Most articles have called Mr. Rodger's racist beliefs to be irrelevant (they're not, but I won't be discussing them here). Most people have called out his banter as sexist beliefs gone too far ( once something is sexist, it's already gone too far). And finally, mental illness has been used as a criticism shield for what honestly does not seem as irrational as people make it out to be. Many have portrayed his actions as the musings of a psychotic, but if one examines nerd culture and how it has become embedded in mainstream culture, then the sick inspiration for his massacre becomes quite clear.
Now don't take that as an advocacy for what he did. On the contrary, this is my attempt at being as frank as possible about what many men refuse to admit about Rodger's actions. I have been around plenty of men who would have joked about doing what he said he was going to do in his manifesto. Everyone in the male community seems to be saving face with this dumbfounded game of "who would honestly do this", but at least in many nerd and geek circles, the murdering of women, especially "popular" women is something joked about in closed doors among mostly male audiences. Now the nerd culture aspect of this case has been covered in this article by the daily beast, but one key aspect the author failed to address is how nerd culture has become embedded in main stream culture. You see many people who consider themselves a part of "nerd/geek culture" like to delude themselves into believing people still openly make fun of people over playing video games, being intelligent, and liking comic books. I mean come on nerd iconography is everywhere. Nowadays to be cool, you need to be a bit of a nerd and the qualifying statements people used to give about liking video games and knowing a lot about Star Wars is no longer necessary. Does this mean mainstream culture has adopted all of Nerd Culture? No, there is plenty of Nerd culture that is too anti conformist to be adopted into mainstream culture.
However, misogyny has always existed and those aspects of nerd culture fit right into this 21st century world, where oppression occurs through forced smiles and institutional barriers. Nerd misogyny is especially adaptive to 21st century misogynists because as it currently exists it is usually done anonymously and can be easily discounted through the "timid nerd"rouse (e.g. the nerd blames his social awkwardness for his social faux pas). We can see it in the tremendous amount of hostility male gamers show towards female gamers. We can see it in many an angry nerd rant one could find on youtube. If people think Elliot Rodger's videos are unique, then I am sad to say that I've seen plenty of videos where men lament over women not liking them and eventually come to the same conclusion Rodger's had (i.e. women must be wrong, since I am entitled to them). This leads to a regular proliferation of rape/violent fantasies. These fantasies are told in the form of a joke or a hypothetical. There is always some sort of misdirection that absolves the men discussing the fantasy of their shame. The fantasy always picks on an illusion of a "popular girl" caste that has been denied to the men and stereotypes these women as "sluts". What is disturbing is how much has changed since when an actual popularity caste system existed, the 1950s (think of the movie Grease). Today a diversity of cliques are given prestige and acknowledgement, especially in college. In short, nerds want to pretend that they have been spited by an immutable caste system that prevents them from dating "popular pretty girls", when such a caste system doesn't exist and even if it did the culture milieu of mainstream culture is in their favor anyways. To make matters worse, many nerds aren't even what we'd consider to be the traditional "nerd". Drop the pocket protector and glasses, many "nerds" are suave, good looking, and socially competent individuals. Yet they'll still cry the victim and use that fake victimization as an excuse to joke about violent acts towards women.
This post is meant to cut through the bullshit. Many people have called it misogyny, but efforts such as #notallmen like to plant a seed of doubt, which insinuates that most men don't do things like this. Sorry to break it to ya, but as far as I know, many men do think about things like this. And they laugh and constantly joke to their buddies about it. It's not some mystery as to where this stereotypical generalization of sorority houses come from and it's not mystery as to why he believes he's entitled to women. Most men do believe they are entitled to women. That's the problem.
Now don't take that as an advocacy for what he did. On the contrary, this is my attempt at being as frank as possible about what many men refuse to admit about Rodger's actions. I have been around plenty of men who would have joked about doing what he said he was going to do in his manifesto. Everyone in the male community seems to be saving face with this dumbfounded game of "who would honestly do this", but at least in many nerd and geek circles, the murdering of women, especially "popular" women is something joked about in closed doors among mostly male audiences. Now the nerd culture aspect of this case has been covered in this article by the daily beast, but one key aspect the author failed to address is how nerd culture has become embedded in main stream culture. You see many people who consider themselves a part of "nerd/geek culture" like to delude themselves into believing people still openly make fun of people over playing video games, being intelligent, and liking comic books. I mean come on nerd iconography is everywhere. Nowadays to be cool, you need to be a bit of a nerd and the qualifying statements people used to give about liking video games and knowing a lot about Star Wars is no longer necessary. Does this mean mainstream culture has adopted all of Nerd Culture? No, there is plenty of Nerd culture that is too anti conformist to be adopted into mainstream culture.
However, misogyny has always existed and those aspects of nerd culture fit right into this 21st century world, where oppression occurs through forced smiles and institutional barriers. Nerd misogyny is especially adaptive to 21st century misogynists because as it currently exists it is usually done anonymously and can be easily discounted through the "timid nerd"rouse (e.g. the nerd blames his social awkwardness for his social faux pas). We can see it in the tremendous amount of hostility male gamers show towards female gamers. We can see it in many an angry nerd rant one could find on youtube. If people think Elliot Rodger's videos are unique, then I am sad to say that I've seen plenty of videos where men lament over women not liking them and eventually come to the same conclusion Rodger's had (i.e. women must be wrong, since I am entitled to them). This leads to a regular proliferation of rape/violent fantasies. These fantasies are told in the form of a joke or a hypothetical. There is always some sort of misdirection that absolves the men discussing the fantasy of their shame. The fantasy always picks on an illusion of a "popular girl" caste that has been denied to the men and stereotypes these women as "sluts". What is disturbing is how much has changed since when an actual popularity caste system existed, the 1950s (think of the movie Grease). Today a diversity of cliques are given prestige and acknowledgement, especially in college. In short, nerds want to pretend that they have been spited by an immutable caste system that prevents them from dating "popular pretty girls", when such a caste system doesn't exist and even if it did the culture milieu of mainstream culture is in their favor anyways. To make matters worse, many nerds aren't even what we'd consider to be the traditional "nerd". Drop the pocket protector and glasses, many "nerds" are suave, good looking, and socially competent individuals. Yet they'll still cry the victim and use that fake victimization as an excuse to joke about violent acts towards women.
This post is meant to cut through the bullshit. Many people have called it misogyny, but efforts such as #notallmen like to plant a seed of doubt, which insinuates that most men don't do things like this. Sorry to break it to ya, but as far as I know, many men do think about things like this. And they laugh and constantly joke to their buddies about it. It's not some mystery as to where this stereotypical generalization of sorority houses come from and it's not mystery as to why he believes he's entitled to women. Most men do believe they are entitled to women. That's the problem.
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