Profiles in Nerdom: Tina Fey

An Irregular Feature, in which we profile notable nerds and geeks. Please note that a person's inclusion in this feature is not necessarily an endorsement of that person.

In this inaugural addition of Profiles in Nerdom, we turn our attention to writer and actor, Tina Fey. Now, you may well ask: has our selection of the particular personality been influenced by factors beyond the general nerdiness-factors of Ms. Fey? Well, partly, yes. We're attempting some rather serious can-of-worms opening, here.

We had to think long and hard about just who should be the first person that we should profile for this feature. Dozens of names came up for consideration and, in that process, we noticed a pattern; many them were white and male. Combing the literature for notable female nerds, led us to actually begin to question exactly what it is that makes someone a nerd.

We have anecdotal evidence that some people still believe that women can't be nerds in the first place -- but you won't find much evidence of that attitude on the Internet. A quick search for the phrase, "girls can't be nerds," yielded page after page of arguments contradicting that statement. (Our original search for the phrase, "women can't be nerds," yielded no results on Yahoo.) We emphatically agree with those that believe that women can certainly be nerds, but have noticed that, while the Internet is full of proud, female nerds and geeks, the popular media is not. This is why we picked Fey for this coveted spot.

One of the things that defines geeks and nerds is that they tend to have areas of expertise, and for Fey, that area is comedy. As an alum of Chicago's Second City, she eventually came to Saturday Night Live in 1997, and then became head writer for the show in 1999, so she has definitely has the qualifications.

Of course, comedy is not as obscure as some other classic nerd disciplines. Still, the personal style that comes through Fey's performances, with their occasional obscure references, and a presumption an audience's basic intelligence, gives a nerdish flavor to her work. Such comedy is often referred to as "Smart Comedy," a euphemistic term if ever there was one, by people trying to avoid the social taint that phrases like "Nerd Comedy," would carry.

Another hallmark of nerdage is being proud of one's intelligence. Fey is completely unapologetic about being smart and, more importantly, considering what she does for a living, about being funny. This especially requires tremendous personal strength in a world that often thinks that women aren't funny.

Also, she wears glasses.

So, there's no doubt in our minds that Tina Fey is certainly worthy of nerd status; but, one must resist the temptation to deduce a whole series of generalities based from this single example of female nerdom. People have to be taken on an individual basis, after all. The problem is, when Tina Fey is the primary cultural example of female nerdiness, certain misconceptions and social tics can develop.

First of all there is a reluctance to label women as nerds, since in many cultures that word is still considered an insult. As a result, those referring to women as such feel a need to qualify their judgments by explicitly removing the social-awkwardness and physical unattractiveness aspects from the term. They do this because they fail to realize that appearance and comfort in social situations are only a small part of the nerd mystique. And, in practice they do it by adding, "No, she's really hot, though," to the conversation.

This is a shame, because it means that, as with many discussions relating to the status of individual women, physical appearance always winds up being mentioned. Even here. We're sorry about that.

Tina Fey is tremendously talented; she is funny, damn funny. We hope that she can serve as a positive example of female nerdom -- not for the already extant female nerds (they don't need her encouragement to be proud of their skills and personal style), but for those considering becoming female nerds and, more importantly, those writers, casting-directors, and studio people who might write about, hire, and promote other female nerds.

-S.O

Have a notable nerd that you want to see profiled for this feature? Email us at "comments \at\ sloganeering.org". Want to write one yourself? Check out our submissions page for more information.