Gamertell

On page 42 of the April 2008 issue of Wired magazine is a photo featuring six stereotypical Geeks: a Fanboy, Music Geek, Gamer, Gadget Guy, Hacker and Otaku. Each over-generalized category is exemplified by a person modeling what Wired deems appropriate garb and a brief description that includes disposition, beliefs and turn-ons.

Here’s the unusually derogatory description Wired writer/contributor, Troy Brownfield, writes of Gamers:

3.The Gamer
Disposition: High DEX and INT scores, low CHA (thus, the lack of friends). Given to indecipherable insults (“I pwn3d u, n00b!“).
Beliefs: The game Real World has a great physics engine, hi-res graphics, and convincing surround sound, but the learning curve is too steep. Girls should dress like Yuna in Final Fantasy.
Turn-Ons: Spawn points. Haptic feedback. Pac-Man ringtones. Morgan Webb. Split-screen co-op.

Take a closer look at the “Gamer” in the photo. He appears to be unwashed, uncombed and unshaven. He’s wearing a WiiMote like a necklace, a shirt with the words “Video games are my friends” and socks with sandals. Add that to the description and you have what appears to be an antisocial (male), friendless slob who only plays role-playing Wii games (and the occasional first-person shooters?).

Hardy har-har. Jerks. Way to perpetuate negative stereotypes and insult readers.

Obviously trying to be funny, the single-page “Geekster Handbook: A field guide to the identification of unique species in the nerd underground,“ is instead an affront to a potentially large portion of the publication’s readers (or former readers).

What happened to all the love for Gamers, Wired? And since when does 72% of the US population constitute a “unique species” or an “underground?“

I thought educated writers were way beyond gross stereotypes, Brownfield, even those who often write about comic books. Take down that Master’s degree and replace it with either an Insensitivity Certificate or a giant mirror with the image of your own hand pointing back at you printed in the middle.

We wash. We groom. We know how to dress. We have many friends. We have husbands, wives and/or lovers (some more than others). Many of us are women. Some of us even collect comic books, listen to music, like gadgets, are ace hackers and occasionally dress up (usually for Halloween). Some of us even have full-time jobs, wear ties, fill out expense reports and cook dinner with organically grown foods.

How would you react to this:

7. Wired Contributor
Disposition: Cranky and bitter from years of reporting about pop culture although never personally becoming popular. Content with current intellectual superiority and supposed sense of humor.
Beliefs: Writers know readers better than readers know themselves. Stereotypes are reality although I, of course, am exempt. I am the Super-Articulate Walrus.
Turn-Ons: Name in print, fan email, bound collection of self-published works, Chuck Klosterman.

Of course, for all I know, you might even walk around town in a Viking hat, lugging around a replica two-handed broadsword while wearing an Ogre-skin cape you conditioned with your own urine. Maybe you are one of the other Geeks you pigeonholed into a 50-to-60-word description. Trans-Otaku, maybe?

Wired, you may be doing a pretty good job changing with the times and covering videogames (heck, we even link to you from time to time), but why would you let something this insulting go through your certainly lengthy editorial process?

I have contacted the magazine’s editor and the writer for comments concerning the seemingly insensitive nature of the “Geekster Handbook” page. I politely await their responses.

Here’s a scan of the full page from the printed edition of Wired magazine:

Read [Wired] Also Read [Clicz] Also Read [Gemaga] Also Read [ReadWriteWeb]

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