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I will only be quoting part of the interview, but give the led up. John Hodgman has podcast in which he pretends (well, technically I guess he is the judge of the show) to be a judge and settles disputes for people. Generally it is silly stuff like a dad making his daughter watch a movie with him on the weekend and her wanting to not, so much. Well there was an instance of a man who wanted to try and do a marathon and told his wife that it was a one time thing but enjoyed it and began pursuing it even more and eventually to wanting to devote most of his free time preparing for the Iron Man. He sided with the wife that he should stop, for several reasons (she was a doctor and laid out the medical issues, as well as some other issues such as going back on ones word). Some people didn't like it becuase it was his dream but it led to this statement in an interview over at the AV Club:

John Hodgman wrote:I really did feel that this spoke to the fissure between jock culture and nerd culture, jock culture being the dominant feeling that if it has something to do with sports, then it’s okay. If this guy had said, “I really want to move to Antarctica and spend my time perfectly rebuilding the set from John Carpenter’s The Thing,” and he wasn’t being paid by a motion-picture studio to do it as a so-called “prequel,” he’s just doing it for his own sake… If he wanted to spend his blood and treasure to live apart from his family for months to build a perfect TARDIS and I said no, I think all those people who told me, “You’re keeping this man from living his dreams!” would have said, “Nice work for telling that nerd to shut up for once.” But that’s the thing about sports. No matter how mainstream nerd culture may get, sports are still the one thing more people watch live on television than anything else. It is the remnant of the monoculture. Sports will mean more to people than Doctor Who will ever mean, for a lot of different reasons, good and bad. Sports gets what it wants in culture.

Do you think that people would have been less likely to side with him if it were a sport he was going to be focusing the majority of his time on pursuing instead of something else?

It's annoyingly hypocritical...
People can be obsessed with sports. They can spend hours everyday doing sports and yet if someone enjoys a comic because the story is good he is a 'nerd' and people look down on him because of it.
There are people who know every facet and tiny detail of a sports team and yet because someone knows the creation story of LotR they are a nerd and looked down on...
In short: Society is a bitch.

It's okay to paint yourself green and gold, wear a cheese hat, and stand outside in freezing cold weather screaming about how awesome your team is, but it's "nerdy" to wear a Star Trek shirt? Damn you double standards!

I think you can kick the arse out of anything.

Basically, your not a nerd or a dork or a weirdo if you paint mini's or play video games.

Same if you spend a few hours a day on sports.

But if you are a proper fat nerd who doesn't get any exercise at all and you spend 10 hours a day on wow or something, then you are deserving of mockery.

Same if you follow your football team to every A and B game home and away, neglecting your kids in the process, and wear full body paint and get a player tattooed on your back, then people take the piss.

I don't think society has double standards, I think both sets are mocked quite rightly. A wee bit of passion is alright, a ridiculous obsession over your hobby is childish and unhealthy.

One pursuit is viewed by the general populace as "masculine"..the other..not so much...
..can't be a hypocrite here, I played football in High School , and while I didn't pick on the few D&D kids that were around..I admit I always thought of them as...soft.


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mattyrm wrote: I think you can kick the arse out of anything.

Basically, your not a nerd or a dork or a weirdo if you paint mini's or play video games.

Same if you spend a few hours a day on sports.

But if you are a proper fat nerd who doesn't get any exercise at all and you spend 10 hours a day on wow or something, then you are deserving of mockery.

Same if you follow your football team to every A and B game home and away, neglecting your kids in the process, and wear full body paint and get a player tattooed on your back, then people take the piss.

I don't think society has double standards, I think both sets are mocked quite rightly. A wee bit of passion is alright, a ridiculous obsession over your hobby is childish and unhealthy.

And once again I find myself in total agreement with Matty...
Those who can name every single member of the 1965 Green Bay Packers annoy me as much as those who can name every planet in the 40K universe...or quote every episode of Star Trek...
Real world....outside...go get in it.

