Wednesday 3 April 2013

When does pride become militant?

Good Wednesday everyone!

You know, I've had this thought bouncing around my head for a few days now, and it's something I'd like to share with you.

In short, when does a person's pride force them from being a believer in a cause, to being a militant actionist?

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As many of you know, I'm a strong believer in Geek Rights.

I believe that being a Geek is more than just a life style choice, it's who we are. It's as much a part of us as a person's race, sexuality, gender and creed. And just like these other factors should have legal protection.

When someone commits a crime against a geek - because they're a geek - it should be treated as a hate crime. To me there is no difference.

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Rewind back a few years, a certain child of a celebrity called Peaches Geldof had a talk show, and I remember in the very first episode she verbally attacked one young male, saying something to the effect of "all you Geeks are the same, lazy, greasy sofa dwellers".

I was shocked at the time, even more by how the audience laughed historically, in some cases standing and applauding.

Now just think for a moment what the reaction had been if it was aimed at another demographic, the person's skin colour or gender. That girl would have been charged with a number of crimes and at the very least made to do a formal apology.

However what happened? Nothing! This slur against an entire demographic was laughed off and ignored. In fact before writing this I even did a quick search and I am unable to find a single reference to this offensive comment.

Nothing, not a thing!

Just thinking about this injustice boils my blood and makes me want to demand vindication not just for the times I've been snubbed but for geeks everywhere.

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And that's when I stop, I look at myself and I worry about my trail of thought, about just how far I might be willing to go to fight for an ideal.

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I'm a Geek, and I stand for Geek Pride.

You see just the other week I was talking to a good friend of mine who was concerned that I would make their Geek interests public, and in essence "out" them as a Geek. They were genuinely concerned about the social repercussions that such an outing would have on them.

This worried me genuinely. I can't help but hear this and familiarise it with many stories I've heard (in some cases from people very close to me) who've struggled to come to terms with sexuality, and have been concerned with how the world would treat them to coming out as Gay.

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In the end I think Geek Pride is something we need.

Just like everyone else we should be able to march into a public environment (not a closed off, hidden from view convention) and demonstrate to the world how proud we are of our culture and just what we bring to society as a greater whole.

I can't explain why we don't, and why we're happy to play second fiddle to every other social group out there, but I just hope that if we do, it's in a non militant manner.

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Anyway, maybe that's just me. Maybe rather than a Million Man March, it's a One Man March.

I just think that as long as one person is still shamed to wear their Geekiness as a badge of honour, then something is seriously wrong with the world.

Stay safe, and I'll see you breachside.

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

2 comments:

  1. If you have a search of t'internet there is a blog post of a very similar vein written about the show 'big bang theory' basically it was pointing out that the whole premise of the show was not to celebrate geeks but actually to laugh at their expense.

    Personally I think the idea of geek pride doesn't really work as you're casting a very wide net as to what exactly is geeky. I play toy soldiers, everyone I know at all well more than likely knows that, if they don't its because they're not interested, just as I don't share some of their hobbies so we don't talk about them. But I'm also a hill walking geek- I've ticked off munros, I'm a diving geek- I loves me some scuba, I'm a cycling geek - I wear Lycra.

    These can be considered cool, some even mainstream, but for certain people geeky. We're I to say football supporters were geeks would you agree? All the classic signs are there, spend vast amounts of time and money on watching 22 people kick a ball around and have nothing really to show for it but still spend endless hours talking about it. So geeky to me is just lazy terminology a meaningless term to describe someone who is into a hobby but not actually bother to recognise what that hobby is.

    I'm not a geek, I play toy soldiers. And that's what I tell people when they ask.

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  2. Thanks for the comments.

    I think one of the issues (as I realised last night) is that a lot of people have a lot of different definitions of what being a 'Geek' is.

    Personally I see it as someone who engages in certain hobbies, namely video games, toy soldiers, CCGs and also likes films and books around Sci-Fi and Fantasy.

    But that is just my own definition, but I bet everyone will have their own.

    What is interesting is that I believe that EVERY subculture a person belongs to should be protected and they should be allowed to show off their love and celebration of that culture.

    I think certain cultures are already allowed to do that more so than others, football for example.

    But what is very interesting is what I read in the news this morning.

    I'll probably be blogging on this in the next day or two, but as of now any crime committed against a member of a subgroup because they belong to that subgroup (the classic jock beating up the nerd paradigm springs to mind) is now to be treated as a hate crime.

    Like I said I'll have more to say about this in time.

    And in regards to my desire for Geek Pride? Well that's kinda the point behind my post. Maybe I'm going to far in asking for Nerd Marches, or maybe I'm not going far enough. At what line am I no longer showing pride for my love, and instead shoving it down people's throats in a militant manner?

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