If you read my blogs regularly (or listen to Geek Watch One), you know I got a new car a few months ago. Along with that, obviously, came new license plates. It should surprise no one that I got myself vanity plates – they say “SHE GEEK”. What I didn’t realize when I chose what was a (to me) pretty self-explanatory phrase was that I would actually need to explain it on a relatively regular basis. 

It’s not the entire phrase that people ask about, just the word “geek”. Yes, odd as it may seem with the prevalence of geek culture right now, I have had to explain to people what geek means. Of course, this has been people outside my usual circle – family, coworkers, norm acquaintances. I suppose it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that non-geeks are asking for explanations, but I suppose I didn’t expect it to happen as often as it does.

My mom isn’t into pop culture and she asked what my plate meant – I expected that (even though she was married to a geek and raised one!). But my uncle (only a couple years younger than my mom) said he never even heard the word “geek” when he was younger, which I find difficult to believe, to be honest. It’s not a new concept, though the acceptance of it and people embracing it in themselves has developed only over the past decade or so.

And it’s not just needing to define geek, but doing so without using common geek terms. So I revert to talking about interests in pop culture, comics, movies, technology and science as a generalization that most understand. I don’t get into cons and cosplay and sci-fi or any of the other specifics. I know whoever is asking isn’t all that interested, just curious to know what it means. I appreciate that they are asking and happy to spread the geek wherever I can.