Geekism

To revive this Blog, (or perhaps more fittingly, resurrect). I've decided to procrastinate by writing about one of the many “worms” I have in my head. By “worm” I mean an argument or thought that I think about a lot but very rarely talk about. In this case it's going to be on prejudice.

Now to be clear I'm not going to talk about racism or sexism or anything of that ilk. They are much more serious and important than what I'm going to have a little rant about. In fact in comparison the topic of this rant is tiny.

My issue is the hypocrisy of people who consider it wrong to mock people for their gender, culture or skin colour. Or even in the rise of ableism (or the rejection of ableism) consider it wrong to mock people for their intelligence or capacity to act. But consider it perfectly acceptable to take the piss out of people because they enjoy a particular hobby or activity.

Now I'm a geek, a massive geek. Probably the geekyist person in my group of friends. I'm a Dungeon Master, I LRP; hell I'll give most things a go once and if I enjoy it I'll pick it up as a hobby (or at least look into doing it again). I've been this way most of my life, and I'm not ashamed of any of it.

What is odd to me is that whenever people discover this they're surprised and either curious and ask a bunch of questions and that's that (a good response); or they ask a bunch of questions and then spend the rest of their time taking the piss until they discover that it doesn’t bother me (growing up being a proud geek teaches you to grow thick skin).

What does bother me is that people think that the fact that I'm a geek is a character flaw and something perfectly acceptable to mock, as if some how it makes me lesser or worthy of derision because of what I find fun.

Now this is part of a wider problem. Generally across liberal, western society it's perfectly acceptable to mock somebody for being a geek. Which is in essence mocking somebody for enjoying something which isn't socially acceptable. But unlike murder, paedophilia public indecency or brawling in public, being a geek doesn't hurt anybody! It is just people getting together and enjoying an activity. Normally in a way that other people don't even have to witness it! It hurts nobody.

So why is it seen as socially unacceptable?

The only answer I can think of (and please correct me if you can think of another)is that geeks aren't “normal”, that they're “weird” and do “weird” things. Or that they're “sad” and can't cope with reality and so need to go and live in their little fantasy worlds in order to cope.

But why does this make it OK to take the piss out of me or people like that? They just have a different outlook on the world and seek to escape. Most people do something similar by either having a cause (like a football team, a charity etc) that they belong to and feel like they're making a difference with. Or by escaping by reading books or watching Films. I'm just taking it one step further, and I enjoy it! Just because it's not your thing doesn't mean it's wrong.

Also there is a particular type of person that is seen as a geek. There is a stereotype, of a socially inept person with a variety of physical issues (bad body odour, over-weight, underweight, “funny looking” or whatever). Now, like most stereotypes, this is massively incorrect with regard to most geeks (although I'm sure there will be some, like there are some dumb blondes, statistically this must be the case). And although, yes, some geeks don’t have good people skills, there are also a lot of people who aren't geeks who don’t have good social skills either. Why is it OK to mock somebody because they can't interact well with others? Isn't that just bullying?

This rejection of geekyness is just a rejection of “otherness”. The reason why it is acceptable to take the piss is because this behavior isn’t seen as normal. Just like 100 years ago being gay wasn't “normal” behavior and therefore deserved derision. The same fear applies. It is the same form of prejudice against a different group of people.

Now this is not to say that geeks are some from of suffering minority in need of aid or pity or support. This definitely isn’t the case. And I will open admit that the comparison to the suffering of the LGBT community is excessive. But I feel it makes my point.

I'm just saying that it is hypocritical to say that it is wrong to mock people for being different in gender, sexuality or skin colour; but that it is ok to mock somebody for enjoying a different hobby from you.

I feel the world would be significantly better if people were more open minded and if the social stigmas attached to certain hobbies were removed. So those who enjoy them could do so without needing to develop “thick skin” or in fear social derision and so that others could give them a go.

You never know you might enjoy it!