Are we really that weird?

[Nardpuncher]

Some fans are so weird that they won't even see the new movie until they can illegally download it and then say that it's not only the worst Trek movie, but one of the worst movies they've ever seen.
That's nuts!

 

[Sovay]

We're no weirder than, say, people who LOVE and are really into reality TV shows or harry potter or a political party or a religion. The difference is that fewer people are really into trek than those things, so we arouse suspicion. I guess the more popular something is, the more normal it seems, and as there are few people out there really into a 60's show, maybe we are weird.

Really though- who cares? I have no shame in loving star trek and all the other things I like, and if people want to label me for it then it doesn't bother me because they're not worth knowing.

 

[Anticitizen]

Are we really that weird?

Well, I know I am...but it's a "closet" weird.

I used to be a high school band director, and back in the 1990's we played a big medley of Star Trek themes.

You sure know how to make an exit from a closet, there, Hambone....
Most people don't do it using a thirty-piece marching band.

Thanks, I just choked on my tea.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

I'm pretty fucking weird.

 

[Forbin]

Do I LOOK insane?!

Um. Never mind.

 

[Warped9]

^^ Looks normal to me. What's different about that as opposed to shelves full of model planes or cars or ships?

When I was in my teens during the '70s I got teased for being into Star Trek. After that I kept my interests mostly to myself and a couple of friends. During the '80s something changed and people began being more open about their interests. During that time I learned I could express my interests more openly and no one treated me as if I were out of the ordinary. Today I see so many people express their interests openly and no one seems to think anything unusual of it.

Where I see the stereotypes still played on is in the mainstream media from talk show hosts and many television personalities.

What prompted my initial question was witnessing two coworkers recently arguining passionately about something related to their shared interest in computer gaming. It was hilarious because it was watching a TBBS forum brought to life. And these guys are on friendly terms.

 

[Praetor]

Do I LOOK insane?!

Um. Never mind.

Sadly, it took me a long time to notice you were in the picture. I was captivated by your handiwork above. *jealousy*

 

[bismarck_1892]

Holy Frijole, Warped Nine - exactly how long have you been on the vboard to ask that question?

We have gangfights about whose reality shot whose in the nuts - we have tirades on the width of imaginary engine nacelles. We have four-page diatribes about how the imaginary daughter of two imaginary characters who was mentioned in passing by an imaginary captain in an imaginary show can no longer be the youngest imaginary captain of an imaginary starship in an imaginary starfleet. We have 14 page insult fests about a fat guy who had three lines in a movie.

I could go on. Extensively.

Hell yeah. Batshit insane.

I used to use the sports fan/trekkie argument too. It was convenient on the surface. But it won't be a fair comparison until football goons start writing up commentaries for unplayed games 80 years from now, with the great-granddaughter of Payton Manning as quarterback, slash fiction featuring T.O and O.J., and make little fan films pretending to be The Dallas Cowboys, with nerf footballs and a locker room rebuilt in Mom's basement.

At that point, they'd be getting close.

At that point, I assure you, they'd be taking every calorie of heat Trek fans do.

If this be madness, let us make the most of it. That's the way - uh huh, uh huh - I like it.

Hey, at least we don't start riots like they do in Europe when their team looses.

 

[T'Bonz]

I've met normal Trek fans and some really weird ones. The weird ones definitely fit the stereotype portrayed in the "Get a Life" skit. I was at a convention when some screwball fan (in a Superman costume, oddly enough) kept pestering Nimoy about something and no one, including Nimoy, had *any* idea to what the guy was referring. The regular fans were mortified by this nutjob.

But most fans I've met are normal. Even those who dress up. They only do that during conventions, not outside of them. They have jobs, families, other hobbies, they drink (whoo boy do Trek fans drink,) smoke, etc.

The dressing up is no different than football fans who paint their face, wear team jerseys, put fake cheeses on their heads, etc., or other types of costumes for other fandoms, sci-fi or not.

I'm guessing though, that it's more acceptable to be a Star Trek fan now. Most don't care if people like Trek, at least not enough to make fun of them. I was a fan when people did get mocked if they liked Trek as the mainstream didn't at all like sci-fi, with the possible exception of Lost in Space, which was, ah, sci-fi in name only. I never caught crap for being a Trek fan because my friends and I who were Trekkies, didn't go around wearing the velour shirts or other uniforms or flashing the Live Long and Prosper gesture or whatever.

We just talked about the show with other Trek fans.

Then again, I'm female. I can't say if the male fan of the 1960s/1970s had a different experience.

 

[The Grim Ghost]

I have long believed that almost all of the bad stereotypical "Trekkie" ideas people have come from those who dress up at conventions.

Of course they have every right to do so and I'm not knocking them...but I really think it comes from that more than anything else.

 

[barnaclelapse]

It is a little weird, but it's no weirder to me than the passions and minor obsessions that guide everyone, really.

It's a good kind of weird, in virtually all circumstances.

Star Trek fans tend to be some of the most versatile, well-read, well-informed, humorous and engaging people I've ever met. But the same can be said for other fans I've met for everything from Anime to horror movies to professional wrestling.

 

[barnaclelapse]

Do I LOOK insane?!

Um. Never mind.

See, I saw all those ships, but my eyes honestly first went to what I think is an action figure from Ghost in The Shell: Stand-Alone Complex.

Lord knows what that says about me.

 

[USS Mariner]

Do I LOOK insane?!

Um. Never mind.

See, I saw all those ships, but my eyes honestly first went to what I think is an action figure from Ghost in The Shell: Stand-Alone Complex.

Lord knows what that says about me.

Looks like Motoko in one of her white catsuits. Good taste.

I'm especially interested in that wax sculpture in the middle. Really well done, though it looks like the hair plugs aren't finished yet.

 

[Forbin]

Why do you think I have her right next to my computer?

 

[Guartho]

Do I LOOK insane?!

Um. Never mind.

I see you still haven't built the PL 1701 kit as the 1701. *Silently maintains hope that it's just not in the picture.*

I'm also surprised to see that your Star Destroyer-Prise model from your avatar is that small. I always pictured it as coming from the AMT refit kit.

 

[USS Mariner]

^Holy crap, that dinky thing is the Artemis?

 

[Brutal Strudel]

It's not the size of the ship, it's the motion of the transverse quantum interphasic stabilizers.

Oh, this isn't the Voyager forum? Sorry...

 

[sbk1234]

Do I LOOK insane?!

Um. Never mind.

I guess I'll answer the question simply with my own awe at that collection.

 

[barnaclelapse]

By the way, Forbin, you strike a downright frightening resemblance to one of my old Anime convention bosses.

It's freakish.

 

[Praetor]

Say, Forbin, how do you dust those things?