| One day when I had nothing to do (well, actually, I | | | | down." In the New York Times article, she added, |
| had a lot to do, but I didn't want to do any of it), I | | | | ''I'm obsessed with the nerd look right now,'' adding |
| decided to play the Google game. This is the one | | | | that a number of designers appear to be similarly |
| where you input your own name or something else | | | | taken with all things dorky. ''Paul Smith did it in |
| into the field in quotes to see how many search | | | | London,'' she said. ''Lacoste did it here in New York. |
| results you get. Because my most recent book, | | | | Luella also did the geek look. In her own kind of |
| Queen Geeks in Love, was coming out soon, I | | | | funny, twisted way, Betty has her own sense of |
| decided to search the term "geek." What I found | | | | style. It's kooky, but it's totally her.'' (New York |
| astounded me. I got more nearly 70 million hits from | | | | Times, October 2006). USA Today even noted that |
| the word "geek." That's million. So, I figured that | | | | "Knowledge is power and geek is chic. If you're a |
| most every term would fetch that many results, or | | | | cyber whiz who is plugged into the pop-culture world |
| close to it. I started with what I would assume is the | | | | of sci-fi, fantasy, comic books and cult horror, maybe |
| antithesis of 'geek': the "gossip girl', which yielded | | | | even the master of a Web shrine devoted to such |
| 3,560,000. 'Beauty Queen" yielded 1,750.000. Glamour | | | | once-arcane matters, you don't just rule. You rock." |
| came the closest to geek, with 44,600,000, but as | | | | Scholars are even on the geek bandwagon. One |
| you can plainly see, being glamorous is nothing | | | | Danish scholar wrote a dissertation on geek culture |
| compared to being geeky, statistically. Even the | | | | and cited it as "the third counterculture" after hippies |
| trendy "fashionista" only turned back 5,590,000 | | | | and yuppies. "The geek culture is changing the norm, |
| results. So what does this mean? Is Google a valid | | | | transforming mainstream culture," writes Lars |
| measurement of popular culture? I suppose it's not | | | | Konzack in his thesis, titled "Geek culture, the third |
| extremely scientific, but it does seem to be in | | | | counterculture" " Not long ago nobody would have |
| indication of how many sites mention the word, | | | | known outside the geek culture what was meant by |
| which, by the way, originated as a circus term for a | | | | player character, experience points, level gain, and hit |
| person who bit the heads off live animals. Thankfully, | | | | points. Now it seems like everybody knows. The |
| that particular aspect of geekdom seems to have | | | | geek culture is transforming mainstream cultures and |
| faded out, unless you count Ozzy Osbourne in his | | | | it's just the beginning of a general cultural change in |
| former glory days. If you look to the true measure | | | | that direction," Lars Konzack, Aalborg University, |
| of what's out there in the zeitgeist, check your local | | | | Denmark. In my own novels, Queen Geek Social Club |
| television listings. This fall, every new show seems to | | | | and Queen Geeks in Love, the self-professed geeks |
| be supernatural (which is within the realm of the | | | | of the title are girls who unapologetically are |
| geek.) We have Moonlight, a vampire tale. We have | | | | themselves. They like science and science fiction, but |
| Journeyman, Supernatural, Ghost Whisperer, and | | | | they also like fashion and guys. They want to change |
| Medium. The biggies-Lost and Heroes-sell DVD | | | | the world, but they also want to enjoy it. I like to |
| collections in droves. Geeks are no longer hiding in | | | | think of them as the geek I never was in high |
| their cyberclosets. As early as 2001, the term "geek | | | | school-confident, comfortable, clever. They know |
| chic" began to be used, and in fact, a London clothing | | | | who they are, and although they struggle with |
| company ran a campaign using that very term to | | | | self-doubt and anxiety like all teenagers, they use |
| market its clothing. Fast forward to last year, when | | | | their intelligence and the support of their geek sisters |
| ABC premiered a show called Ugly Betty, with | | | | to get through it all. In the end, it's a great message |
| America Ferrera starring as an anti-fashion uber-geek. | | | | to send to girls (or guys), and it reminds me of |
| Well, guess who was on the October 2007 cover of | | | | something someone once wrote in the margin of my |
| Glamour Magazine? That's right. The geeky girl. Of | | | | yearbook: "be the way you are and you'll go far." Go |
| course, they glammed her up, but still, I couldn't help | | | | geeks. |
| but feel that someone from my team finally made it | | | | Laura Preble is a journalist, singer, teacher, and writer |
| to the big leagues. Gloria Baume, a fan of Ugly Betty | | | | from San Diego. Her first Queen Geek novel is The |
| and a fashion editor at Teen Vogue, told the New | | | | Queen Geek Social Club, followed up this fall with |
| York Times that Betty's "geek-chic look could trickle | | | | Queen Geeks in Love. |