LJ Idol 9, Week 7: No True Scotsman

[vaudy]

“And you call yourself a geek.”

Yes, as a matter of fact, I do, and I don’t need your permission to do so, no matter how many movie quotes I fail to recognize, or what my geek number is (pretty low, actually

Comments

[mari4212]

Gah, the geek cred issue. I've mostly been able to avoid it, because the people I'm normally around on the geeky spectrum are all more interested in having someone else to squee with than gatekeeping, but it is such an impossible thing. Because the second you meet the gatekeeper's initial standard, they'll raise it. The point isn't to actually understand other geek's likes/reference points, it's to make sure that no one that isn't already in the inner circle gets in.

And then they wonder why no one else is a geek like them, and why the world is against them. Huh.

[n3m3sis43]

I love Star Trek (and have watched every episode of every series, even the abysmal Enterprise). Don't care much for Star Wars, although I'd probably still be a fan if it had stuck with the original trilogy. Tolkien bores me. I don't read comics. There are a few games I have played the hell out of, but I'm not much of a gamer overall and I'm horrible at first-person shooters.

Buffy, yes. Firefly, yes. Doctor Who, don't care. Walking Dead, don't care. Zombies in general--oh god, can we please move on to the next trend already?

I'm a programmer. Some of my best friends live in the computer (well, okay, they aren't really in the computer).

People questioning other people's geek cred is just... WHY.

[similiesslip]

You're you. I like how you explained all of this. I think you can be whatever you choose to call yourself :)

[eternal_ot]

It's an interesting take..people call me nerd too..:P..to each their own I guess!

[halfshellvenus]

This was interesting-- I took the quiz, and scored a low 36, but I noticed right away that the first 50+ questions all seemed to be related to comic books, ALL of which are a "meh" for me. They're more "meh" for women in general than men! I'm too late for the video game generation, and just couldn't slog through LOTR, but I enjoyed the Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy (not even on the list!), Madeleine L'Engle, Ursula K. LeGuin, and bunches of other unlisted authors.

Plus, I balked at the "Have you seen all of the Star Wars movies?" because I've seen the three "real" movies, but not the three crappy recent movies. So am I geekier for rejecting the later ones, or geekier for not having seen All Of Them Because?

It's all a matter of taste, and I think too much of our time is spent telling other people how they don't measure up to someone else's arbitrary (and not-truly-significant) standards.