Do you feel people direspect your nerd/geek nature?

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Ditto

I have some geeky interests, but I tend to view myself as being more dork natured than geeky. Maybe others would say differently though.

I'd say my geeky interests have been disrespected than myself directly. But that has happened too. Nothing terribly bad, but disgust with me was apparent. I've tended to hide my geeky interests, so I got by pretty unscathed compared to some. I certainly wouldn't say I was treated as subhuman, just a loser human.

I don't really have a dating life lol But it's unrelated to my dorky interests...they guys I have dated tended to have a similar interest or another just as if not more geeky.

I have a hard time imaging what could isolate me more than my job, unless I were imprisoned, there's not much margin for people to be any less receptive towards me.

I get the sense women in my life are waiting & watching to see if I'll get ahead of anyone. The stereotypes about me say I should be more capable than basically anyone. People expect technology to be perfect, ergo they expect me to exemplify their expectations instead of ever displaying vulnerability.

I'm going to work things out eventually but I'm on my own no matter what until then.

Hard to give examples...but yes, I felt I was treated like a subhuman.

My problem was that I wasn't cool enough or rich enough for the cool kids, but I wasn't smart enough to be one of the nerds.

How did it affect my dating life? Hmmm... Ok, I can answer that. I grew to feel that once I GOT a gf, and I mean ANY gf, I had to hang on as hard as I could because I probably didn't have another chance beyond that. I eventually got sick of the girls I went to school with because they'd barely give me a second look if they even gave me a first look to begin with. So a lot of girls I DID end up getting along with were, like, the outcast, weirdo types--but even THEY rejected me. The girl I ended up dating the longest before my wife was of a similar mindset as I was, the kind of "it doesn't get better" way of thinking. She'd never had a bf before me and she was content with me being the only one she ever had. But she grew into a very abusive person until I decided being alone forever was better than being with her for the rest of my life.

It took me a couple of years to grow out of that, so there were a small number of small flings and ugly relationships, but nowhere NEAR the kind of rejection I faced when I was younger. I found there was a certain type of girl I could get along well with, but I also wanted to avoid going back to the weirdness I faced between high school and college. So if things were getting interesting between me and a girl, I tended to keep my mouth shut about it and pay attention to what others had to say. If a girl I liked creeped someone out, I knew it was a bad idea to keep seeing her. I dated a young college woman for a year and a half and knew I had a good thing when, among other things, other guy friends of mine really adored her. Not because she was supermodel-hot or anything, but because she had such a kind and sweet demeanor. Part of that was dealing with a lifelong disability, effects of albinism, and refusing to be judgmental or unkind. She was a slim girl, beautifully shaped, and bright YELLOW hair you could spot from a mile away. All natural, too.

So there you have it. What's changed about me over the years is--well, I haven't really changed. At all. What people have picked up on with me more than anything is that I'm consistent. There's been quite a bit of turnover at the school where I work, a lot of changes. I'm the only middle and high school music teacher now. I'm the only decent pianist there who will cooperate with the cantor for mass. I'm the only one who knows a little bit about sound reinforcement. So even though running sound is not "technically" what I signed up for, because I'm open to the technology and the experience, I get called on for things that aren't really part of my job.

So...yeah, it's weird for me because being THAT guy was what cost me lots of friends and lots of girls. Yet somehow I've found myself in the right place at the right time. Now everyone wants to be my friend. I don't know what to make of that. But I just go with it.

I have no doubt that if I were suddenly single and on the market, I'd have trouble starting dating all over again. But I think because of how people are and how things have turned out, being largely viewed as subhuman wouldn't be the problem it was at one time.

Outside of junior high, no, I've never been disrespected for having nerdy interests. My experience is most people just don't care enough about you to judge you for stupid stuff like that. You might be expressing your nerdy nature in ways that other people find annoying, like using a lot of technical jargon around nontechnical people. I used to do this quite a bit, and I realized it made me look arrogant and pedantic, so I stopped. People like you when you're down-to-earth and can relate to them on their level. Don't make a point of letting people know that you have nerdy interests. If they ask what you do, then you can tell them, but otherwise, you should probably just talk about normie stuff until you've established a rapport with the other person. It's a harsh reality, but most people don't particularly want to hear about your interests unless they are interested in the same thing.