My boyfriend is a nerd. My sister is gay. My grandpa was a soldier. I was a punk. What does any of that really mean though?
I find myself in a society that heavily relies on the use of stereotypes to define who people are. That sounds quite troubling to me because stereotypes often carry negative connotations with them. They make us assume who someone is without really seeing the individual. Who would want to be defined by a label throughout their lives, especially if that label is a bad one?
What I’ve noticed, however, in this day and age is that stereotypes like that of the nerd, the jock, the punk and more have evolved in the past two or three decades. It seems as if people are even beginning to embrace these stereotypes rather than deplore them.
In the age of high school hierarchies and 1980’s films like The Breakfast Club, the name “nerd” was nothing short of an insult. It signified coke bottle glasses, pocket protectors, a report card any mother could be proud of and a social life down the toilet just as their heads would often be. To be called a nerd was one of the lowest of lows on the social hierarchy of labels.
Flash forward to the modern age and “nerd” has taken on a whole new meaning. It’s as if being nerdy has become the cool and fashionable thing to do. From superhero t-shirts and backpacks galore spreading rampant throughout high school and college campuses, to faux over-sized glasses perched on the noses of everyone from celebrities to hipsters, nerd pride is running high.
A few decades ago, characters like Steve Urkel from Family Matters and Screech from Saved by the Bell reinforced the unpopular image of what it meant to be a nerd. Nerds of that time were mocked by their peers and were socially inept. Pop culture today, however, embraces the nerd herd with shows like The Big Bang Theory and movies like Fanboys that make being nerdy come off as a cool thing. And with Maxim cover girl and actress Olivia Munn being a self-proclaimed nerd, just about any guy would willingly convert into a gamer or superhero fanatic.
In her book Suck It Wonder Woman!: The Misadventures of a Hollywood Geek, Munn commented on the recent nerdom phenomenon. “Nerd. Geek. Used to be if you self-identified that way, you’d get thrown into a locker and never have sex. Or worse, whatever that is… But to me and more and more people I know, being a nerd or a geek means having passion, power, intelligence,” affirmed Munn.
I think that it is safe to say that being called a nerd is no longer an insult. I admit, even I possess nerdy qualities. I love video games and I obsess over classic literature. My boyfriend is the biggest nerd I know. He owns more comic books than he owns shirts and will happily quote anything from Star Wars to Batman: The Animated Series. Like Munn, I think there is something pretty fantastic about that. Being a nerd is no longer about being an unpopular loser; it means being an individual.
When the nerds rose up, it seemed that the jocks fell off the hierarchy of labels. Jocks were once glamorized as the pride of high school and college sports teams across the country. With cheerleaders flocking to their sides and geeky band girls fantasizing about their muscles, jocks could do no wrong. At least, that is how many 1980’s films made them out to be.
Today, however, being called a jock can almost come off as an insult. The label “jock” used today carries the connotation of a beefy muscle man with the intelligence of a rock. Instead, it seems much more appropriate to call someone a student-athlete rather than a jock so as not to carry the negative connotation. What once was a compliment has now turned into an insult, and I think pop culture’s portrayal of jocks has caused that. Because of that change, I have even taken the word out of my regular vocabulary. I feel much safer calling someone an athlete over a jock.
Then there is the label of “punk,” which in past decades was at odds with the stereotypical jock. To be called a “punk” was synonymous with a deviant and a trouble maker. There was nothing positive about being a punk in those times, but that image has changed since then. Punk today has developed into its own subculture through music and fashion. Being a punk today can mean listening to The Ramones, dying your hair bright blue or just standing out from the crowd. I had my own little punk phase in high school where I idolized Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, wore black converse every day and took up guitar lessons. Being a punk or nerd are no longer insults now. They are lifestyles.
Nerds, punks and jocks are one thing, but being labeled as gay is a much more serious label that has also taken a huge turn in the modern age. Several decades ago, coming out to people could be a dangerous thing. There was a serious risk involved and society generally had a negative view on homosexuality. In that time, being gay was something to be hidden; being gay meant having to lie about whom one really was. Being gay today is much more embraced and accepted in our society. From television shows like The L Word and 1 Girl 5 Gays to the recent repeal of the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy exemplify just how much being labeled as gay has changed in this country.
University of Tampa sophomore Justin Justice, an openly gay student, has experienced that change. “I know a lot of people that did not come out until a lot later in life in the past but I feel like nowadays, people come out sooner and sooner. I did not come out till my sophomore or junior year in high school and I know people now that have come out in elementary school. I have even heard of fifth graders coming out. I feel like people are a lot more apt to accept it now,” asserted Justice.
My sister came out when I was still in elementary school so this is a change that has affected me and my family personally. It is beyond reassuring to know I live in an age where being gay is more widely accepted. Though there still may be a long way to go in the acceptance of the LGBT culture, great leaps have been made.
Speaking of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy of the military, the stereotype that soldiers face has also changed over time. With incidents like the My Lai massacre and the hippie movement promoting “Make love, not war,” military soldiers during the Vietnam War were criticized by society. They were often subject to harassment and were unwelcome when they came home from a tour of duty. They were seen by segments of the general public as cold-blooded killers.
That is definitely not the case in society today. In that time period, films like Hamburger Hill and Platoon may have helped to reverse the negative stereotype, depicting a more realistic view of what soldiers went through. Then there is 9/11 of course, which boosted patriotism in our country. Now, soldiers are infinitely respected; they are heroes and when they return home, society gives them the grand homecomings they deserve. Their image has seemingly reversed since the Vietnam era, and rightfully so.
What once was is not always so anymore. Nerds have climbed the social ladder, jocks have fallen off, punks can rock and riot, gays can be out and proud and soldiers can serve with pride. It seems that stereotypical labels are not always set in stone and that their evolution is prone to change. I think that it is important to note that people can be gay and nerdy, they can be punk rock soldiers or they can be anything else for that matter. Stereotypes do not define who we are. We define the stereotypes.
