The Hip-Nerd Duality

 A response to Jacob's post.


When it comes to hip at the moment, I would say that comics and super heroes are considered hip. For the most part, there are several young adults that would gladly admit to loving super heroes. Particularly since comics seems to be aimed more towards an older audience rather than a younger one. While comics were very popular through the '30s to '50s, there was an understanding that comics were only meant for children. It is difficult for a medium to become hip when it is only meant for certain age groups. If an individual read comics past a certain age it either became something hidden or they became someone to ostracize; hence, the nerds were born.

Hip and nerd culture were not the same thing. Every person does have their own individual tastes. However, culture decides collectively what is hip. Society as a whole tends to think of hip as those who go against the grain. Heroes rose to popularity during the Great Depression and World War II; times when people would be more likely to dream about a hero to come save everyone. By the definition of the origins of heroes, they could not be part of hip because a rebel's goal is not to restore the previously accepted order. In general, people tend to be more comfortable going against norms and traditions when everything is going well. A well known example of a hip generation is the roaring '20s.

 The '20s went well for the U.S. economically. This took place after the social movements of the mid-eighteen hundreds. Jazz and flappers were the hip culture of the time. The older generation hated it. The young folks pushed their buttons and rebelled against the strict morals of earlier generations with: alcohol, jazz, and necking, oh my. While there's nothing wrong with the interests of the '30s and '40s, the interests of those decades lack the cultural mixing that generally accompany hip. Sticking within the accepted segregation lines of the races in the early 20th century was the accepted norm, and the lack of diversity in early Super Hero comics reflects that.

While the '20s was not exactly known for it's racial equality, the two sides of the culture coin were more likely blend and mix their ideas together when the culture was not being disturbed by outside forces. When society became more stable in the later 20th century, people did not have the same desire to fantasize about someone who could save the world from the nightmares happening around them, and feel less desire to revert back to the cultural norms that preserved them before. It could be argued that the current demand for comic book heroes is driven by our difficult times as the first wave of modern, popular hero movies came out in the early 2000s after 9/11 and held continuing popularity throughout our troubles with the Middle East. However, I don't think that is what the cultural love of heroes is at the moment. Nerd culture in general has changed a lot since technology has become more accessible, which allows for a more diverse group of individuals to communicate over the internet. Cultural reactions to the idea of nerds seems to have changed drastically.

 

It may be that interest in comics has risen in the interest of adopting nerdy interests; however, comics seem to be taking on the idea of hip more as more cultures are being represented in comics. Characters of various racial background are represented in the X-Men series. Just last year, another series, Ms. Marvel, was published about a Muslim American super hero, which suggests to me that comics are becoming more inclusive and more able to take on sort of what hip is as more cultures are able to combine their own cultural ideas and share their own experiences as well as rebel against an unequal system.