I just read an excellent article on author John Scalzi’s blog after being linked to it via a Facebook friend. To preface: one of the things I love about being a geek is my ability to just love what I love without justifying it, and instead, as Scalzi points out, sharing it with others. The sharing is the best part of fandom, and it’s what makes a community out of many otherwise disparate people. The thing I like least is the idea of some hierarchy, which is what Scalzi condemns in his blog post. The idea that someone isn’t worthy for X reason, or having some sort of checklist or application process to be a geek goes against the entire lifestyle. To meet standards for being a geek means you’re creating an elitist community, and the whole great thing about being a geek is that it doesn’t have to be elitist. Sure, there are some groups like that, but so what? Let them do their thing. Let another group do their thing. Share the joy of sharing and not feeling the need to justify.

Here’s the link to Scalzi’s post:

Who Gets To Be a Geek? Anyone Who Wants to Be.

And a link to the post to which he’s responding, condescendingly titled Booth Babes Need Not Apply.

Being a geek is about not needing to fit in. In a society that encourages cookie-cutter sameness, having geeky outlets that allow us to display and embrace our differences is refreshing. We should embrace rather than exclude, because that can make all the difference for some people.  Without this attitude of acceptance and sharing and the love of sharing I know I, for one, wouldn’t have met some of the people who are most important in my life–including my best friend and my fiance (oh yeah, Bard and I got engaged!), or the awesome MLHawke.

And that’s just me.  So many other people have found niches and friends and even family through being a geek; to exclude on the basis of “not geek enough” just doesn’t work.