The secret expressed annoyance at how "complete and utter moron has become acceptable for characterization in fandom for Captain Kirk."
Those people need more poetry-quoting Shatner!Kirk in their lives, apparently. lol
Uhg, the mean girls/jocks vs. nerds is such a tired trope, which I've rarely found to be something I can relate to, because it's never been a true-life experience for me. I've only ever seen those types of rigidly defined social hierarchies and divisions in teen movies and on TV.
I think it's partly due to a desire to categorize things and people, because by doing so, they're simpler, easier to understand and judge, easier to decide how to treat them or react to them. Except, that's total crap, because in reality no one is a total nerd stereotype and no one is a total Mean Popular Girl or Super Cool Rebel or Stupid Successful Jock, or whatever. And portraying fictional characters as such makes for cheap and shallow stories, generally (though there are probably exceptions when dealing with parody, but even there it can just end up reinforces the original shallowness).
I think, because the "cool" character is so often played as a despised oppressor and made the villain, by contrast the nerd, the underdog, is the one who's portrayed as the "special snowflake*" you want to see win, and therefore becomes the character more people want to identify with. (Mind you, the whole thing gets turned on its head in a kind of messed up way in Potter fandom.)
*
I think one of Dick's biggest strengths is that he's got emotional intelligence, both in terms of perception and interacting with others, which often overlaps with typical "popular kid" traits. That kind of emotional intelligence is a skill and a strength that is often something the nerd stereotype lacks.
Interestingly enough, it's also a trait that is often assumed to be inherent to women. Which, now that I think of it, reminds me of an aspect of misogyny I've seen espoused by other women, and it's making me wonder if that's partly why Dick gets the "can't keep up with the brain stuff" treatment.
That is, the kind of attitude that consciously rejects anything deemed to be feminine or "girly", be it art/creativity/fashion, healthy social networks, cooperation, interest in romance, paying attention to other people's feelings, dance and gymnastics, etc, in favour of supposedly more masculine things like fitness, logic, being a lone hero/not needing others, "hard" science, combat training, etc. Basically, the assumption made is that the girly things are all frivolous and worthless and to be looked down upon, and all the masculine stuff is better and worthier.
And when comparing Dick and Tim, Tim falls more into the "masculine" traits than the feminine ones. And while Dick certainly does fit into that masculine group of traits, he also has plenty of those feminine traits/interests too, far more than Tim or Bruce does.
It's silly and sad that those traits that are thought to be feminine get denigrated.
Okay, I've got myself on a tangent here, so I'll stop rambling.
no subject
Those people need more poetry-quoting Shatner!Kirk in their lives, apparently. lol
Uhg, the mean girls/jocks vs. nerds is such a tired trope, which I've rarely found to be something I can relate to, because it's never been a true-life experience for me. I've only ever seen those types of rigidly defined social hierarchies and divisions in teen movies and on TV.
I think it's partly due to a desire to categorize things and people, because by doing so, they're simpler, easier to understand and judge, easier to decide how to treat them or react to them. Except, that's total crap, because in reality no one is a total nerd stereotype and no one is a total Mean Popular Girl or Super Cool Rebel or Stupid Successful Jock, or whatever. And portraying fictional characters as such makes for cheap and shallow stories, generally (though there are probably exceptions when dealing with parody, but even there it can just end up reinforces the original shallowness).
I think, because the "cool" character is so often played as a despised oppressor and made the villain, by contrast the nerd, the underdog, is the one who's portrayed as the "special snowflake*" you want to see win, and therefore becomes the character more people want to identify with. (Mind you, the whole thing gets turned on its head in a kind of messed up way in Potter fandom.)
*
I think one of Dick's biggest strengths is that he's got emotional intelligence, both in terms of perception and interacting with others, which often overlaps with typical "popular kid" traits. That kind of emotional intelligence is a skill and a strength that is often something the nerd stereotype lacks.
Interestingly enough, it's also a trait that is often assumed to be inherent to women. Which, now that I think of it, reminds me of an aspect of misogyny I've seen espoused by other women, and it's making me wonder if that's partly why Dick gets the "can't keep up with the brain stuff" treatment.
That is, the kind of attitude that consciously rejects anything deemed to be feminine or "girly", be it art/creativity/fashion, healthy social networks, cooperation, interest in romance, paying attention to other people's feelings, dance and gymnastics, etc, in favour of supposedly more masculine things like fitness, logic, being a lone hero/not needing others, "hard" science, combat training, etc. Basically, the assumption made is that the girly things are all frivolous and worthless and to be looked down upon, and all the masculine stuff is better and worthier.
And when comparing Dick and Tim, Tim falls more into the "masculine" traits than the feminine ones. And while Dick certainly does fit into that masculine group of traits, he also has plenty of those feminine traits/interests too, far more than Tim or Bruce does.
It's silly and sad that those traits that are thought to be feminine get denigrated.
Okay, I've got myself on a tangent here, so I'll stop rambling.