Is Geek A Derogatory Term?

Since I’m still coming down from the high that is Dragon*Con, I’ve been looking in Flickr for pictures of myself and reading articles about the Con.

I came across a post about the Dragon*Con parade and I started reading the comments. There were several comments that jumped out as me as some people seemed to think that the term “geek” was a bad one and didn’t want to be labeled that way.

Since this is GeekMom, we embrace the fact that we are geeks. But I think most geeks can remember a time in their lives when it wasn’t cool to be a geek.

For me, I was teased a lot in school. Some of the teasing was strange, since I was teased for being short which isn’t something I could control. But I was also teased for being a geek.

I didn’t hide my geekdom at all when I was young. I actually embraced it as I had a picture of the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation in my high school locker. As I got into my later years in high school I basically thought, “Screw it. I can find geeky friends in college.” And I did, which make my college experience all that much more fulfilling.

I’m proud to be a Geek and I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I didn’t think it was a bad label even when I was teased for it. As a mom now, I do worry that my daughter will be teased when she gets to school age since she already has geeky interests. But I do hope that she will find her own way, geek or not.

What do you all think about the term, Geek? Do you use it to refer to yourself or do you think is a derogatory term that shouldn’t be used?