GEEKS ARE CHIC

'After years of prosecution, ridicule and never, ever getting the girl (or guy), geeks are finally, inefutably, certifiably chic.'
-Neil Feineman, Geekchic, 2005

Being a geek is now more popular and acceptable than ever in history. The meaning of the word 'geek' has changed drastically. 95 years ago, Webster's Dictionary defined a geek as :

1: A carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake.
2: A person often of an intellectual bent who is disliked.

As you noticed, geek was in no way conceived chic or cool, especially the head biter.



But Jon Katz says a geek is someone who is ‘identifiable by a singular obsessiveness about the things they love, both work and play, and a well-honed sense of bitter, even savage outsider humour' (Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho, 2005)

Now, that's more like it.