Nerds and Acceptance
After watching the most recent vlogbrothers video where John Green talks about sex and romance, I came to the realization that nerds are some of the most accepting and tolerant people, well, ever.
Granted, every culture/religion/social group has their assholes and general dickholes that hate anything that is different from them. Likewise, there are very accepting and open-minded non-nerds, but just about every group of nerds I know or hang out with are some of the most open-minded people I’ve ever met. Gay? Who cares?! Like to wear cat ears and tail in public all the time? Come on in! Like to spend your weekends watching furry porn while singing Disney songs at the top of your lungs? What the hell, I’m sure someone will love you!
Even in the video, John addresses a lot of matters that, like he said, shouldn’t matter. So what if you want to kiss another girl or guy? Why should it matter how many people so-and-so has slept with (just be safe, y’know)? None of that affects you or anyone else except for the person performing the actions.
I believe this level of acceptance stems from the fact that most nerds know how it feels to be shunned, excluded, and teased. For so long, nerds and geeks were the “weird ones”; the people who did not quite fit into society. Consequently, they were picked on, bullied, and even beat up. I know many people who have lived through such torture. As a result, why would they ever, EVER wish to implement that same harm against others?
Another reason I think tolerance is so prevalent in nerd culture is that there is such a high level of diversity within it. People from every walk of life take part in nerdy past times. Attend any convention in the world and you will see the widest and most beautiful assortment of people, all enjoying themselves, and being passionate about the things they love. If any nerd wants to happily exist and have friends, they have to learn to accept that not everyone likes what they like, believes what they believe, or thinks so-and-so bishoujo is hotter than that other bishoujo. Nerds have to become tolerant, accepting, decent human beings. Some like to dress up, some like to sleep next to body pillows, some like to spend hours and hours perfecting their sword-fighting skills in order to thwart the evil dragon that has emerged from the cave in their latest LARPing session. Everyone is DIFFERENT.
So if you are looking for a cool group of people who will love and accept you no matter what you are or what you like, maybe spend some time talking to the people in the corner playing Magic: The Gathering or the girl in the D20 shirt or the guy with the Zelda backpack. Everyone is different, we need to embrace that.
“And remember, don’t forget to be awesome!”
