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Why is reading 'dorky'?

I spent a lot of my summers reading. In my room, door closed. My twin brother would definitely call me names and torment me if he knew I was reading. I would think this would be more prevelant among boys. We always considered a 'book worm' to be somewhat of a sissy.

I was a closet reader through High School. I would hang out with the jocks from the baseball/football team, smoke pot with the Drama club, and go to parties with the potheads. Then I'd go home and read for a couple of hours!

Definitely dorky. I agree, though, those who were calling "Dork" will end up working for those whom they call "dork".
 
I know someone who has fairly recently started reading books more regularly. He's admitted that in the past he used to be worried about being seen in public with a book. I find this confusing. Now that he reads more he's changed his attitude.

Dorky? Nerdy? Geeky?

Guilty on all counts, personally. And I don't care.
 
sorry, but i can't even say if reading is dorky or anything else... i read as long as i can remember (except the things i should read for school, but this books are just too boring to bother with) and i don't think a lot of people think bad things about it.
 
I've always read a lot, this has resulted in me usually having a much broader knowledge of just about everything than my peers, it has evened out a bit by now, but when I was a kid the difference in knowledge base between me an my classmates was huge. This made me 'the professor', the one the teachers called on to help the less bright kids, which only asserted my image of being the know-it-all. I've had major truoble getting rid of the image again. Mainly because I got into the habit of 'being' a teacher. So whenever people asked me something I always lapse into the teacher attitude and simply start a minor lecture on possible relevant answers, I still do so at times.

At first my books didn't inhibit me socially, but when my peers rejected me because of the knowledge I gained from those books, that lack of social contact was merely replaced by more books and I was happy... until I finally needed some social skills and realised I had none.

Reading is frowned upon amongst many kids and young people. In Denmark where I live I think it's mainly because those who know more than others are generally disliked because "they're over achievers". It's the Danish mentality, if someone has success and I don't they must have cheated. So books are considered cheating. Reading extra means you're trying to charm your way into the teacher's good graces and curry favour that way, the possibility that you simply like to read does not exist.

It's depressing really.
 
I think that it is strange that a person who does not read books because they scorn them would make fun of someone who does. How do they know what reading is like? maybe it can be written off as plain run-of-the-mill bullying.

I suppose I could be accused of being odd, because I spend my lunch break reading and write DONT PANIC on my school books, but I dont give a pair of fetid dingo's kidneys what they think. Maybe I will be a hermit when im older (im enough of one already :D), Im sure I can find a nice cave in Nepal or something.
 
i believe that it all depends on the people you are educated with i have experience of education with book burning idiots and to be educated with people who embrace reading. these people who embrace intelligence have welcomed me with open arms and are not dorks or geeks. so like i said it is only considered to be geeky by those who are afraid of reading and would rather pick their scabs upon their knees.


REMEMBER IF THEY ASK YOU WHY U READ

REPLY LIKE THIS



BECAUSE I CAN!:D
 
I think it is just the old human nature coming out in people. There's a tendancy to belittle what we don't understand in order to make ourselves feel better. Its like a schoolyard bully, who always has hangers-on..kids who go along just to keep the bully from turning on them. None readers who do this are just trying to keep the attention off why they aren't reading too.
 
I never really paid attention to whether books were "uncool" or not in school. I just always had one and would read unless there was someone I wanted to talk to nearby. I was never considered a geek or a dork though because I was seen as too eccentric for those type of labels. Freak was more suiting to me. ;)
 
Going against the grain of what is "cool" isn't nerdy or geeky to me. What is truly sad is that there are those who follow the "cool" herd and will go to parties or activities not out of enjoyment, but rather, desire to curry favor with those who supposedly bestow the title of "cool." At my own school, there are some great kids who defy the standard of what others think constitutes a good time and being a good person. Things such as drinking to excess, engaging in risky behavior, and doing bad in school are the route to success by more than a few groups that I've noticed. Fortunately, there are some strong and independent souls who tend to read a lot of books. Perhaps it's noticing strong characters or having expanded their vocabulary in such a way that theire world and mindset is much more expanded-hence the less likely they are to fall for the foibles of those who are less literate, but more prone to be "cool."
 
SFG75 said:
Going against the grain of what is "cool" isn't nerdy or geeky to me.
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I couldn't agree more, SFG, but unfortunately these things that we know now only come with time to many. It takes a lot of self confidence to be able to defy the norm and I applaud those that do... but self confidence to stand out from the crowd takes years for many others.
 
