I understand the traumatic experiences that some women have faced and continue to face on a daily basis. Unfortunately, how do you expect people to take people like you seriously if you too are so ready to erase the entire experiences of another group so quickly?

Any callus attitudes toward the reflections of others, whether individual or from a group prospective, does little to embody evolutionary change in humanity – it leaves us stagnant.

“And yes, I do understand the plight that women face and needing to be “constantly vigilant and wary of strangers”. But, if you look at the cartoon carefully, the girl in the cartoon really wants to talk to the boy sitting next to her. Except, he is afraid of getting treated exactly the way you just treated W, so he is afraid to say anything. He is, emotionally, a victim of those that would do harm to others even though he most likely would not experience that harm first hand.”
HOW MANY TIMES DO I NEED TO SPELL IT OUT? THE PROBLEM WITH THE CARTOON IS THAT IT COMPLETELY ERASES THE TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCES OF TENS OF THOUSANDS OF WOMEN. THAT IS PRIVILEGE. THIS CARTOON IS FILLED WITH MALE PRIVILEGE. BECAUSE IT ERASES THE EXPERIENCES OF AN ENTIRE GROUP OF PEOPLE. IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING IN THE CARTOON OR HOW CAREFULLY I LOOK AT IT BECAUSE IT IS A REFLECTION OF THE AUTHOR’S PRIVILEGED VIEW OF THE WORLD. PERHAPS IF THE AUTHOR HAD THOUGHT FOR A COUPLE OF SECONDS ABOUT THE SHIT THAT WOMEN GO THROUGH ON PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION THEN THE WOMEN IN HIS AUDIENCE COULD HAVE RELATED BETTER TO THIS CARTOON; AS IT HAPPENS HE DID NOT AND THUS THE CARTOON IS THE EMBODIMENT OF MALE PRIVILEGE THAT IT IS.

When W said “’Nerds’ are probably one of the most prejudiced groups in history”, he was talking about his experience in life. It should be respected, because that is how he feels and that is what he got out of the cartoon. You should apologize for being so prejudicial in your response to him.

And yes, I do understand the plight that women face and needing to be “constantly vigilant and wary of strangers”. But, if you look at the cartoon carefully, the girl in the cartoon really wants to talk to the boy sitting next to her. Except, he is afraid of getting treated exactly the way you just treated W, so he is afraid to say anything. He is, emotionally, a victim of those that would do harm to others even though he most likely would not experience that harm first hand.

The comic is from the male pov, which completely ignores the female pov. The female pov is that while women are held 99% accountable for being victims of assault and rape (and must therefore be constantly vigilant and wary of strangers) women must also defer to men lest they be labeled as bitches (because then they totally deserve to be raped). The comic is not implying anything about rape–-the fact that it completely ignores this very real aspect of women’s daily interactions.
Try reading the tread starting with splack’s comment and try to think about why you feel entitled to force yourself on women who don’t know how to deal with flirtation much less harassment. Instead of approaching women in a way that creeps them out maybe you should try talking to them in a setting that they’re comfortable in.

““Nerds” are probably one of the most prejudiced [sic?] groups in history”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH
Let us take a moment of silence to remember The Nerd Holocaust.

It’s changed a lot in the last decade, and thankfully it started becoming less a of stigma as I was exiting highschool, and now in college, it’s practically not stigmatized at all. It’s alright to know a lot, since people are PAYING to be there people value you for your academic abilities, people WANT to talk to you because you have something to offer them, while in highschool all you had to offer them was to potentially drag their popularity down.

Girls acted like this constantly, and still do, it’s rather common for geeks to try to ask a girl out, and for her to demean him, or make excuses. (I’m not being picky here, BOYS did this to geeky or smart girls all of the time as well, treating them as inferior because they felt challenged by them).

“Nerds” are probably one of the most prejudiced groups in history, only in the Renaissance did we start to see intellectualism as something that could be truly valued and desired.

We’ve come a long way in the last 300-400 years, but the demeaning of nerdy men (and women) as being “less than”, in society is still rampant, and a popular stereotype, and people get disregarded and treated as inferior just because they are nerdy.

I am also kind of confused by the article, the comic was making a point that people have personal value, and if they see someone they like or might have something in common with, there is no harm in saying “Hello” or trying to start up a conversation, because if you just have some self-confidence that you have worth as a person you might find someone that you could connect with.

