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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Thagdal" data-source="post: 6121341" data-attributes="member: 95215">I think they get bullied less.This is coming from my perspective as an Australian teacher in primary school, being a geek, and watching the school geek culture change over the last twenty years. Experience will differ of course depending on where you are. I don't know how much awareness you have about current school social environments..BBT, and the fact it's very mainstream, has helped geek culture here grow in strength. Wearing a BBT Tshirt doesn't qualify as a 'nerd' Tshirt.Saying Bazinga is like an earlier generation saying 'doh' from the Simpsons. Seen as mainstream, not geek culture. And those bits overlap with geek stuff, and do make the geek cultures bits become more acceptable as they get blended together.Geek, and identifying as a geek has become much viable. The reaction to kids saying things like BBT stars,  playing WoW, liking science, playing collectible card games at lunch or other things the main (male) roles do on BBT get much less picked on now for those activites. These things used to earn scorn immediately. Giving non geeks a way of seeing these mannerisms in a non threatening way helps. Because a lot of bullying comes from not understanding or not being able to identify with other's behavior. In a similar manner and as a viewpoint, our Autism awareness group loves Sheldon as a way of humanizing the 'odd' behaviors autistic children can have. (Side note: This is despite BBT writers outright saying Sheldon isn't autistic).Seeing geek types as successful is a good thing - all the main male stars on BBT are successfully employed in good jobs, have reasonable success with relationships (for a sit com).Compare the insults and inaccuracies in Revenge of the Nerds compared to BBT and I think it's clear BBT is far more sympathetic and portrays geeks in a much better light. Big Bang Theory is not an almighty engine of positive social change, but on balance it's much more a positive thing than a negative for geeks, and I think does far more good than you realise.</blockquote>

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