Monday, August 16, 2010

To all the proprietors and consumers of nerd culture:



I could leave it at that but I'll just rant for a while about how similar adult male nerds are to babies from 1-6months (and possibly more). When a young infant gets really tired or really hungry, they cry and get so upset that they make it impossible or difficult to give them what they want in a timely manner. Sometimes they will actually be so concerned about crying out of hunger they won't latch on to the nipple/bottle for several moments, and getting an overly tired infant to sleep can be a daunting and exhausting task.

With Nerds, they often express how they wish "there were more chicks gaming" or that they "never get laid" and yet whenever someone who isn't a cisgendered heterosexual male comes along and tries to claim a piece of gaming space, legions of trolls come out from the woodwork to drive out the perceived outsiders. Are you threatened by Women being able to compete with you on equal terms? Why the hate on Gaymers then? Just homophobic as all get out? Why is nerd culture and gamer culture so exclusive, and not more inclusive? Don't you people get that there would be even more good video game movies and good comic book movies if the sub-culture was more accepting?

I suppose this is an awful post/essay because I have no answers for the questions I ask. I don't think there are any answers, except that the nerd/gamer subculture is toxic as hell, and will likely see waning acceptance from mainstream pop culture in the coming years. Maybe then you'll let those who aren't white cisgendered heterosexual males into your clubhouse? For the time being, you can have it. I'll be enjoying the spaces carved out by others, your frothy mouthed rants crashing on the breakers.

4 comments:

gaidin6 said...

The Escapist had this article:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_265/7930-Curing-the-Noobonic-Plague

discussing why old school games have the hate on for noobs. I'm not sure it necessarily applies to your concerns but I thought I was interesting.

The Fremen said...

I immediately enjoy the title.

mediamancer said...

It's helpful to think of hackers and gamers as a distinct subspecies of human with a different kind of brain, an "extreme male brain," that is optimized for solving logical puzzles in realtime. Hackers often have Asperger's syndrome, ADHD, or other quirks that make them unusually good with computers, and unusually bad with anything involving the sharing of feelings -- such as social interaction with women or gay men. They don't consciously reject non-gamers, but tragically, they find it hard to relate to anyone who doesn't intuitively grasp the myriad rules of a game, or who insists on sharing feelings instead of hypermale ideas like plans for (virtual) conquest. This is biological and very resistant to change, so you needn't take this personally.

Medivh said...

To all else: apologies for necroposting.

To mediamancer: as a feminist aspie, I declare "Fuck You!" Your ableist bullshit marginalises aspies, and your declaration of a "hyper male brain" that can't understand feelings not only makes aspies subhuman in your eyes, but makes feminist aspies disappear.

My existance is not impossible, and your ignorant assertions are a direct attack on all aspies. Educate yourself or GTFO the internet.