Sunday, March 30, 2014

Geek Chic

A tall guy of about 20 walks into a Starbucks. He's wearing tight black jeans, a black band t-shirt, and glasses; he carries a laptop case. He orders a latté, sets up his computer, and begins to play Halo 3. How can you tell whether or not he's a geek?

It's the latté. Geeks almost always drink espresso.

In a world where geekiness is the new cool, it's becoming increasingly more difficult to spot the posers from the pixel pushers. Everybody seems to want to jump on the geek bandwagon; television shows are full of science fiction angles, and even the coolest of the cool claim to have nerd roots. In this age of advanced technology, it's kind of difficult to tell who actually belongs in the category of "geek" and who is just a poser. True geeks were on board with geek trends long before it was popular; some people today simply have jumped on the back of the geek moped and are riding the next wave.

Take a look at our television icons, for instance. Ugly Betty, one of TV's most popular shows, features a girl who looks like someone's prom date nightmare. She is a geek poster girl, from her loud, uncoordinated outfits to her shiny, in-your-face braces. The fact that she works at a fashion magazine just underscores her lack of conformity, and when we see her triumph week after week over the beautiful people, even those ex-cheerleaders must feel a little tug of excitement. Sci fi and fantasy shows are all the rage, from Lost to Moonlight to The Dresden Files, and they're not just playing on basic cable, they're in network prime time. And the ultimate geek, Harry Potter, is the most popular non-existent kid in history.

Fashion has even slipped into the realm of the pasty-faced gamer. Check out ads for fashionable eyewear: The frames that used to be costume pieces for kids to wear with their pocket protectors and suspenders are now high fashion (and expensive.) The high-top Converse that used to separate the rebel from the rest are now advertised in every shoe store in America, and everyone wears them. You can even go online and create your own custom geek shoe. Geek t-shirts are hawked on numerous websites, and wearing them is almost a badge of honor, a membership into an exclusive club that rivals the popular people for importance.

No comments:

Post a Comment