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Why is liking Trek a "nerdy" thing?

darkshadow0001

Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
I was watching one of the many dating shows on MTV (the one where the person's parents are with you) and a chick turned down a guy just because he liked Star Trek and told him it was "nerdy." I'm like, that's a dumb reason, he could of been a great guy for that girl.

I know someone who is dating a girl who likes Star Trek and he doesn't think anything like that of her, so why are some people like this?

Trek is long-lasting franchise with many fans and is quite possibly one of the best things to watch on TV (of course, next to Smallville & Supernatural :)) just because someone likes Star Trek is not a reason to turn them down on a date, unless they hate the show themselves, I say.
 
It's just generally easier for some people to make fun of things they don't understand or don't like themselves, IMO...
 
I agree. Unfortunately, certain stigmas are attached to certain "geek" passtimes - Star Trek, D&D, etc. The perception, I suppose, is that people who are interested in such things are too cerebral and not as much fun. Like most stereotypes, it doesn't hold up under close scrutiny.
 
Some people need to put down others just to try and feel better about themselves. Very sad, really. I hope she missed out on a really, really great guy.
 
I was watching one of the many dating shows on MTV (the one where the person's parents are with you) and a chick turned down a guy just because he liked Star Trek and told him it was "nerdy." I'm like, that's a dumb reason, he could of been a great guy for that girl.
Maybe, but then he would have been stuck with her. :rolleyes:

Whenever people look down on me for liking Star Trek, I point out that Stephen Hawking is a fan. It shuts up people who read and confuses people who don't. :cool:
 
If you watch star trek - fine.

If you try and explain to other people why it's cool and will not stop - not so cool

Id you try and explain to other why it's cool and will not stop when you are trying to pick up women and have just spoiled your friend's chance of a night-cap - really really not cool.
 
I was watching one of the many dating shows on MTV (the one where the person's parents are with you) and a chick turned down a guy just because he liked Star Trek and told him it was "nerdy." I'm like, that's a dumb reason, he could of been a great guy for that girl.

That chick was probably some worthless little wench anyway. For some reason, I want to think she's a blonde. If some girl turned me down for what I like to watch on TV, I'd immediately lose any interest I have in her. I'd say 'Fine, F*** you too, B****.' and just walk away. There's no point in wasting time on such a pathetic little person who's so mentally inferior to me. There isn't much point to treating them with respect either if they're going to be that shallow. That guy is better off without her.

Also, liking Star Trek isn't nerdy. Going to conventions dressed as a (and speaking) Klingon can be quite nerdy. Either way, there's nothing really wrong there. Everyone needs a hobby.
 
I guess most people think of the stereotype, the 30 year old guy who still lives with his parents, wears spock ears while on the internet, goes in costume to conventions/ movies..
 
I find this often doesn't persist if the person actually watches some Trek.

Trek went through a period where it wasn't especially nerdy, and maybe another one of those will start soon if people like the new movie.
 
I made Star Trek an acid test for the woman who became my wife. Our first stay-at-home evening date was watching TSFS. Not only could she hang with the story and the characters, but having seen TWOK in the theater before she met me, she was totally up to date and knew what was going on. When the TNG era started we watched together and today she's almost as big a fan as am I.

I can't say for sure I'd've stopped dating her if she hated Trek, but it surely would've been several points against her.

That said, I think there are a couple reasons why Trek is, to this day, considered "geeky." One is, well, we are kind of geeks, particularly the more obsessive of us. We spend a lot of time and energy and money following something that's not "real." At the same time, I'd say the media is guilty of perpetuating the stereotype born of '70 and early '80s convention culture. Before TOS fandom rose in the '70s, there had never before been a group so obsessed with what was esentially a short-lived and then dead TV series... so we were bound to have been considered a bit weird... and then there were the costumes and pointy ears and all... not to mention the fact that our "real world" interests also tended toward space, science and more cerebral subjects. Faced with a group of people who were probably smarter than they were and yet were (and today still are) obsessed with a pretend universe, they chose to ostracize and mock us in order to feel more "normal" and comfortably part of the herd themselves.
 
