"Nerd Culture" is Not as Mainstream as You Think.
I think one of a handful of reasons Batman v Superman was so immedeately threatening to the status quo that it needed to be rejected was because it not just asks but demands that we, as geeks, as fans, be taken seriously.
There’s been a lot of people pushing the idea that nerd is mainstream now, or generally acceptable, that this is the era of the nerd, but this acceptability is kept within tight parameters. One needs only to watch a single episode of The Big Bang Theory in order to arrive at that conclusion.
We are allowed in the mainstream of the culture so long as we are self-deprecating, as long as we don’t take ourselves too seriously. The MCU has been getting great reviews by doing just that, by embracing a Whedon-flavor of nerd self-shame and groveling to the people who may not be willing to suspend their disbelief about aliens or demi-gods. It’s for this same reason that Thor has been edged further and further out of the spotlight, representing something other-worldly that audiences MUST decide to take seriously in order for the story to work.
They don’t want to take us seriously, and the critical reaction to Batman v Superman proves as much. That should worry you no matter what your fandom allegiance is. We’re hitting the ceiling of what they want to allow us to do, we’re hitting a ceiling of anti-intellectualism and anti-art, and I really believe that the DCEU’s success will be a determining factor in how serious we are allowed to get, how much progress we are allowed to make.
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