So, I'm always coming across these rather bitter tumblr posts describing the "difference" between what a girl means when she says she likes "awkward nerdy guys" and what an ACTUAL "awkward nerdy guy" looks like.
On the left is a male cosplayer whose name I do not know, on the right is Matthew Gray Gubler from the awesome TV show "Criminal Minds." He plays a very intelligent, nerdy member of the FBI (that the other characters are always rolling their eyes at because of his nerd rambling), and he happens to be very attractive.
There's also the guy version: what a guy means when he says he likes "weird, quirky girls" and what an ACTUAL "weird, quirky girl" looks like.
Again, on the left is a non-celebrity female cosplayer, on the right is Zooey Deschanel in a shot for her hilarious show "New Girl." Her character is an extremely awkward and dorky teacher, and she also happens to be attractive.
Which is ridiculous.
Here are the definitions of the key words used in these posts (there is more than one definition for each of these words, but I'm only using the ones that relate the content at hand):
awkward (adjective) - not smooth or graceful; ungainly
nerd / nerd-y (noun / adjective) - an intelligent, single-minded expert in a particular technical discipline or profession (like Matthew Gray Gubler's character Dr. Spencer Reid on the show Criminal Minds)
weird (adjective) - very strange; bizarre
quirky (adjective) - characterized by peculiar or unexpected traits (as depicted by Zooey Deschanel's character Jess from "New Girl." Or all of her characters, really).
Nowhere in these definitions does it state that the subject must be overweight, gangly, or acne-prone (traits that I see associated with the "what a REAL nerd looks like" side of things).
However, this is the idea that is commonly accepted by the public, as the majority of the population assumes that conventionally attractive people would only desire careers in vanity-driven industries like the entertainment business and the fashion world, and that they would have no interest in subjects like science, math, and technology (with gaming and comics being highest on that list).
There are a lot of attractive women who love science, technology, scifi&fantasy things, video games comics, cosplay, etc. There are also a lot of attractive women (girls, rather) who pretend to love these things for male attention, or who do like these things a bit, but use their attractiveness to amp it up by taking "sexy" pictures with their game gear, like this:
Something good does come of it though. And that would be awesome guys trolling these "gamer girls."
*All pictures found on tumblr.*
Main point: Attractive people can and do like "nerdy" things.
As for me? I kind of like it all. I love science, technology, scifi&fantasy, video games, cosplay, and I happen to also love acting, singing, fashion, and other girly things like Barbie and My Little Pony.
