I’m a bit of a geek. I fully admit that. No shame. I like what I like, and I don’t like what I don’t. Why should be ashamed that I like Harry Potter, or Batman, or Portal? I’m not going to feel bad about myself just because a group of people decided to group all this stuff into a group and say it isn’t “cool.” What the hell does that even mean? You don’t get to decide if what I like is fun and interesting to me. It’s me. If you aren’t into it, then go away. I don’t really care. But with all of that said, I also need to say that I do not have pride in it either.

That’s something that’s kind of been odd to me lately. This whole concept of “Geek Pride.” I have pride in things that I am or have the ability of. I have Pansexual Pride, I have pride in my fencing abilities, I do not have pride in my enjoyment of Doctor Who.

Now don’t get me wrong, I may hate hipsters to a core, but I do love the emergence of so-called “Geek Culture” in the media lately. More geeks (and fake geeks), have been outspoken and pushed for things to be made that we love. The rush of comic book movies is fantastic, or the fact that more and more television is trying to pander to us. But that is just cultural changes. Coming out and saying that, “This is our culture and you aren’t a real fan unless you do or know this specific thing,” is a bunch of bullshit, and something that a lot of people are guilty of. Which brings me to the fandom epidemic.

Fandoms are little sub-cultures that form around subjects of interest, such as; Game of Thrones, Sherlock, Marvel, Pokemon, etc. And while there is nothing wrong with a group of people who all like something sitting together and talking about this thing they like, and in fact I heartily encourage, when you start treating it like an exclusive club that only allows a certain kind of fan, then you’re the asshole.

I feel that to be part of a fandom, all you need to be is a fan of something, and to be a fan of something, all you need to do is like it. Some people are extreme fans that know every little detail about their subject of choice, some people just like to sit back and tune in to the weekly episode of The Walking Dead.

Now if you look at the things I’ve mentioned up above, a lot of them are very different, but they all get lumped under the umbrella term of “Geek.” Why is this? Mainly because this is what we were called by those people under the so-called “Mainstream” who thought what we liked was stupid. But that is all dumb. First of all, no one is “Mainstream.” To think that a person can go through life being the exact median in everything is insane. Second, everyone who is considered a geek is extremely diverse and different. To label them as all the same is tantamount to saying every person who has gone to college is the same. Sure some may have some similar tendencies, but there is still a vast array of characters.