Cultural Perception

Have you ever been to a Star Trek Convention? I haven't but apparently it is a HUGE deal and thousands of people go to these things every year dressed as characters and creating for themselves quite a social group. They even call themselves Trekkers or Trekkies. When I think of a trekkie, I think of an extremely nerdy individual who struggles in normal social situations and spends the majority of his times in his room with the blinds closed perhaps creating his costume for the next Star Trek convention. I think of them as obsessive and, to be honest, a little crazy. I mean, it's just a show! These people seem to live in a world where reality and fiction blur together. https://screen.yahoo.com/snl-sci-fi-and-superheroes-skits/star-trek-convention-000000768.html

It appears that much of what I envision when I think of Trekkie has been created based of what the media has portrayed. Saturday Night Live did a skit making fun of Trekkies and their obsession with Star Trek at these Star Trek Conventions. The fans were portrayed by the actors as incredibly naive, feminine, and willing to pay anything for a Star Trek artifact. William Shatner speaks to the fans and tells them to "get a life!" He proceeds to list off a number of stereotypes calling them lame, insulting their costumes and their age, telling them to "move out of their parents' basements and GROW UP!"The comments are followed by laughing from the unseen audience creating the idea that it's okay to poke fun at these Star Trek super fans. 

The movie Galaxy quest was also created as a parody of Star Trek's devoted fans. This satiric portrayal of obsessive fans who can't tell reality and imagination also gives the audience permission to poke fun and laugh at these people. 

https://web.archive.org/web/20020413083055/www.galaxyquest.com/galaxyquest/index.html Websites have been created such as this one. It's neon typography and lack of organization and announcements about extreme details regarding anything Star Trek portrays a childish, tacky, nerdy fan who clearly, as Shatner said, needs to "get a life."  

My Analysis

Clearly my perspective about this social group has been greatly influenced by what the media puts out. However, it is not something I feel should be socially acceptable to publicly make fun of. This single story is extremely limiting because we see these people only when they are dressed up in costume and attending these Trekkie conferences. We do not however, see what they are on a normal basis, who they are as a person, what their background is, how they act when they aren't wearing pointy ears, etc. These artifacts that I've found clearly depict these people as clueless, socially awkward, immature, obsessive, and crazy. I don't however, believe that these portrayals by the media accurately describes every person who would consider themselves a true Trekkie. In an interview Patrick Steward who plays Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek series objected to calling Trekkies "weird." He asked, "How many do you know personally? You couldn't be more wrong." Perhaps if we took the time to just look beyond the costume, we'd discover that these people are quite intelligent and even "normal."
Other sources found:

Newsweek Article
http://mystartrekscrapbook.blogspot.com/2009/06/1986-newsweek-star-trek-cover-story.html