Session Four The Nerd (In Us All) Department of Film & Audiovisual Culture, Masaryk University Dr. Richard Nowell ¨ ¨ ¨To develop a sound understanding of: ¨ ¨1. The construction of the nerd. ¨ ¨2. Nerd media as Comfort Viewing ¨ ¨3. The economics of nerd cultivation. ¨ ¨As well as revising understandings of industry history and cultural history, Comfort Viewing helps us better understand aspects of content ¨ ¨This is because it furnishes us with a different filter through which to examine media, based on media’s pursuit of positive viewer sentiment ¨ ¨The CVM permits analyses that approach content as having been used so as to be relevant, appealing, and supportive for targeted audiences ¨ ¨Considering how such content speaks to these folks promises to provide a clearer picture of how it is meant to be understood and used by them ¨ ¨Referring to the CVM promises to enrich appreciation of a reoccurring but rather misunderstood Comfort Viewing character-type: the nerd ¨As surprising as it may sound, the figure of the nerd has been a prominent character-type in Comfort Viewing over the years ¨ ¨A reason for this tendency is that the emotional uplift central to comfort viewing derives from displays of achievement ¨ ¨Cognitive film theorists argued that sentiment was presaged on being touched by seeing characters overcoming challenges ¨ ¨And Media Psychologists showed actual viewers felt a greater connection to characters when they were pictured as outsiders ¨ ¨I submit that these two Comfort Viewing qualities converge when we witness outsiders challenge their outsider status ¨ ¨ ¨Before considering how nerds have been imagined in academic and industry circles, we need to consider an issue about gender ¨ ¨In the Anglophone world, Nerdom was seen to intersect with dedicated fandom and belonging to youthful subcultures ¨ ¨Both fandom and subcultural belonging were imagined as masculine phenomena, and thus in relation to men and boys ¨ ¨This led to traditionally feminine “girl nerds” being all but erased culturally, or presented as essentially in male-nerd-drag ¨ ¨The assumed maleness of the traditional nerd figure is a product of masculinized/patriarchal culture, albeit not a flattering one… ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨Quail is among the scholars examining media representations of nerds, drawing negative conclusions of their depiction in 2000s reality TV ¨ ¨Drawn from fairly niche media texts, her findings still offer us a useful reference point to explore portrayals of nerds in more prominent output ¨ ¨1. What traits constitute US media depictions of nerds? ¨ ¨2. How is this social type related to US media depiction of other groups of people? ¨ ¨3.What changes do nerds often undergo in Quail’s examples? ¨ ¨Quail argues that the nerd is a social and media type constructed around psychosocial and sexual failure, and by special interests ¨ ¨She posits that the nerd exists as a concept through contrast with the Jock (as a symbol of idealized white male heteronormativity) ¨ ¨She suggests several reality shows in the 2000s tried to habilitate nerds, transforming them into cool, detached, sexualized hipsters ¨ ¨Ultimately, Quail expresses her hostility to such efforts, arguing that they are misogynistic, racist, homophobic, and exclusionary ¨ ¨Her critique of nerd portrayals (ergo their makers) evokes a “Jock Gaze” that rendered nerds pathetic or pathological to begin with ¨Nerds have been ridiculed as outcasts because their failure to realize dominant sociocultural norms supposedly merits rebuke ¨ ¨In this discourse, the threat nerds pose to the normative order is positioned as symbolic; they denaturalize social norms ¨ ¨This discourse casts onto others concerns that one’s standing is vulnerable due to perceived social, sexual, psychological failings ¨ ¨In this discourse, nerds’ special interests serve as supposed signs of immaturity and obsession; of failed masculine socialization ¨ ¨This logic is circular though: nerds are of low standing as their interests are of low standing because nerds are of low standing ¨ ¨ ¨Nerdom has also been routinely cast as a cluster of disagreeable personality traits poised to tip into serious antisocial behaviors ¨ ¨This discourse summons sociopathy as it otherizes an inability or unwillingness fully to adhere to social, cultural, and sexual norms ¨ ¨Rather than being solely cast as a figure of low standing, such discourses render the nerd monstrous; fearsome and loathsome ¨ ¨In this discourse special interests are not cast as pathetic or as juvenile per se, but as symptoms of an unhealthily obsessive mind ¨ ¨This discourse has been used to demonize fictional and real folks due to “inappropriate” devotion to what are deemed “bad objects” ¨ ¨1. What issues do nerds face in the screened episodes of this series? ¨ ¨2. What roles do the nerds special interests play in their lives? ¨ ¨3. To what extent do these episodes suggest nerds are really the “cool” people? ¨ ¨ ¨It invites the nerd in us all to join four nerds seeking to forge bonds while coping with their interpersonal and psychological challenges ¨ ¨It swiftly posits compassionate grounds