“Nerd Culture" is all the rage right now. Superheroes, comic books, science-fiction, animé, video games, etc…all of these things are now cool, whereas thirty years ago, they could get you beat up in the hallways or on the playground at school.
But in today’s world, where everything has to be outlined with a political identity, conservative rightwing males have barged their way into Nerd Culture and are trying to claim it for themselves.
You see them everywhere on social media. They can’t help but work themselves into a nerdy rage every time pop culture appeals to anyone but straight white males, you know, like it’s been doing for the past, oh I don’t know, ever…
They buy things specifically designed to appeal to themselves without a second’s hesitation, but scream “VIRTUE SIGNALING!” at everything Nerd Culture produces that isn’t meant for them…
And you can scroll their social media feeds and determine their political leanings almost instantaneously. They proudly wear them on their sleeve, much like their new hero Gina Carano, who played Cara Dune on Disney+’s “Star Wars" spinoff, “The Mandalorian”, until she was “canceled" for making insensitive Tweets where she compared modern-day conservatives who’ve had their social media accounts suspended to *checks notes* actual holocaust victims…
Of course, rightwing dorks called her TV character “virtue signaling" too, until they found out that the actress who played her is a Trump supporter, but they conveniently leave that part out when doing mental gymnastics to convince themselves that they are just like holocaust victims…
These Trump-loving geeks operate under this mythical narrative that Nerd Culture has been stolen from them, and that they are defending it from some insidious leftwing, virtue signaling agenda that seeks to silence their voices, a story they’ve been telling themselves going all the way back to “Gamergate"…
Except there’s one problem with their narrative: their voices don’t belong in Nerd Culture.
Now what do I mean by that, I imagine you asking in a hypothetical scenario that I made up for the purposes of this op-ed?
Well, as anyone who’s studied popular culture on an academic level will tell you, conservative anti-liberal rightwingers have been trying to censor and smear pop culture for almost a century, going all the way back to the “Hays Code” of Hollywood.
Beginning in 1922, Motion Picture Association of America chairman Will Hays, former head of the Republican Party, oversaw a strict moral code (influenced by Catholic lobbyists) that was meant to clean up Hollywood’s image by making media more conservative and presenting more wholesome content. This would come to be known as the “Hays Code”.
This included, among other things, treating all laws and law enforcement officers with respect, banning all mixed-race relationships, banning all depictions of homosexuality, banning all acts of “sexual perversion", and banning all depictions of the clergy as villains. The reasoning of the code was that a film containing any of these things could be “morally evil in its effects”.
All motion pictures were subjected to this rigorous set of conservative limits and films that did not meet its strict criteria were given bad publicity or not released at all.
Enforcement of the code notwithstanding, it was eventually abandoned in the late 60s and replaced with the motion picture rating system everyone knows today.
But the effects of the “Hays Code" rippled throughout other mediums…
In 1954, German-American psychologist Fredric Wertham published a book entitled “Seduction of the Innocent", which accused the comic book industry of publishing lurid stories that were twisting the minds of America’s youth and resulting in actual crimes. The book was a minor bestseller and sparked a nationwide reaction that galvanized parents into taking action against their kids' favorite comics.
Comic book artists and writers were subjected to literal congressional hearings, where they had to defend their art against some conservative blowhard who went out of his way to make them seem like perverts peddling pornography to pre-schoolers.
The result of this was the CCA (Comics Code Authority), which was heavily influenced by the “Hays Code” of 30 years prior. Much like films, comics now had to adhere to a strict set of moral guidelines informed by conservative values.
Former Archie comics editor Victor Gorelick once recalled, “My first assignment, as a new art assistant, was to remove cleavages and lift up low cut blouses on (female character) Katy Keene”, as the CCA explicitly stated, “Females shall be drawn realistically without exaggeration of any physical qualities”…
Can you imagine how the brains of conservative rightwing males would melt trying to justify such censorship today? They fly into a frenzied fury whenever a developer doesn’t make the boobies big enough in their favorite video games, for fuck’s sake. This is literally the exact same thing, something they claim is part of some evil liberal agenda, and it was ushered in by the same conservative rightwing ideology that guides their vote today.
Furthermore, who the fuck do they think these things are meant for? “Nerd Culture”, by its very definition, makes it inapplicable to conservatives. Conservatives are inherently bullies, staunch defenders of the status quo, the type of person who makes life hell for “nerds".
Characters like Spider-Man are intended to appeal to the victims of bullies, not the bullies themselves. Peter Parker’s highschool tormentor, Flash Thompson, is meant to represent the type of person who would be angrily ranting about “SJWs" and “wokeness" today.
X-Men comics are rife with themes of diversity and acceptance, which are major trigger-words for conservative rightwing males. The mutant-hating political figures depicted in X-Men stories are based on the real-life conservative politicians that these dorks look up to.
Black Panther was created in response to the backlash that the Civil Rights movement was facing in the 1960s, as Black America continued to fight for the recognition of its humanity.
Stan Lee, creator of all those comics and many more, was Jewish and many of his characters and stories were influenced by the persecution of Jews during the 1940s and the parallels he saw in the persecution of other minorities in the 60s and 70s.
How do Trump-loving rightwingers reconcile their supposed love of these characters with their hatred of everything these characters represent?
Well, the answer is, they don’t. They simply do mental gymnastics to convince themselves that Nerd Culture is now being emasculated and diversified as part of some political conspiracy to…um…get other demographics to buy things…
The truth is, “Nerd Culture" doesn’t belong to the Right. It never did.
While they ironically attempt to portray themselves as victims today, they have a long history of forcing their will upon everyone else. They’re only angry now because their ideology no longer controls pop culture.
And no matter how much they scream about “virtue signaling" or “shameless pandering", companies that produce popular culture aren’t going to alienate potential customers by restricting themselves to content that specifically appeals only to straight white cisgendered conservative males.
Get the fuck over it, nerds.
