Every Day Is Special: July 15

July 15 – Be a Dork Day

Posted on July 15, 2019

Personally insulting people is a no-good, very bad thing.

(If you don't like what someone is saying or doing, tell them so. But be specific: "I don't like it when you do ____" or "I think that's a mean thing to say!" Don't get into personal insults like, "You're so lame!" or "Gosh, you're dumb" or "You're too ugly to talk to me.")

And making fun of people, bullying them, taunting them, name-calling - these are horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad things, for sure.

A lot of us get teased and taunted and name-called, especially when we are children, and especially in school. Kids with glasses (like my little sister) get teased. Kids with physical problems or differences (like a friend of mine) get teased. Kids with "weird" clothes get teased. (I had to wear "corrective" shoes because I "toed in" a bit, and I was teased for wearing "clodhoppers" and "ugly" shoes. It turns out that such shoes don't actually fix in-toeing at all, and that almost everyone outgrows in-toeing without treatment - so I had to endure all that teasing for no good reason!)

Some kids are teased for being "dumb," and some kids are teased for being "too smart." Strangely, I was teased for both!

I had a hard time with math lessons in elementary school, so I was made to walk down the hall to another, "lower" class for math. I was the only one - so of course I was tortured!

On the other hand, when I was a bit older, I was criticized for being too smart, getting too high of grades and ruining it for everyone else, using too big of words, etc.

Many people taunting kids with good grades avoid the irony of saying "you're too smart" - since "smart" IS a good thing! - by name calling:

Nerd.Geek.Dork.

These insults actually have different dictionary definitions (although they tended to be flung about randomly):

A nerd is defined as someone who is obsessed with something specific, to an annoying degree. Because of this annoying obsessiveness, nerds are supposed to be bad at social interactions. I was surprised to realize that nerd first appeared in print in a Dr. Seuss book (If I Ran the Zoo, published in 1950)!

Kids often use nerd to mean an overly-studious social outcast.

A geek is defined as someone who is odd, bad at social interactions, and interested in computers / technology. This is a really old word that used to mean something more like freak, something used for a circus sideshow act that was really disturbing.

Kids often use geek to mean an overly-studious social outcast.

A dork is defined as someone who is odd, physically awkward, someone who is uncool or uptight, someone who wears unfashionable clothes and is bad at social interactions. It's a slang word that was invented in the mid-1960s.

And even though it is supposed to mean "stupid" more than "smart," kids often use dork to mean an overly-studious social outcast.

The interesting to note that both nerd and geek tend, now, to be words that smart, driven, computer-savvy adults use for themselves proudly. We have taken the words used to torment us and have elevated them into praise - so much so that even advertisers use them in a positive way: "Embrace your inner geekiness!" "For the sci-fi nerd in everyone!" "The latest celebrity nerd to appear on The Big Bang Theory..." "Tune in to Felicia Day's Geek & Sundry YouTube channel!"

But dork, the newest word of the bunch, has not yet become quite as popular and positive. Let's work on that!

Here are some positive spins on "dork":

Be a Dork Day doesn't mean dress differently than normal - and in weird, unfashionable clothes.

Be a Dork Day doesn't mean deliberately dropping stuff or tripping over your own feet.

Be a Dork Day doesn't mean make fun of people you actually think are weird!

Instead, it is a day that challenges us to do the things we want to do - to wear what we want, say what we want, try new hobbies or sports we've been wanting to try - without fear of looking stupid, being awkward, or being teased or criticized.