Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #268 - Geek Closet

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #268 - Geek Closet

SUBTITLED: LET YOUR GEEK FLAG FLY.

Hi Mom, Today's subject is being a geek, and how that's so much more okay socially than it was when I was a kid.

Lately, (and by lately, I mean in the last seven years), I have found myself saying "I gotta let my geek flag fly" often and to many different in response to comments about my wardrobe or evident interests.

Some time, in the years since I was a kid, being a geek became cool. Seeing women embrace geekdom, especially, has changed everything.

I know I am making a bad comparison here. "Being in the closet" is an idiom most often for non-heterosexual people who feel that they need to hide their identity from the world. That's a serious thing. Sexual identity, gender identity, or just identity period in terms of such a fundamental idea as the way we display ourselves to the world is a serious thing, and I would never make light of it.

But this idea of the "closet" as a place to hide one's real identity from the world applies to being a geek as well. Many of us geeks had the same issues. We had to hide our true selves, our interests, our passions from the world as a simple safety issue. Like so many geeks, I was beaten up and bullied for liking comic books, stamp collecting, role playing games, magic, theatre, science fiction, and a wide range of geeky things. And so I had to hide and deflect. Sharing these passions with someone became an issue of trust. I was never one to totally hide. I worked on role playing materials openly in my college classes. I made recorded announcements for our gaming group that were played weekly on the morning announcements broadcast throughout the school. So, I wasn't fully in the closet, and this is why the comparison lacks a bit. And yet, I often tried to "pass" as a non-geek in certain situations, especially in my pursuit of women. In fact, it seemed to me that my very geeky nature was what blocked my access to women. (I know it sounds awful to describe dating as "access" and yet it seems apt that there's a wall in the way formed by my own geek-driven interests.)

I started thinking about this subject when I was writing the T-shirt blog -- 365 T-shirts -- which is actually and officially subtitled "a journal of my life in geek." I never made a geek, geeky, geekdom, geekerrific, or any other geek-related category for the blog because the whole thing was about liking geeky things and being geeky.

But I do have a "geeky" category for this blog. I originally addressed this issue back in Hey Mom #159, which was mostly just a T-shirt reprint of some cool stuff, including a comic from THE OATMEAL about TESLA.

But then I decided to pursue this subject again after seeing this article about Pia Wurtzbach:

Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach = geek.

Pia Wurtzbach was involved in a bit of controversy when Miss Universe 2015 host Steve Harvey accidentally announced the wrong winner as Ariadna Gutiérrez, who was then crowned and wore the crown for approximately three minutes before the mistake was rectified and the crown taken away from Gutiérrez and given to Wurtzbach, the rightful winner according to the judges.

Videos from the pageant went viral. The wiki for Miss Universe 2015 is quite extensive on this point. I remember my wife and kids watching the videos because it was quite a spectacle in shame and in how to conduct one's self in public as one contestant was crowned and uncrowned as she watches someone else crowned. Hey, this stuff is important to some people (not really to me).

Pia Wurtzbach hit my radar when I was reading about comic books and this article was featured on one of the sites, and so here's the actual title of the article with link (my previous was my abbreviation): The Miss Universe Had the Nerdiest Reaction When Invited to Final Fantasy XV Event.

Final Fantasy is even pretty seriously geeky for me. Not that I would judge anyone for their geek passion, but some people look down on Final Fantasy even now that geeky stuff is cooler. The article is worth looking at because apparently REDDIT exploded as all kinds of closet Final Fantasy fans geeked out over the fact that someone like Pia Wurtzbach was so thrilled to be asked about her love for Final Fantasy.

It's inspiring to see interactions like this. The Internet has truly changed everything.

I am not the only one who feels free to let his (or her) geek flag fly.

So I googled the name of today's entry -- "Geek Closet" -- to see what I would get for results.

Apparently, there's a clothes stores named Geek Closet, which doesn't really surprise me. There's this woman (left) who works as an actress and created a Gamestop account that is now disabled and inactive, but through which she was selling herself as a sexy geek in the closet and has made some You Tube videos. I really like this picture and the raised eye brow, so I had to include it along with the college composition at the bottom of today's entry.

Then there's some other stuff. Some guys with a .net site. A woman with her blog and a column at comic book daily (because geekdom is associated with comic books and gaming for the most part).

A deeper search does not yield much in the way of good results though maybe now this blog will appear.

GEEK CLOSET-store

CLOSET GEEK - disabled Gamestop profile

The Closet Geek (.net)

COMING OUT OF THE GEEK CLOSET

COME OUT OF THE GEEK CLOSET


Since I married Liesel, I have been more comfortable with letting my geek flag fly because I have found the love of my life and being who I am will not prohibit finding her anymore. Not that I was ever terribly conformist. I have always been good about being who I am, I was just less open about it in years past. I am much more free with who I am now, and I like myself. I have not always been able to say that. A long time ago a woman broke up with me by telling me that she couldn't respect me because I didn't respect myself. Well, point taken, and that is no longer the case.

I am a geek.

I like what I like.

And I am proud of it.

If nothing else, this is what you taught me to be, Mom. So thank you.




This seems like a good time to share a comic book cover gallery... :-)

Letting my geek flag fly!

COMIC BOOK COVER GALLERY

Descriptive entries with artist information can be found on Pencil Ink Blog.

Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

- Days ago = 270 days ago


- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1603.31 - 10:10


NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this
only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.