Le Freak? C'est Chic!

The recent rise of "geek chic" on high street clothing stores and mainstream fashion has been creeping into our conciousness for some time now. In fact I sit here now in a hoodie with the words 'Geek' emblazoned in big, varsity-style letters over the chest however I have a slight bone to pick with the recent commodification of nerds and nerd culture along with the new romanticised image of 'the Nerd'. John Green describes nerds as those who are 'unironically enthusiastic about stuff'

With the rise in popularity of superhero movies, The Big Bang Theory, the new Hobbit trilogy and shows focusing heavily on 'the importance of being different and being yourself' the re-appropriation and redefinition of 'Nerd' seems less like a group of outcasts and more of an all inclusive club. 
 A nerd is defined as:

1. - A foolish or contemptible person who lacks social skills or is boringly studious: "one of those nerds who never asked a girl to dance".
2. - An intelligent, single-minded expert in a particular technical discipline or profession.

Most people who grew up as a 'nerd' typically fell into that second definition. Being a nerd was about liking whatever you liked without bowing to societal pressure. It was a term for those who acted in ways or liked things because they wanted to and not because their peers forced it upon them. Here it is acknowledged as something stemming from intelligence. The term 'nerd' seems like a title many of us earned through years of being bullied for our differences whereas now it's a title people are all too quick to claim. 

The shirt depicted on the right illustrates how mainstream fashion is attempting to claim 'nerd chic' for their own. Shows like Doctor Who and Sherlock has popularised the want to be intelligent and shows like Glee tell us that it's OK to be different. The mainstream appropriates this not by actually being different, but by forcing themselves into other pre-existing groups under the guise of self exploration and understanding.

I wear my 'Geek' hoodie not because it's fashionable and I want to be perceived as intelligent, but because it's a term I wear with pride in a wonderfully British and almost self-deprecating manner. I was the girl on the bus who was ridiculed for wanting to read instead of talk to those around me. I was the one who travelled across the country to watch the season premières of Game of Thrones the past two years. I was the girl sat at the front of the cinema when Return of the King came out and practically weeping as the film ended and I realised our adventures in Middle Earth were over (and then rejoiced at the announcement of the Hobbit movies) 

 "Nerd" is a title that some of us have earned. During the times when popularity was sought over originality, were we not the ones sitting at the front of a bus buried in a book rather than conversation? Were we not the ones more interested in comic book escapades than teen romance novels? Were we not the ones appreciating foreign films, anime and manga despite criticism of such interests? 

“…because nerds like us are allowed to be unironically enthusiastic about stuff… Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like jump-up-and-down-in-the-chair-can’t-control-yourself love it. When people call people nerds, mostly what they’re saying is ‘you like stuff.’ Which is just not a good insult at all. Like, ‘you are too enthusiastic about the miracle of human consciousness’.”
- John Green

The image of the female nerd has been particularly fetishised within our culture. Similar to Marx's theory of commodity fetishism we see gamer girls/geek girls represented as objects of lust, women of intelligence but ultimately reduced to and defined by their bodies. It can be said that part of the popularity of geek chic is due to the fetishisation of the 'geek girl' who can game, read comics, watch movies whilst also being attractive: seemingly the ultimate male fantasy. They're made to appear unobtainable, desirable and therefore does this suggest that women dressing in 'geek chic' clothing sold on the high-street is a sign of internalised misogyny pressing them to dress in the new, sexually appealing way? Whether it's nerds, Goths, gangstas - the less a minority group is portrayed and represented within our societal consciousness the easier it is to fetishise and commodify it and sell it back to the ever trend-hungry public.