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Survival of the Smartest?

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Abstract

Lane analyzes current nerd/geek television series, contrasting the depiction of nerddom on The Big Bang Theory with The Great Indoors. In both series, viewers are seeing an evolution of the nerds depicted on-screen. Yet, CBS’s scheduling of the two series back-to-back illuminates a clear “generational divide” between nerds in their 30s and nerds in their 20s. The Great Indoors depicts three versions of “othered” nerd/geek characters in Clark, Mason, and Emma—what Eglash terms a “nerd network”—all of whom contrast with the lead character of Jack, with each representing a different evolution of now-established nerd stereotypes. With The Great Indoors’ “nerd network”, race, gender, and sexuality stereotypes of nerd/geeks are explored, and potentially exploded.

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Bibliography

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Lane, K.E. (2018). Survival of the Smartest?. In: Lane, K. (eds) Age of the Geek. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65744-8_15

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