Nerd nation

Abstract

This article examines the cultural figure of the nerd by analyzing images of nerds in movies, news articles and materials from the World Wide Web. This analysis shows that the previously liminal masculine identity of the nerd gets rehabilitated and partially incorporated into hegemonic masculinity during the period from the early 1980s through the present. In the process, the nerd becomes implicated in a variety of discourses about race and class as well as masculinities. Media representations use the figure of the nerd to displace bids for civil rights by African-American males and gay men. Discussions of nerds at work perpetuate stereotypes about computer users. The changing and contested meaning of the term nerd allows for both progressive uses and those which protect the status quo of hegemonic masculinity. All of these discursive uses of the nerd identity suggest that our use of computers is deeply connected to identity issues regarding race, class and gender.