I Would Like to Redefine the Term "Geek"

So, in case it's not clear, hi, I'm Bear, and I'm a pretty notorious geek.

I've been a proud geek for most of my life. Was it because I was a pick-me? Yes. But let's breeze past that. Whatever the motivation for my geekdom was, it nevertheless allowed me to still be willing to deep-dive into something I was always passionate about, which was fantasy. If I was already uncool, I may as well steer into being the geek that I inherently was.

Fantasy, for me, was escapism. Like most geeks, I met the first definition of the word, per the Cambridge Dictionary: "someone who is intelligent but not fashionable or popular." Miriam-Webster defines a geek similarly: "a person who is often of an intellectual bent who is disliked." I was a smart kid, and I was not well-liked, so… yup!

Being a terminal individual and being completely unable to conform, I ended up finding joy in making fantasy worlds to live in, since my real world was fairly lonely. Niche subjects are often where outcasts and lonely folks make their ways. I fell in with the IGN Final Fantasy message boards, McFarlane action figure buy/sell/trade pages, and I became a frequenter of Toys 'R' Us. I once joined a Naruto fanclub online, but admittedly, I was 18 so I barely survived a month (but I did make a lifelong best friend there, hah!). I also worked at EB Games for a while before games became mostly digital (that's Canadian Gamestop). There's no world in which you could convince anyone I wasn't a geek, so I just embraced it about myself. Other people's judgment speaks more about them anyway.

But let's have a look at the word "geek" and what it means. Originally, the word came from "geck," the low-German/Dutch word for "freak," used first for simpletons or clowns, which later was assigned to circus "freakshow" performers who would do astonishing things, like biting the heads off live animals. Then, during the beginning of the tech revolution in the '80s-'90s, the word "geek" became likewise associated with those uncool people who had intense or even obsessive interests in niche subjects, namely computers, but it soon expanded to include all of the things those "intelligent yet disliked" people were into, like fantasy and sci-fi or video games.

Nowadays, our community has largely taken the phrase back. It's gotten to the point where we even have amazing artists like Tuomas Holopainen (Nightwish, Auri, etc.) and Johanna Kurkela (Auri, Eye of Melian, Altamullan Road) saying they've always been proud to be geeks!

(Aside: if you like music, particularly heavy metal, and are a geek, you might enjoy my podcast series, Gathering of Geeks, where I talk to artists — mostly metal musicians but not always — about what being a geek is to them, and the different geeky things in which to engage. It doesn't run often, but it's very fun!)

So what does it really mean, nowadays, to be a geek? The word gets thrown around pretty liberally these days. For some it's still an insult, while others wear it proudly.

I want to make a pitch, because I think there's something that a lot of people who have geek-like qualities have in common:

A geek is someone with a passionate, potentially obsessive love for 0ne or many niche subjects.

Look at the fantasy geeks of yore.

Literally, look at my bedroom from when I was a teenager…

I think it's safe to say I had a pretty obsessive interest in fantasy.

But then, look at sports fans…

My collection paled in comparison. I bow before a superior geek, because that is some obsessive dedication to a niche thing — sports!

But sports were considered "cool" back in the day, so someone who had a geek-ass collection like this couldn't be called a "geek" because sports lovers are cool.

Ultimately, what I'm really saying is that the first definition of "geek" can and should no longer be considered true. If a geek is an intellectual who is disliked, I am quite sure that Tuomas Holopainen alone proves that this is no longer true. To toot my own horn while I'm making a point, the average video of mine on YouTube that has done very well is around 1000 views. The average views for an episode of Gathering of Geeks is about 80. My GoG Auri episode with Tuomas and Johanna is nearly at 1000 views, while my next most popular has 403 and after that they're in the 100s. My interview with Tuomas from when the last Nightwish album came out is over 15,000 views. My next most popular is one I did with Marko Hietala (ex-Nightwish), who is also a notorious sci-fi- and fantasy-loving geek.

Suffice to say, these are some popular, well-liked people, and they actively identify as geeks.

Ergo, I call out to Miriam-Webster and all of the other English dictionaries out there! Spread the word:

Geeks are no longer uncool!

(I haven't changed much, by the way)