for their awkwardness: social anxiety disorder, low self esteem, autistic spectrum disorder ¨ ¨Nerd sexualization is negotiated; the sexual focus of the pilot is diluted; Sheldon is coded as asexual, Leonard hopelessly romantic ¨ ¨It is also critiqued in the characterization of Howard, whose sexual bravado is presented as insincere, intrusive, unwelcomed, and rude ¨ ¨Their interests, like comfort media, are presented as nostalgic, social, rewarding, joy-giving (and preferable to antisocial jocks) ¨ ¨ ¨1. What issues do nerds face in this film? ¨ ¨2. What roles do the nerds’ special interests play in their lives? ¨ ¨3. To what extent does this film suggest nerds are really the “cool” people? ¨This film allegorizes how Comfort Viewing helps lonely nerds forge a global imagined community based on taste and values ¨ ¨Paul is less the hipster-as-facilitator-of-socialization than a symbol of media industries’ capacity to enrich this community ¨ ¨Via engagement with Paul, and shared special interests, the outsiders come together and improve their unhappy lives ¨ ¨The film transforms nerdom into a facet of a fairly inclusive humanism that is contrasted to villains cast as jock-ish bullies ¨ ¨Linking Paul to earlier comfort viewing like E.T. emphasizes the film’s psychosocial ambitions and promise to its viewers ¨ paul-movie-screen.jpg paul tableaux.jpg paul audience.jpg ¨As these examples suggest, approaching nerd-centered media as comfort viewing begets different readings of the character-type ¨ ¨By considering how such media tries to foster positive sentiments in the nerd (in us all), we can avoid the pitfalls of a jock gaze ¨ ¨Approaching media from a nerd’s perspective suggests that such depictions cultivate this audience through sympathy and flattery ¨ ¨This calibrates the Comfort Viewing Mode to the needs of viewers thought to struggle to connect with others beyond special interests ¨ ¨Special interests are transformed from unhealthy to comforting, much like the media in which they feature is for nerd viewers ¨ ¨Efforts to rehabilitate the nerd in the popular imagination have transformed this figure into an industry-friendly role model ¨ ¨Such conduct imagines nerds less as lost social causes than as folks needing more time and help to achieve social integration ¨ ¨Special interests are in turn transformed from a sign of pathology into on-screen vehicles for the psychosocial development of nerds ¨ ¨The celebration of special media interests offers a reflexive guide to interpreting content, and an embodiment of brand loyalty ¨ ¨Media industries stand to profit from constructing viewers as nerds, because nerds are distinguished as high-investors in media ¨Relatively flattering portrayals of nerd characters also serve the branding strategies of Anglophone media industries as inclusive ¨ ¨Since about 2016, these industries have mobilized progressive branding to maximize consumption, especially among the young ¨ ¨Poised to become media industry ideology, this logic has seen flattering centralizations of hitherto neglected or maligned folks ¨ ¨The white male outcast or deviant nerd has now been supplanted by a range of demographics struggling to make their way in life ¨ ¨Nerdom is recast as a facet of identity coexisting with others, from aging academic to fun-starved girl to grieving action hero ¨These industrially-driven shifts have been rendered viable by, and helped to cement, recent cultural and epistemological shifts ¨ ¨Consequently, popularized – and improved – understandings of Autism suggested that the nerd demanded rethinking culturally ¨ ¨These interventions indicated that negative portrayals of nerds risked amounting to insensitive caricatures of neurodiversity ¨ ¨The prominence of the incel subculture facilitated conceptual decoupling of deviant sexual failure from the nerd as autist ¨ ¨Hence a conceptual split into socially awkward but sympathetic media fans, and threatening sexually unsuccessful outcasts ¨ ¨ ¨Approaching media as comfort viewing helps to develop a better sense of key aspects of content, including prominent character-types like the nerd ¨ ¨Defined by psychosocial and sociosexual struggles, and special interests, the nerd has been largely otherized in popular and academic discourse ¨ ¨Where on-screen nerds are imagined as pathetic or pathological, scholars have demonized efforts to elevate nerd representation as sexist and racist ¨ ¨But the CVM indicates depictions of nerds are meant to support the nerd (in us all), recasting special interests as tools of personal development ¨ ¨Such practices represent an effort to depathologize nerds to protect high-investors, maximize consumption, and support media branding strategies ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨The Comfort Viewing Mode also enriches our understanding media formats, including one of the most prominent and persistent types of comfort viewing ¨ ¨Topic: Tourist Movies ¨ ¨Readings: Negra, Tourist Movies. ¨ ¨Home Screenings: Leap Year (2011), ¨ The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) ¨ ¨[Preparatory Questions on MS TEAMS and in the Syllabus] ¨ ¨Meeting: Thursday 30 November