Fashion versus Geek

Geeks and Fashion have never seemed to get along. When the average person thinks of the geek stereotype, they can conjure up images of Steve Urkel, Bill Nye, or maybe even Mr. Bean. Now as far niches go, geeks have somewhat of a bad rap, because well.. of the meaning of the word geek in the first place.

Let me digress to a history lesson (according to almighty wiki): "The word geek is a slang term, noting individuals as 'a peculiar or otherwise odd person, especially one who is perceived to be overly obsessed with one or more things including those of intellectuality, electronics, etc.' " The word itself comes from an English dialect Geek, or Geck meaning: Fool. I don't know about you, but I don't know how an intellectually astute and technologically savvy group of people can stand for being called fools. Maybe they just don't care? I would rather rationalize in a different manner. "If you can't beat em, join em." is the motto that works best here, I believe. Throughout the past few decades, the attitude of being geeky has garnered looks of disgust, and many a wedgie in our elementary (and even high school) hallways.



More recently, however, we have drastically changed not only our own view but the world view of what a geek is. We have geeks as masters of industry (Think: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs), we have self-proclaimed geeks and TV and movie stars (Think: Wentworth Miller from Prisonbreak and Wil Wheaton), and we even have our own TV shows that glorify our unbound geekiness (The Big Bang Theory). All of this boils down to one thing, perceptions change everything, but everything can change perceptions.

What does this all have to do with fashion? Well, with the sudden influx of geek culture out there (which coincidentally was the focal starting point of this blog), there is one thing that grinds my gears about it. Geek fashion, or "Geek Chic" as some have called it, has permeated mainstream media as something out of an advertising copy of an 80's version of Nintendo Power. While I can appreciate people having shirts that say "There's no place like 127.0.0.1", as the essence of what a geek is, it's getting a bit drawn out to wear our own cliches.

Why can't we dress well? Why don't geeks match their intellectual prowess with fashion savvy? In all likelihood for the same reason that we took the name "geek" in the first place. We just don't care. Well I'm going to try and change that. Would you rather look like Urkel or get women (and even men) swooning over your dashing good looks while you impress them with your japanese vernacular that you picked up watching seasons of anime?

I think it's time for a revolution in the geek world, do you?

Images courtesy of google.com and GQ.com