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Matt Reed Byrne Robotics Security
Robotmod
Joined: 16 April 2004 Posts: 35945
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Posted: 12 March 2015 at 11:12pm | IP Logged | 1
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Brian Rhodes wrote:
And yes, you can still wear a football jersey with less derision than if you wear a shirt with Spider-Man on it...because, as stated above, comics involve large, muscular men with colorful clothing trying to best each other with their physical abilities and strategy, whereas football involves....oh, wait... |
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I wear both equally. I may be the exception, but I wear comic book T's with every bit as much pride as I do my Vikings or Gators jerseys and I don't get anyone looking at me strange for wearing either, but I live in LA. We seem to be more "live and let live" than other areas of the US.
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Francesco Consoli Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 04 August 2012 Location: United States Posts: 909
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Posted: 13 March 2015 at 6:23am | IP Logged | 2
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Reminded me of this cover, which I own, since it's Bolland:
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Steve De Young Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 April 2008 Location: United States Posts: 3507
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Posted: 13 March 2015 at 2:59pm | IP Logged | 3
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At this point, it's come full circle. Nerd culture started out as.an.outsider culture. Now you see all of these supermodels and actors trying to co-opt it. I now regularly get compliments on comic book and old sci-fi t-shirts when I wear them at the mall.
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Shaun Barry Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 08 December 2008 Location: United States Posts: 6905
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Posted: 13 March 2015 at 4:18pm | IP Logged | 4
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I don't mind referring to myself as a geek, even as a married father of three kids. It's in my DNA... I've tried to extract it every so often over the years... it's a losing battle. The geek DNA is here to stay.
But I can safely say I've never even once used the term "fanboy" in conversation, ever. I know the word, of course, but that's as far as it goes!
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Paul Kimball Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 September 2006 Location: United States Posts: 2202
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Posted: 13 March 2015 at 8:14pm | IP Logged | 5
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I sometimes refer to myself as a nerd. For me, the term lost any negative meaning a long time ago. I can't remember one time in the last decade Ive heard anyone use the term negatively. Never used the term fanboy so unlikely to start.
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Tim O Neill Byrne Robotics Security
Joined: 16 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 10937
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Posted: 14 March 2015 at 4:06pm | IP Logged | 6
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I've used the term nerd in an affectionate way, but I have been thinking lately that this whole "co-opting a negative term to take its power away" is kind of bullshit. By using these terms, we're just accentuating and continuing the worst of comic book culture, which is still out there.
We are all drawn to the heroic stories that the best comic books do so well. It's so great to see movies that capture the spirit of comic books and brings them to such a wide audience that includes kids. Most of the people here read excellent comic books when we were the appropriate age, and now kids get to see those characters in some really awesome movies. It isn't nerdy anymore.
So maybe it's time we stopped thinking of ourselves as nerds, and we started thinking of ourselves as heroes. I know it probably seems corny to a lot of you hip cats, but isn't heroism why we connected with comic books in the first place? Are we too old to aspire to be heroes?
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Michael Roberts Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 14857
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Posted: 14 March 2015 at 4:20pm | IP Logged | 7
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So maybe it's time we stopped thinking of ourselves as nerds, and we started thinking of ourselves as heroes. I know it probably seems corny to a lot of you hip cats, but isn't heroism why we connected with comic books in the first place? Are we too old to aspire to be heroes?
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But we aren't heroes. We are comic book readers and fans. This reeks too much of armchair sports nerds who get into arguments over their team and make it sound as if they were on the field or on the court handling the ball and not actually on their couch watching the game on TV.
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Donald Miller Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 03 February 2005 Location: United States Posts: 3601
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Posted: 15 March 2015 at 6:47am | IP Logged | 8
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I totally respect your feeling on the term. I will do my best not to use it here in the forum.
However, I do use the term do describe my self and my wife does as well.
I understand its roots as a pejorative but I own it. Wil Wheaton said it best in these words to a newborn about being a nerd.(replace nerd with fanboy)
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“My name is Wil Wheaton. It’s 2013. And you’ve just recently joined us on planet Earth. So welcome. I’m an actor. I’m a writer. And I’m a Dad. Your mother asked me to tell you why it’s awesome to be a nerd. That’s an easy thing for me to do because I am a nerd. I don’t know what the world is going to be like by the time you understand this. I don’t what it’s going to mean to be a nerd when you are a young women. For me, when I was growing up, being a nerd meant that I liked things that were a little weird. That took a lot of effort to appreciate and understand. It meant that I loved science, and that I loved playing board games, and reading books, and really understanding what went on in the world instead of just riding the planet through space. When I was a little boy, people really teased us about that, and made us feel like there was something wrong with us for loving those things. Now that I’m an adult, I’m kind of a professional nerd, and the world has changed a lot. I think a lot of us have realized that being a nerd … it’s not about what you love. It’s about how you love it. So, there’s going to be a thing in your life that you love. I don’t know what that’s going to be … and it doesn’t matter what it is. The way you love that, and the way that you find other people who love it the way you do is what makes you a nerd. The defining characteristic of [being a nerd] is that we love things. Some of us love Firefly and some of us love Game of Thrones, or Star Trek, or Star Wars, or anime, or games, or fantasy, or science fiction. Some of us love completely different things. But we all love those things SO much that we travel for thousands of miles … we come from all over the world, so that we can be around people who love the things the way that we love them. That’s why being a nerd is awesome. And don’t let anyone tell you that that thing that you love is a thing that you can’t love. Don’t anyone ever tell you that you can’t love that, that’s for boys … you find the things that you love, and you love them the most that you can. And listen: This is really important. I want you to be honest, honorable, kind. I want you to work hard. Because everything worth doing is hard. And I want you to be awesome, and I will do my very best to leave you a planet that you can still live on."
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 133324
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Posted: 15 March 2015 at 7:30am | IP Logged | 9
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The difference between "nerd" and "fanboy" should be obvious. Altho "nerd" is a pejorative, there is an acknowledgement that "nerds" are SMART. TOO smart, some might say. "Fanboys" are considered mentally stunted.If you want to "own" something, "own" "fan." It does the job well enough.
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Kip Lewis Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 March 2011 Posts: 2880
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Posted: 15 March 2015 at 8:26am | IP Logged | 10
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I was curious if "fanboy" had been added to the dictionary or not. So, I googled the definition of Fanboy.
The fun thing I found was that the word was first known use was in 1919! I never imagined that the word is that old.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 133324
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Posted: 15 March 2015 at 8:53am | IP Logged | 11
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The fun thing I found was that the word was first known use was in 1919! I never imagined that the word is that old.•• That seems... unlikely. I'd heard the word "fan" most of my life, describing many people with many passions, but I did not encounter "fanboy" until the early '80s. Hard to believe it had simply escaped my attention!
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Kip Lewis Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 March 2011 Posts: 2880
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Posted: 15 March 2015 at 9:01am | IP Logged | 12
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Forgot to include the link:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fanboy
They are the ones who said the first known use was in 1919.
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