By Addison Smith | Sports Editor
I’m not going to lie to you. I’m a little bit nerdy (and by a little bit, I mean a lot). It’s just one of my quirks, and I’ve been that way since my middle school days. There’s always been a nerdy Addison, and most days she finds her way out.
What is a nerd you ask? Well, a nerd can be an identification label for someone in many different ways. A nerd can be a label that refers to someone who is extremely intelligent or someone who has interests that break societal norms such as certain television shows and books. Being a nerd can simply come down to the way someone dresses and presents themselves. The definition for nerd is quite a broad one. Regardless, the nerd population is no longer at a miniscule level.
In fact, it seems like being a nerd nowadays isn’t a foreign thing; being a nerd is looked at as kind of cool. And while this isn’t something I’m taken aback by, I’ve found myself wondering why. This thought process led to a few theories as to why I think nerds are making their grand comeback.
1. Being a nerd isn’t frowned upon anymore.
The age old tales of people being dunked in toilets for being nerds still lives on in pop culture. The television series Glee has had a tendency to show certain unpopular characters getting tossed in trash cans and being splashed by slushies. While this is something I never witnessed in middle school or high school, there was some truth behind it. People genuinely distinguished others as nerds, popular, weird, etc. Nowadays, people just don’t care.
Today we see more diversity and people are more willing to integrate. A lot of people in college or younger don’t seem to see disability, race, sexual orientation, class status and cliques as a problem. People care less about those things, which wasn’t true back in the day. We’re more willing than ever to integrate, and honestly I think that’s helped a lot more than we realize.
2.The entertainment industry
We all have that television show or movie that people will label “nerdy” (mine is Sherlock). People watch Game of Thrones, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and more. Along with these television shows, we have superhero movies such as The Avengers and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (reviewed on page 10). Those things aren’t reserved for nerds anymore, everyone can enjoy them.
Also helping in the entertainment industry? Nerds are being portrayed in so many more television shows and movies. There’s all different types of nerds, for example: Ted Mosby from How I Met Your Mother. He was a nerd and we loved him because of it for nine years. He owned a set of encyclopedias. He loved Star Wars. His interests were all around geeky.
You know who else was a nerd and is my personal hero? Liz Lemon from 30 Rock. She had a wedding in a courthouse wearing a Princess Leia dress and rocked Princess Leia buns. But did we notice that nerdy side of her? No, we were just happy she finally found a man she could stick with. We’ve become desensitized to nerds because we don’t realize that something is nerdy anymore. We just either enjoy something or dislike it.
3. The fashion industry
Fashion is ever changing. I’m afraid to buy a dress, knowing that within a year it might be unwearable and untrendy. However, my wardrobe seems to match my inner-nerd. Everything seems to be going my way in the fashion world and has a geeky undertone.
Over the past few years fashion has been changing for the nerdier. My style has always been a little bit nerdy, with a side of preppy – think Blair Waldorf with a higher IQ.
If I can pinpoint a moment when fashion made a turn for nerdy, it would be when Nicki Minaj collaborated with the Lonely Island for their music video and song “The Creep.” The costumes were ground breaking for the nerd population. Minaj and the Lonely Island wore preppy clothing and added nerdy glasses to top off the look.
Since this moment in pop culture, I have seen many people embrace their poor eye sight and wear glasses. Along with this I have seen high waisted pants. Certain individuals I have spotted even fashionably rock suspenders and manage to look cool. These style transformations have helped create a cool image for the nerd community.
Today’s nerdy fashion icons like Zooey Deschanel and Zachary Quinto incorporate their nerdiness into their style and thus helped open the door for the ordinary nerds in the world. Nerd style has finally been deemed cool.
4. We’re all nerds
We can try to deny it all we want, but there’s a little bit of nerd in most of us. We all have that one thing that someone else would declare to be a little off. We all just need to embrace it.
I told you all at the beginning of the article that there are a couple of things that make me pretty nerdy, but honestly I don’t care. Nerds are cool. Nerdy things are cool. Truthfully, there is nothing I love more than a night in watching Sherlock and if that makes me a nerd, then I’m fine with it.
Just embrace it. Nerds are in. People don’t care about labels anymore. Just be you and do those nerdy things you do.
Addison Smith is a junior print journalism and political science major and can be reached at smitha11@duq.edu.