SFG75 said:
Things such as drinking to excess, engaging in risky behavior, and doing bad in school are the route to success by more than a few groups that I've noticed.
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i had good notes, but other than that i just realise that i was a very cool kid :p :p :D :D
 
Well, when I was at school, I did hang out with the cool kids. I did some of the stupid things they did and I didn't do some of the other stupid things they did. My friends knew that I would do what I wanted to do, no matter how much they harrassed me to follow them. So if, when they called to ask me to go somewhere, I replied with, "No, I'm reading a good book," they just accepted it as something I would do. Yes, they thought I was a bit strange, after all, how could I possibly prefer a good book to their company? But that was nothing new, they thought I was strange anyway because I didn't follow the crowd.

On the other hand, when I first started going out with my husband he used to quite often threaten to rip the last pages out of my book if I didn't stop reading and pay him some attention. :p He was a cool kid. :rolleyes: He never did rip out those pages, of course. Instead I introduced him to reading and now he enjoys it as much as I always have.
 
i dont understand that myself, i mean im seventeen an when i split from my ex boyfriend of two years i buried my head in books, since then i have had better reading and writting skills (used to be really bad) and i enjoy getting causght up in the fantisy, i dont understand either book who cares, be your self for yourself not no one else :)
 
I've had experience all over the spectrum. When I was about 12 or so, I was the new kid at a school with a large population of highly intelligent students (it was a "magnet" school). Unfortunately for me, I was so incredibly nerdy that even the nerds refused to hang out with me, so I spent many a lunch period on the bleachers by the track by myself, reading. Then a few years later, I went to a high school that was very academically oriented, where I fit in with a few crowds and really wasn't that nerdy, and with all the schoolwork I had to do, I didn't much feel like reading in my spare time. Then when I went to university, I really felt at home. It was common (at this uni, at least) to see even the jocks sitting on a bench in the quad, reading a book (once, I caught a football player friend reading The Three Musketeers ... in French, color me impressed :cool: )

I have a niece who is a voracious reader and the smartest kid in her class and she gets teased mercilessly for it:( . I will have to pass on dermot's little quip "because I can" for her to use next time she gets asked why she reads. Her mother and I have told her not to bother with them and all that, but when you're ten, friends mean a lot.
 
Something I've noticed about kids who read vs kids who don't is they tend to have more imaginative playtimes. By this I mean when they play with other kids, they tend to introduce elements from the books they read. For example, when my oldest girls discovered The Boxcar Children, they would get the younger boy next door and their younger siblings together and asign parts to play like they were the boxcar children. It was wonderful to watch, and funny since the kid next door was too young to read, and his parents hadn't read the books to him, but he got into the spirit of the game just fine. So, who's the dork? The kids(even the over 18 ones) who poke fun at readers and call us dorks are totally clueless. They're laughing at us when they're the ones who are the losers. And I don't mean that term in a derrogatory way. They miss out on the fun of getting a great story, or learning something new. They miss the boat and laugh at US?? Who's the real dork in this picture?
 
cajunmama said:
I have a niece who is a voracious reader and the smartest kid in her class and she gets teased mercilessly for it:( . I will have to pass on dermot's little quip "because I can" for her to use next time she gets asked why she reads. Her mother and I have told her not to bother with them and all that, but when you're ten, friends mean a lot.
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thanx i will feel good now because of my little quip protecting fellow book lovers
 
I think the main reason that reading is labelled as "dorky" Is that kids who read a lot outside of school excel in academic subjects such as history, science and especially english. I know I get glared at when I admit to have read whatever book my english lit teacher is waving at the class, or answer questions In science or history and come first in exams, maybe it has something to do with intelligence? If this is so, it is as if they are saying normal people should not be intelligent or intelligence is wrong?

I dont understand people... I really am going to find a nice, warm cave in Nepal for me and my books...
 
I just think that there is a trend (in the states at least) toward mediocrity, unless it is super macho athleticism. Don't excel at anything, just do barely enough to get by and anything more is kissing butt. I've told my neice that the kids who tease her about being smart are idiots and later in life, when they have to sweat to earn a buck, with her brain, she'll be the one sitting behind a desk telling them what to do. They tease her for being smart, like being stupid is cool?
 
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