My mom occasionally tells stories of hiding her good grades because they were nothing to be proud of. And I'm sure that nerds in general were teased a lot back then. But now? I honestly don't feel the wild nerd-persecution that everyone is talking about.
Now don't get me wrong, whenever I alert someone to the proper subjective/objective form of a noun, I'm showered with "NERD!" but I've never felt bad about it, the way I feel bad when people comment on my freckles, my height (or lack there-of), or my paleness.
Maybe that's just me and the culture I grew up in, but most of the 'nerds' I know take immense pride in their intelligence. I mean, maybe not publicly, but you can tell they don't feel put down by those comments at all.
Some of the leaders of the "pro-nerd movement" are John and Hank Green. But really, they too grew up in a time where our feelings towards intelligence were greatly different. I just don't think their argument against anti-nerds is relevant because I honestly don't know of one anti-nerd.
The problem here is that it's still socially considered an insult to call someone a nerd, and it's still considered socially neutral to indicate your superior intelligence. It doesn't matter how smart (or not smart) I am, I've grown up around a bunch of people who are smarter than me. People who don't need to be hit over the head to get them to tell you their SAT/ACT scores.
And while society doesn't acknowledge it this way, whenever someone comments on how much more of a "nerd" they are than I, it's a truly hurtful insult.
And that's my weirdly serious post for the week. Expect your normal programming to resume tomorrow.
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Days left of school: 3
Wants: To go down on the boat for a weekend. OCEAN, Y U NO WARM UP ALREADY?
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