Geek Chic

We live in a post-Revenge of the Nerds era.  As the phenomenal success of certain famous (or infamous), ex-college dropout, computer whiz CEOs (not to mention every friend of yours from high school who taught himself to code in his basement and is now making more money than you) has shown, geekdom is no longer--if it ever really was--the province of a handful or outsiders (how many people are at ComicCon this weekend, again?). The myth that those who read fantasy, watch sci-fi movies, play video games, and pwn computers are doomed to scuffle on the the sidelines of life, reveling with a sort of abashed arrogance in their intelligence and sense of difference, needs to be finally put to rest. The Nerds have taken their Revenge already, and emerged into the light.

I don't think that this is a very controversial statement, and I am not writing this post to advocate any great increase in nerd pride (its out there, and I, for one, already have it).  Instead, want to make the point that in this era of nerd dominance (if I may be permitted the term), we need to acknowledge a change in image.

Let me put it simply: being a nerd (or a geek, or a dork), is not the same as not being cool. I will demonstrate with an example of what I see as the problem. I'll use visuals.

When I joined facebook (back in practically antediluvian times, when you had to have a .edu email address to do so, and things like farmville were only an irritating glimmer in some Zinga founder's eye), pretty much all you could do for entertainment was join groups that then did very little except for show up on your profile page. In a fit of self-description, I joined the group "I was a dorky kid." This was all well and good; it was true, and I was in no way ashamed of the fact. There was only one problem. This was the picture for the group:        

Now, I think it is a huge mistake to imagine that just because somebody is fully involved with the life of the mind, they can't be bothered to deal with the physical world don't know how to dress themselves. Put another way: Geeks can totally be stylesters.

With this in mind, I would like to present and example: Colin Temple of the British TV show "Primeval." Colin is totally dorky. He is a graduate student in computer science; he studies dinosaurs; he is so brilliant it makes it almost impossible for him to have a rational conversation; when you first meet him, he is writing a research paper about aliens...and yes, he is a little socially awkward. 

He is also, however, a totally snappy dresser. Colin definitely undergoes a transformation over the course of the show, becoming more grown-up, responsible, honest--in short, more of a man. However, he doesn't undergo this evolution at the cost of losing his own identity, and one of the things he keeps is his sense of style, which is personal, idiosyncratic, and very cool. It involves fedora hats, digital watches, striped vests, and fingerless gloves. Sometimes it threatens to slide over into hipster territory, but it never quite goes there. (Thank God.) Colin never stops looking like a geek, but also never stops looking original, and--in his own way--very stylish. It's awesome.

So it would conclude this post with a repetition of my rejection of the idea that dorky is code for sloppy and poorly put together.  Proud geeks of the world--and I know you're our there--reject tevas with socks; reject faded trenchcoats; reject black tee-shirts with anti-social messages. Embrace geek chic. I know you can do it.