I don't identify as a "nerd"

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Thanks for the warning. I think some are but some could be legit. I come from both the emo and indie scenes and kind of am in the stuck-in-the-1970s rock scene. When you're in a music scene you can't help but dress the part.

You never know just by looking at someone if they're a hipster or not. I could get called one but I know nothing about it. I chose square glasses because I didn't want to look like Harry Potter if I got the cheap round ones, and people still call me Harry Potter.

Hipsters look like they come from a catalogue shoot, while people in the music scene have a grittier look.

Maybe those people were hipsters or maybe they just had a certain style. I guess I should stop feeling jealous.

I'm surrounded by jazz/art people, older than me, and I don't see a lot of people around my age and hardly know what they wear. When I see them it looks like a mixture of emo, indie and club scene. But that look had to come from somewhere and I think it's what most of the rock bands dressed like.

As of now I woke up with my hair like the tenth Doctor from Doctor Who. People probably think 'that damn hipster' but I just want to look like the tenth Doctor and this hair is impossible to brush flat.

Oh God, I am Harry Potter.

I am certainly perceived as weird ,I don't think I ever came off as being ''nerdy''.I have always been very fit and athletic but I was definitely labelled as ''weird'' or eccentric.

Last edited by bruinsy33 on 08 Jun 2012, 1:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Ah, so I'm not totally alone. I guess some people see "nerd" as derogatory, and some see it as a badge of pride. Why the difference?

I know this thread is kind of old, but I had another question pop into my head.

If you weren't or aren't a nerd, then what were you?

No way, I'm NOTHING like that...not a geek, not a nerd, not a "gamer", etc. I'm of average intelligence, and am right brained so my talents mostly revolve around my artistic abilities. I love recreation, like camping, hiking, etc. And I guess you would call me one of those "cool girls" who like to build things (yes, with power tools) - not a geek!

I'm a bit of a nerd and proud of it. I'm a scientist, love computers and have AS traits. Never really got me down as I realised that in 10 years its going to be the intelligent people changing the world, making money and who are employing the jocks and that all the cool things/fashions will be out of date.

As a 6'2" ex rugby player I rarely get called a nerd to my face though, its usually only if a bloke is trying to put me down to a woman. I always laugh and say something like "yes I'm a nerd, I'm intelligent, charming and funny but being hung like a donkey helps, and I don't mean a shetland pony like X" (the person who tried putting me down). Plus the 'individualist groups hate it when you point out they all dress the same, act the same and listen to the same music etc. Intelligence and a quick mouth can help (even if you have to pre think the comments like I do).

Me neither.
I rather feel stupid sometimes, eventhough other people keep telling me I'm smart and when I stard correcting them, they sometimes think, I'm just arrogant.
But I truly belive that I have a form of something that you could consider as "smartness", but also at least one form of learning disability, what makes me impossible to understand the world like most people do.

I've never believed in the stereotype of a nerd. Typically this label is assigned to those that don't quite fit in with the "normal" requirements, what is normal anyway? People tend to use this condescending label as a way of saying their interests and way of life is better. Life is about the joys you get out of it personally, we are ALL different and have different interests and things we enjoy. I would rather be an individual than conform with a label/group.

Sigh, even here nerds and geeks are looked down upon.

>waves frantically from a table< Quick! Come over here to the nerd table! It's the big one in the middle that looks like a dining room table, filled with lavish brain food!

But seriously, I know that this thread is for the non-nerdy Aspies... and I can fully understand how that stereotype can be annoying if you don't identify as a nerd. I've encountered similar stereotypes related to my bisexuality and my Caribbean heritage which I didn't conform to. So yeah, even though I'm a nerd and proud of it, I support the notion of divorcing autism from the nerd/geek stereotype.

I'm mostly nerdy with regard to my special interests and some popcultural thingies. Not particularly good at maths or computers. When it comes to science, I'm mostly interested in living structures and organisms (biology), only a glancing knowledge of physics or chem.

For the most part throughout school I was the person or one of the people that didn't fit in...so outcast, loser, loner(not by choice) whatever you'd call that. Even the 'nerds' didn't like me.

You bring up a good point. Is it just a condescending label used by people who want to feel superior? Or is there something to it? Personally, I'm thinking that all labels, jock, prep, whatever, are all kind of condescending. They box people into stereotypes, without regard for their individual personality. But at the same time, it's natural that people with the same interests would congregate together. Those labels didn't come out of nowhere.

Does anyone really identify with the word "nerd"? I mean it is rather negative. I don't identify with it, even though I have poor social skills and am into "nerdy" hobbies like video games and game design.

I don't think it's that negativ, I'm a "nerd" just without the "intelligent" part, so I'm just a not that intelligent "freak".

I would prefer being a nerd.

I wear the badge with pride! I was in a conversation with a girl just the other week, and I told her 'I'm a bit of a nerd', and she said 'Don't call yourself that! It's such a negative thing for people to refer to you as' and I reassured her that I identified as a nerd perfectly fine, and had no problem with the media stereotype of the shy kid who enjoys reading about dinosaurs and the universe, and who collects Transformers toys and puts them on display.

If I am posed the question which group or subculture I primarily identify with, it is in fact 'as a nerd'. As a person, I don't identify quite as strongly with my ethnic, cultural, or sexual identity, although I consider myself part of each demographic, I do not consider myself part of the 'culture'. With nerds, it's a whole nother story. If there were several rooms filled with people from each 'minority' I can count myself among (and that's a LOT), I would pick the room of the nerds. Because I'm likely to have the best connection with people in there!

I hope this doesn't sound crazy or anything, I don't go tramping about the streets wearing a NERD POWER t-shirt, waving a flag, or having a constant need to spout random trivia or make sci-fi references- not at all. But I identify strongly with the roots of reality that lie at the base of the nerd stereotype in pop culture (the socially awkward 'little professor' who prefers to sit in the garden watching ladybirds to going out drinking and dancing).

So yesh, I consider myself a nurrrd.