The guy isn’t trying to rape the female character, he just think she has a cool computer and wanted to say “Hello”, hopefully start a conversation, and if she doesn’t want to talk to him, she can politely end it. That’s how conversations between strangers usually go, someone in line at the bank mentions what something about the weather, or compliments you, and if you don’t want to continue a conversation with them, say something polite back and end it.

A guy or girl trying to start a conversation up with a stranger (she isn’t really a stranger, she’s a character he sees all the time on the train) could maybe lead to something more, and you can talk to someone with confidence and if your lucky something good might happen, and if nothing happens and the conversation gets ended politely and normally, no harm done. But responses like the one in his fantasy happen, and they are unfortunately a side effect of being in a group that society is happy to lump in as the “Betas”, if you’re a nerd with glasses and you don’t have a perfect body, it doesn’t matter how good your personality is, or how brilliant you are, people judge books by covers and it can be very hard to meet people and make friends based on peoples inherent assumptions about you.

Nerds are a group that continue to be stereotyped and painted with a broad-brush. If anything other groups that feel disenfranchised should inherently feel a kinship with nerds, instead of grouping them off, “Oh well you still are a member of the patriarchy, you still have white male privilege”, even though nerds have to deal with being stratified already out of the groups that the article claims that they are a part of (not to mention that not all nerds are WHITE MALES, there are plenty of nerds of all ethnicitys and religions).

And as far as the who hard liner approach to perceiving this hypothetical (but still probably true scenario), you can see the very demonstration of hard liner thinking in this forum alone, just read the previous posts. Everyone immediately drew battle lines and picked sides. you all immediately started looking for what was different about the two characters rather than what was the same which in itself as i see it the whole point behind this comic. They are not so different.

The rest of the comic is just usual male/female gender roles. Which is fair enough, since it’s part of the guy’s daydream.

However, I don’t think it’s about the differences in gender, or the inability of the characters to interact. It’s about the way men who want to ask a woman out work it up into such a huge deal that they talk themselves out of it because they’re convinced something terrible will happen if they make a move. All my male friends do this. It’s ridiculous.

And as far as the who hard liner approach to perceiving this hypothetical (but still probably true scenario), you can see the very demonstration of hard liner thinking in this forum alone, just read the previous posts. Everyone immediately drew battle lines and picked sides. you all immediately started looking for what was different about the two characters rather than what was the same which in itself as i see it the whole point behind this comic. They are not so different.

“The proper reading of such a signal is not “this person is interested in me.”” Who said it was? I only suggested that someone who is using a laptop or is “turned away” shouldn’t be assumed to be someone who is completely disinterested in casual conversation with a stranger.

Jeez timeismine, I hope I never make the mistake of starting a polite conversation with you.

I find it funny that for the most part, everyone in this discussion used “the nerd” and “the woman”. She is using a netbook, writing a blog post, and doing things we definitely class as ‘nerdy’ more than the male in this strip, and yet somehow, he’s “the nerd”. I understand this may have developed as a local response to the original post, but even still my friends.. lol.

The phrase ‘nerd’ is gendered male, and loaded. Some people think that many nerds must be on the Autism spectrum. Some people here think that nerds are less privileged than “manly men”. Maybe these are so (though I agree much more with the latter than the former), but they ignore the nerd woman. The geek chick. The girl on the train.

I don’t think female nerd experiences are different from male experiences as all, Srand, not as much as your husband thinks. He’s drawing differences where there are none, and many people do; You can’t be nerd AND female, so obviously female nerds can’t exist, or at least live lives as unique and terrifying as the Tarrasque.

I think you guys are reading too much into the word ‘cute’. Netbooks ARE cute; small, light, bright… I understand the patronizing connotations, but I think it made a better punchline. Saying this “great netbook” or “nice netbook” or “red netbook” lacks that punch you need to show they are really on the same wavelength, d’aw, how schweeeeeet… Though I dislike the fact the expectation is more on the dude to make a move. Randall is an ally, though, so I won’t read too much into this.

The proper reading of such a signal is not “this person is interested in me.” It isn’t likely that he’ll get a good response. He won’t be upbraided like he imagines… the majority of the time in a case like this the girl would politely speak with him for as brief a period as she could manage before going back to her business. Because that’s how we’re socialized from the damn near the minute we’re born.

Now, okay, the comic tells you she is interested. Then she’s blocking herself, pure and simple. Going by her signals, polite thing for boy is to leave her alone. So she needs to get off her computer, or freakin’ talk to him herself.

“It indicates an interest in casual conversation” with a person who has an interest in writing on their computer. Why should his interest trump hers again?