This weekend I was lucky enough to attend another Halloween party. It was fun, entertaining, and people wore fantastic costumes. I of course, went as myself, but that’s not the point. What I find interesting, and fun, is that couples continue to wear matching costumes. As a matter of fact, the two hosts were Cleopatra and the Pharaoh. That’s kind of cool, and it seems that couples are either more affectionate, or at least playing the role new in public. The PDA is strong, based on my own observations.
Now, love is an interesting and fickle subject. No two people approach the subject the same, or interpret it the same, or even feel the same. Emotions rise and fall with the tide, and even sexual orientation can affect how one approaches love. Then, there’s geek love.
Those who’ve been to this blog before, may know about Geek Love Radio, a podcast I was lucky enough to do with some pretty awesome people. The opinions expressed, the emotions felt, and the experiences had were all genuine. Which leads me to the belief that geek love is another facet that is different from the “usual” relationship. Now, mind you, I could be wrong, but geek love is marketed differently, with video game and pop culture references, movie tie ins, and cartoon anecdotes. The “geek” can approach relationships, based on fandom or hobbies. A geek may value knowledge and experience over OVERALL physical appearance and even distance. Not that other people who are dating don’t do the same thing, but I believe in the geek realm, it’s a little more nuanced. “How have you not seen Orphan Black?!”
Interestingly enough, this makes me believe, that the barrier to entry with geek love is a little harder to break through. We as geeks can pride ourselves in our obscure knowledge and find accomplishment in the things we’ve read and watched. We even have an hierarchy of sorts with the kind of geek you are, whether you’re a comic book, movie, literary, video game, tv, pop culture, etc., kind of geek. That can determine your value in the dating pool.
Is this petty? Well, maybe. All people of all walks of life do it too. We sometimes forget about personality or sense of humor and go straight for what kind of work the other person does, or do they live in a nice house, or drive a nice car. Some of which can be important, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes we value the wrong things.
Then there are the socially awkward, often associated with the geek. They’re not one and the same, but I kind of get the historical significance. So the shy and the anxious get lumped in with the other geeks, and that’s not a bad thing, it’s just interesting. So with geek love, it sometimes feels more complicated and more heavy than “regular” relationships.
Of course there are many more facets to relationships than this. There are the Type A folk who are no nonsense and get what they want, when they want it. We have those who have the looks and personality to where no effort is needed in the relationship front. There are the con men, the fools, the aggressors, and the meek, the assholes, the nice guys, and the people who feel they deserve love. For some reason, we always forget the single and content. We still live in a world where everyone must be paired off, and the single guy or gal seems like some kind of weird disease.
I wrote all that to say one thing. I understand why people are so down on relationships, especially if they want one. Relationships seem so gloom and doom nowadays with all the divorcing, and the public cheating, and the forever alones. Sure there’s a percentage of us who are all sad and alone, but I see so much geek love out there. It ebbs and flows online, in games, in comic book shops and cafes. I see way more couples than I see, what I can only assume, are single folk. People just love to couple together. We just can’t stay away from each other. I’m not saying it’s a guarantee or that we deserve to fall in love. But for those who struggle, know that geek love is a thing, and it grows more and more popular everyday.