I find myself agreeing with mattyrm on this subject.. A little passion for your chosen hobby goes a long way. Too much will take you into the land of the obsessive nerd and get you ridiculed. Quite rightly too...
I enjoy a game of 40k as much as I enjoy going to watch a football match and having a pint with my mates, but never to the detriment of my wife, job or family....

mattyrm wrote: I think you can kick the arse out of anything.

Basically, your not a nerd or a dork or a weirdo if you paint mini's or play video games.

Same if you spend a few hours a day on sports.

But if you are a proper fat nerd who doesn't get any exercise at all and you spend 10 hours a day on wow or something, then you are deserving of mockery.

Same if you follow your football team to every A and B game home and away, neglecting your kids in the process, and wear full body paint and get a player tattooed on your back, then people take the piss.

I don't think society has double standards, I think both sets are mocked quite rightly. A wee bit of passion is alright, a ridiculous obsession over your hobby is childish and unhealthy.

Except with such a larger population following sports you think there'd be
more mockery in the culture, but there isn't. The closest we get is throwing
around the term "dumb jock."

However, mention gamers, and we are represented in the culture as being
myopic (both physically and in our perspectives), out of shape in either extreme
(fatasses vs. skinny twigs) and virgins.

malfred wrote:However, mention gamers, and we are represented in the culture as being
myopic (both physically and in our perspectives), out of shape in either extreme
(fatasses vs. skinny twigs) and virgins.

The item mentions people building a model Tardis, ie Doctor Who fans. The stereotype is of the sad vigin living with parents, but I can assure you that quite a lot of these people are not short of sex. The sex antics and boozing at conventions would far outstrip that of other groups.

At one convention I was at the hotel bar staff were heard to say "I've never seen a group of people drink so much". Now considering the diverse events and groups of people a hotel serves, that's probably some achievement. Furthermore, there was no trouble and no violence whatsoever even though people were drinking heavily. You can't generally say that of sports fans.

I've worked in pubs and clubs behind the bar, and I used to dread the live football matches on TV. Whereas the Rugby and Cricket fans got boisterous, yes, but always friendly with it.

As much as it pains me, being a football fan myself, I'd much rather be in a pub either as a customer or as a member of staff with Cricket and Rugby fans than your averedge Football fan....*shrugs* but that's off topic to some extent.....

Why, nerdly pursuits can be combined with sportly pursuits!

I man, I play blood bowl occasionally, htat's sportly, right?

Melissia wrote:Why, nerdly pursuits can be combined with sportly pursuits!

I man, I play blood bowl occasionally, htat's sportly, right?

Im glad your taking the piss, otherwise you might have fell into the unhealthy category.

God, I've gotten so much grief through the years for wanting to play with toy soldiers instead of wanting to watch baseball. I always respond the same way: "I don't like watching sports, especially baseball. It's a boring game during which you miss the only three seconds of real action because you're too busy getting another $9 bud lite. I like playing sports though. Hell, I'd even willing to watch sports, were it to be something like football or rugby, because at least things happen in those games."

What I really want to know is why it's looked more highly upon to blankly consume a sports game on TV than it is to actually PRODUCE something like scratchbuilding and painting some 40k stuff.

Coolyo294 wrote:It's okay to paint yourself green and gold, wear a cheese hat, and stand outside in freezing cold weather screaming about how awesome your team is, but it's "nerdy" to wear a Star Trek shirt? Damn you double standards!

Same comment on grown men who will never rope a cow dressing up en masse as cowboys and being one of the most generally homophobic cultures ever. They're the ones wearing overpriced, silly hats and boots.

Which is ironic, because 'cowboy' is such a frequently used name in gay bars around here.

Of course, like I've always said with that ilk, "Methinks you doth protest TOO much."

I like to sit around, watch football, and make MLP and Star Trek references.

It's hilarious when people walk in.