub in London it felt like I was with people that I’d known for a long time. But the fact that I wasn’t drinking Guinness did raise more than a few questions. I don’t get asked those questions now by anybody, which is due to the people of the View Askew Message Board.

Since that day, every time that I’ve boarded a plane has been for the purpose of going to a View Askew event or to get to be in the company of the people who post on the Board. It’s a lot of trouble to go to just to see a group of people but it is worth the hassle to be in a group of people who are almost universally instantly accepting. When I think of my best days, they almost all involve nerd folk in some capacity or another, from dancing at the View Askew Prom to not meeting Richard Dean Anderson to randomly meeting Kevin Smith in Toys R Us in Times Square. Nerd folk just make life better.

To stretch the food allegory a little bit further, most of the people in the world are like crisps (potato chips for the Americans), and can fit and be welcome anywhere that they go, they’re a little bit plain and bland but they’re pretty much suited to everyone’s taste. Some people, nerds in particular are more like tostadas with jalapenos salsa, they appeal only to a very selective crowd with broader tastes. The thing is though; the people of broader tastes are much better to hang with and will accept you in any shape, size or guise. When you’re in a group of people where everyone’s different, the differences are what unite you.

The worst thing about having to fly to see my friends is the amount of time spent in airports or bus terminals, or sometimes even in bars, just waiting. But having nerdy interests comes in handy in that kind of situation. It’s the easiest thing in the world to spend time messing around online talking to your friends or reading a pile of comics or finishing a book or updating a blog. A lot of nerdy activities are solitary ones, and despite how amazing hanging out with nerds can be, being a nerd means being comfortable in your own company. We do what makes us happy, not what we think looks good to other people.

The mainstream world has accepted us to a certain degree in recent years and you only have to look at shows like Chuck or The Big Bang Theory to see that geek chic is big business at the moment. But that acceptance isn’t universal and if nerdery goes too far outside what is considered normal society, we’ll still get scorned. The acceptance sometimes manifests like affectionate curiosity, and that will only go so far. Ordinary folk will still scoff at cosplayers who wear home-made costumes, deeming them weird and obsessive instead of passionate and creative, but it’s OK for someone who has never kicked a football or done a bit of exercise in his life to spend a fortune on a replica jersey of a football team and then claim affiliation to a club that’s located hundreds or thousands of miles away. But still, not a day goes by that you won’t see somebody wearing a comic book t-shirt on the street. Superheroes are fashionable due in no small part to the commercial success of movies like Batman and Spiderman. People seem more willing to accept a fantasy or science fiction idea if it’s presented to them on a screen; somehow it’s more acceptable to watch Batman than it is to read Batman. I have to admit that it is kind of gratifying to see superhero movies and Sci-Fi movies doing so well and being so popular with the general public, even if it’s just from a “see, I told you this was awesome” point of view.

But fashions change and people change with them. Eventually nerds and faux-nerdery will be unstylish again, and when that happens… nothing will change for us. We’ll keep on doing our own thing. We managed just fine before the rest of the world sat up and took notice of us, we’ll manage just fine when the rest of the world moves on to the next big thing. If you’re doing what you do because it’s what makes you happy, you don’t have to defend it or seek approval. Indulging your passions is it’s own reward.

In the same way that the cornflakes are totally oblivious of the raisins in their midst, we’ll go back to being unnoticed. But we’ll still be there, making life more interesting and making life better. Because that’s what raisins do.

– Simon Fitzgerald

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