Nerd Alert!

My brother is a self-proclaimed nerd. He loves playing Dungeons and Dragons, going deep into Anime, playing obscure games on Steam, and learning the useless details of Pokemon. In my mind, that makes him a nerd (my apologies if you think otherwise). But, when he tells people he's a nerd, most give him a weird look. Why? He's 6' 5", dresses sharply, and maintains eye contact. People take his physical appearance and argue against him being a nerd.


This is the penultimate single story (okay, maybe not). But, so often groups that ought to be defined by knowledge, interests, and skill sets are instead categorized by physical appearance. Nerds and geeks are different, but they "dress" the same so they are perceived to be the same. My brother is instead described as a closet nerd. Or rather, someone who is in fact a nerd but doesn't look or sound like a nerd.








Nerds, bookworms, lovers of board games and video games, and any other intellectually-based interest group is limited by needing to look a certain way. We have terms like "hot nerd" as if a "normal" nerd can't be hot. The social implications is such that a person interested in these activities may hesitate persuing their interests for feeling like they need to act, dress, talk a certain way to engage in such activities. I hope that ALL nerds, from the taped glasses ones to the skinny jeans and hipster glasses ones, can grow beyond this single story of appearance.