The creation of geek culture
- Leanna Bressan
- Apr 15, 2024
- 4 min read
For years, superhero movies have dominated the box office. The first Iron Man movie made headways, skyrocketing leading man Robert Downey Jr. to stardom and creating a multibillion-dollar franchise that would be revolutionary for the superhero sub-genre. But Geek culture goes back even further than 2008. For years, the science-fiction and fantasy genre has been laying the groundwork for companies like Marvel, DC, Star Wars, and Star Trek.
Fans like Sean Bell, a communications student and horror enthusiast, have been a part of fandoms for years. For Bell, it started as a way to cope with bullying and feelings of alienation, "You just want to ignore reality for a bit, and then you get caught up in certain fandoms and certain kinds of geeky or nerdy media that you just start becoming fascinated with."
A shared sentiment with thousands of young adults around the world. Looking back at teen movie culture in the 1980’s to early 2000’s, the Hollywood Nerd trope was apparent, describing them as “an unattractive, socially inept, and socially unpopular stock character with geeky interests.”
Like Egon Spengler's character in the original Ghostbusters franchise. Seen as the stereotypical "know-it-all" when it comes to science and technology, these characters are usually identifiable with glasses, high-waisted pants, and ties.
Movies like Ghostbusters, 10 Things I Hate About You, and Napoleon Dynamite, are examples of this trope being used to identify the nerd character. But since the 1970's, fans of science-fiction and fantasy have skyrocketed; coming together to create a community of diverse individuals who all found something they were immersed in.
Between 1980 and 2023, the science fiction and fantasy genre has seen one of the biggest increases in box-office hits. Starting in 1980, there were only an estimated two films that were in the top fifty of the most popular films during that time.
Over the course of those forty years, more and more movies began to make the list. Each new film brought in fans that shared spectacular moments of fascination and escapism that led to intimate connections across the world. When looking at the data, the science fiction genre was defined as any movie that includes science fantasy, cyberpunk, and space opera. While fantasy includes high fantasy, urban, sword and sorcery, dark, magical, portal, and superhero fantasy.
When Jan 21, 1977 hit, the first ever fan convention for Trekkies, or Star Trek fans, was created. Featuring special guests, markets, and cosplays, people all around the world gathered to meet fans of like-minded interests. These conventions later spiraled to include other sci-fi fandoms in different parts of the world like Doctor Who, Star Wars, and X-Files, and other mediums like comic books, video games, and movies.
"I remember in about 2012, I went to a world Comic-Con where there were sci-fi people and fantasy people and like cosplay and this sort of thing. So that was huge, like 6000 people at a conference. And so this was my first exposure to seeing that kind of culture of fan groups and sci-fi groupies and Trekkies and that was [what] we grew up with. . ." Says Dr. David Garfinkle, about his first experience at a pop culture convention, "But the Comic-Con experience, I think, really showed that it was global; that people loved cosplay and they just ate it up and they really loved the characters and they connect with the culture that the fan groups saw in the nineties. . ."
The science fiction and fantasy film professor, Dr. Garfinkle, who went to high school in the sixties, experienced similar feelings of alienation in his younger years; leading to a larger sense of community.
For Garfinkle, the mainstream media began to transform when the 1995 film Hackers was released, ". . . suddenly all these people who would normally be hidden away at night [are] working on computers and doing strange things with technology. Hackers made it cool. That included the young and the awkward and the people that had their . . . distinctive characters; personalities that wouldn't be fitting into a sports scene or an art scene or a hippie scene. . . so suddenly we see geeks again. For me, that's what I call people who are really tied up with technology and really not aware of the social world as much. [They] made this group popular, cool, fun, and even politically correct, socially conscious. So these were the things I associated with the film Hackers."
The sense of community that came from movies like Hackers and TV franchises like Star Trek created a wide sense of community surrounded by the developing technological scene.
With Bell being exposed to the geek movement in the mid-90's and Garfinkle stepping into it in the sixties, the almost thirty year age difference is seemingly noticeable.
The fantasy genre saw a steady decrease over the years with 76 per cent of participants in the 18 to 29 age range favouring the genre compared to those 61 and over being less favourable.
The science fiction genre, however, is quite different. People who are 45 to 54 years old are more likely to favour the genre whereas people 61 and over are still least likely to favour it.
What makes this data particularly encouraging is that the numbers never dip below the 60 per cent mark. Making the impact that the genre has incredible. Including Ryan Jupe, manager and comic historian at Ultimate Key Issue Comics in Edmonton, who found that the development of social media and technology were the foundation for connection, "[It] let us realize how many of us there were, and how we didn't have to hide being a geek. And once we did that, we were a little bit more proud about it, not hiding it." Movies like Road to Perdition and From Hell are all based on comic books that starred popular A-list actors like Tom Hanks and Johnny Depp.
"Right now if you say you're a comic fan, the vast majority people are accepting of that."
Ryan Jupe, Manager of Ultimate Key Issue Comics
Being a science fiction and fantasy fan means being a part of a community that doesn't look down on you based on looks, smarts, or financial status. You're part of something that extends beyond the universe, something that is greater than who you are on the outside. The media you consume, the people you connect with, and the universes you fall in love with, they become a part of you. Like Bell said "You're a big fan of something, but it goes beyond that. [It] goes into . . . a lifestyle."
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