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That's pretty much what I meant to say ^

We're pretty much two notches below civil war re-enactors, but we don't have anything to re-enact :(
 
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^ First contact...

Star Trek and pretty much anything Sci-Fi (so long as it doesn't have Star Wars in the title but even that's starting to take some teasing) is considered nerdy. As I said in a tread a few weeks ago the modern day teen and movie goer doesn't want to have to think about what is going on in a film and if they don't understand that's even worse. There is a stigma in pop culture that Trek fans are the people that live in their parents basements and have Spock ears. Most television shows still make fun of Trek fans (Family Guy, for example, has Peter as a fan of Trek and Neil Goldman as the stereotypical uberfan who debated with a teacher who was superior Kirk or Picard). Things like that set it back.

And personal experience tells me that this stigma is still there. When I was in High School around the time of Nemesis I went and the Quarterback of the Football team went too. It was on a Saturday and we didn't expect to run into anyone we knew because it was the afternoon. About half a dozen of our friends saw us going into the screening. Despite being Quarterback his popularity fell quickly and barely recovered by graduation two years after that.
 
THat is just sad. It is just a show. My life would be perfectly defined and complete without Trek. But it is entertainment and I never really understood why it considered so nerdy.

I can't stand reality TV. But droves up people tune in to see "The biggest loser" "America's best dance crew" and Survivor....etc...

My point is to me it is "Nerdy" or just plain pathetic to get caught up in fake drama created by script-less TV shows and react to it with anything other than shaking your head and changing the channel
 
And personal experience tells me that this stigma is still there. When I was in High School around the time of Nemesis I went and the Quarterback of the Football team went too. It was on a Saturday and we didn't expect to run into anyone we knew because it was the afternoon. About half a dozen of our friends saw us going into the screening. Despite being Quarterback his popularity fell quickly and barely recovered by graduation two years after that.
Based on stories like this, I wonder if there isn't a generational factor involved. It seems like Trek was somewhat more mainstream in Generation X, and possibly among Baby Boomers as well. When TNG was pulling in more males of the 18-to-49-year-old range than any other show on TV, those viewers were Baby Boomers and Gen X'ers. Most Gen X males I knew grew up watching TOS in syndication, and were probably happy to watch new Trek when it came along. Contrast to Gen Y, who came of age when new Trek was a constant presence on TV. By this time, Trek came with a forboding amount of backstory...hundreds of episodes of multiple series...so it probably seemed like a geekier thing to delve into all of that. It had become too much for the casual viewer. The more it grew, the more ratings dropped.
 
I think nerdy is becoming trendy these days. I think now it is cool and acceptable to freely admit you are into comics, action figures, sci-fi, fantasy etc.

Look at how sci fi shows like BSG, Lost, Heroes are accepted by the mainstream and praised by tv critics and the latter two have surprisingly large audiences showing it appeals to more than just sci fi fans. Movies centered on superheroes like Hulk, Iron Man, Batman etc are out there. Shows like Chuck celebrate the geek proudly and lessens the stigma. A lot of the Hollywood folks like Abrams are fans of this stuff too showing that it is okay to be into it and they cater to us.

As someone once said this is the era of the Geek. Afterall, being into computers, the internet, gadgets is now the big thing.
 
I wish it was still as nerdy as it used to be. Star Trek got a little taste of the mainstream back in the '90s and has tried to capitalize on it ever since. Maybe if it had stayed geeky the TNG movies wouldn't have been so mediocre. I miss the days when people were like "Star Track? Ain't that the show with Dr. Spock and the Innerprise?" :rommie:
 
I was watching one of the many dating shows on MTV (the one where the person's parents are with you) and a chick turned down a guy just because he liked Star Trek and told him it was "nerdy." I'm like, that's a dumb reason, he could of been a great guy for that girl.

I know someone who is dating a girl who likes Star Trek and he doesn't think anything like that of her, so why are some people like this?

