The Monday following SDCC 2014 I gave up on geek culture. In my mind it officially no longer exists. The red necks and jocks of my youth have been replaced with cos-playing Doctor Who fans. They are the new bullies. The number of sexual and physical assaults that took place at comic con this year is disturbing. It’s the kind of behavior you would expect at the gathering of the Juggalos or a Red Sox game.
Geek culture is now popular culture. The biggest movies, TV Shows and books are all represented at these conventions. Hollywood has made comic book films sexy and Joss Whedon a household name. The idea that these are somehow disenfranchised unheard voices is fucking absurd. Between fake nerd girls and nation-wide zombie walks the culture has officially shifted. I’m ok with more people buying comic book stuff because it means they will keep making the stuff I love. You should see my office, it's a shrine to my lonely teenage years. With all that being said the geek/nerd/niche/underground thing needs a new name… I’m thinking childish entertainment designed for 12 year olds and devoured by 30 something’s or 12x30s.
The increasing popularity is not the reason I’m giving up on
12x30s, no it’s the people it has attracted. It's the Zombie walk participants who started punching the car of a deaf family, it's the 17 year old girl who was brutally assaulted, it's because so many women are being sexually harassed a movement to change the conventions policy on harassment has become necessary, it's because what was once fun is now creepy and gross.
I still love playing D&D and I'll probably watch Dune when I get home tonight but I'm in no way a geek anymore. I'm not a misogynist hiding in a brown coat and prescriptionless glasses. Sometimes when words are redefined its time to let them go, not to fight for them. I have given up on a word that I once used to describe myself, not because I have changed the things I love or how I choose to spend my time but because I will not be defined by that word anymore.
It makes me kind of sad that the same douche bags who started showing up at small clubs in the 90s after Nirvana broke decided to show up at the cons. I kind of understood when they showed up at the concerts, they wanted to mosh and start fights. They had no interest in the music, it was all about aggression for them.
But why did they show up at Cons? Comic Books, Role Playing, Video Games, Computers, what was the thing that brought them in? Cos-playing, that's it.
Girls playing dress up. What started as Trekers dressed up as Vulkans and over-weight Jedis has become paid models walking the floor dressed as characters they know nothing about. With the models came the Bros, with the bros came the rape and with the rape I'm out.
I'll be with this guy comparing long boxes.