Trek is long-lasting franchise with many fans and is quite possibly one of the best things to watch on TV (of course, next to Smallville & Supernatural :)) just because someone likes Star Trek is not a reason to turn them down on a date, unless they hate the show themselves, I say.
First, what are you doing watching any of those beyond ridiculous dating shows on MTV? I won't even be in the same room with my wife when MTV is on it's so offensive.

I really don't know why you're surprised, though. All of those shows have nothing but completely superficial, borderline retarded wanna-be starlets, anyway. I mean haven't you noticed on that show that all of the lines are scripted and these cocker spaniels are a step below pornstars when trying to act?

Now, on the other side of the glaringly obvious, I come from the perspective that I wasn't a Trek fan until I was 21 (eleven years ago). I liked the show and would occasionally sit in front of the TV and catch a complete episode but I was never a die-hard. I was into sports and girls. Let's be frank about this. Most young guys who are into Trek have been into Trek their whole lives because it's a form of escapism that they share with their other nerdy, outcast bretheren. I have no problem with that though because I was always one of those guys that was in the middle. I was friends with the popular kids and the less than popular kids. If people are good people, then they are good people. I dated a lot of girls and a girl was actually the reason I got into Star Trek. To make a long story short, no she wasn't a Trek fan but I wound up getting into Trek as an escape myself after having split up with her.

That being said, between 1997 and 1998 I was immersed in Trek and became a huge fan, but I was smart enough to keep it to myself until the time was right. Game show or not, you don't come out with, "I'm a big Star Trek fan," on the first date. Like it or not, Star Trek, despite the stigma being a nerd thing, it's a nerd thing that's also primarily a guy thing. So a good way to keep from getting laid (or even getting a second date) is to bring up your fandom to a young hottie. Even the most understanding and open-minded young women are going to be put off by scifi fandom brought up on the first date.

They don't understand it and that's OK because there a lot of things I don't understand and there a lot of things I don't need to know on a first date like a girl having a history of yeast infections or -- and for some reason, girls think that they need to tell me this on a first date-- their "date rape" experience when they were in college. My theory was, a girl would find out that I was a Trek fan when and only when she was back in my apartment, naked and saw all of the Trek memorabila on my walls and shelves (or I had gotten to know her really well, whichever came first ;) ).

What I've noticed from scifi geeks and Trek geeks in particular (just watch either one of the Trekkies films) is a bit of arrogance from Trek fans in that they feel that everyone should just automatically accept scifi fandom and that it's a character flaw if they don't. Hell, my wife isn't a Star Trek fan whatsoever. She only tolerates Enterprise for 3 reasons 1.) Scott Bakula 2.) "The Blue People" (she finds them soothing) 3.) The theme song and the show put her to sleep. She has no idea what's going on. That doesn't make her any less of a good person.

What I don't think these uber-Trek fans understand is that they are as guilty of the same sort of discrimination that they've claimed to be victims of by the "popular" people their whole lives. Ugly people do this too. They hate good looking people and assume the worst about them and their character simply because they aren't ugly.

That being said, as a young guy, you're freakin' stupid to tell a girl that you're a Star Trek fan without either getting her naked or getting to know her first. All you're doing is asking for rejection and it would seem to me that if you're bringing up Star Trek to a girl who didn't bring it up first date, you must want to be alone.

Yeah, he could have been a great guy but he blew it and now she'll never know. Not for nothing, it's one thing to be a Trek fan and another to tell a chick on a first date. Everything you do on a first date is met with scrutiny and most women would say that if a guy is too dumb to keep that bit of information to himself, it's not a good harbinger. Why don't you just tell her that you're into Japanese porn while you're at it? These are the type of things that should come up after a high level of comfort has been established. A girl needs to know that you're a great guy before she finds out that you're a Trek fan.

Also, he could have been a complete jerk, too. You seem to assume that he was a great guy just because he was a Star Trek fan. Just read some of the posts on this board and you know that being a Trek fan doesn't automatically make someone a great guy.

I'm out.

-Shawn :borg:
 
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Why would you want to date someone who automatically dismisses you just because you like Star Trek?

Not a girl worth getting involved with.
 
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