What Tropes Can Teach Us: Part II NEET vs Nerd

As I said in our previous installment, Gammas have had an outsized influence on our popculture for a while.

No where is this more evident than in the tropes they’ve created for themselves.

Everyone is the hero in their own story and Gammas are no different. If you want a sad laugh, google for Gamma Male and then wade through the fountain of self-delusion.

“Gamma Male: A person who rejects status and authority, believing that thinking for oneself is possible and desirable, and valuing freedom most.”

No wonder they immediately identify as Sigma Males the moment they found out about them.*

This self delusion has deeply invaded the popular tropes of our culture. The nerd has become an anti-hero and rebel. This began in the sixties with The Graduate and became more blatant in the eighties with Revenge of the Nerds.

In that alleged comedy, the fantasy of the Gamma-hero took full form. A few abusive taunts from the “popular kids” justified breaking and entering. peeping and stalking, then rapidly escalated to assault and rape. For the record Betty would have been screaming at the top of her lungs the moment Lewis took the mask off. She would have had severe post traumatic triggers and been in rape counseling for years.

Yet this trope of the nerd as anti-hero is now the standard. So much so that now, our only trope for a highly intelligent high school/college student is the Nerd.

In Japan they don’t have nerds, they have NEETs, a term they borrowed from the British but made their own. The NEET is very much a trope in Japan. Weaboos who think they get Japan, identify a NEET as a nerd. They are completely wrong. In Japan a NEET is this guy.

NEET stands forNot in Employment, Education or Training. The NEET is rightfully viewed as being at the bottom of the social heap in Japan. Sure he’s intelligent but it’s defective intelligence. His grades weren’t at the top of the class despite being smart. He’s a subject matter expert sure, but he won’t break any new ground with his mind. He is narcissistic but with little reason to be so. Clearly unambitious despite claims the contrary. And he is a hentai obsessed pervert who will never know the touch of a real woman.

The difference between these two tropes are obvious. The Japanese have no illusions about what a Gamma really is.

*For the record, no. Sigma males are not Gamma Males without the Gamma suck. They are not fantasy self-insert versions of Gamma Males. They are not Gamma-Sue.

Sigmas have to fight off the women with baseball bat. If you think you are a Sigma and do not have that problem, then you are not a Sigma Male.

I’ve only personally known one Sigma in my life. He is a highly intelligent Alpha male but with severe introversion. Viewed from that perspective the Sigma makes perfect sense. Everything else is there. The need for conflict, women falling all over them and the way regular Alphas react to them. Now, I admit, the introverted Alpha is nearly a contradiction in terms because Alphas are almost defined by their extroversion. It’s why Sigmas instinctively anger them.

When two Alphas enter the same room there is an immediate dominance display, like two five hundred pound gorillas pounding their chests to determine who is going to be top gorilla. When an Alpha and a Sigma enter the same room, it’s like the gorilla is faced with a five hundred pound rooster. He knows he’s being challenged but doesn’t know what to make of it. It really makes them angry and they don’t know why.

Unlike a Gamma, a Sigma can handle the burden of leadership but the social contact that goes with it leaves him exhausted. In a tribal world a Sigma would be the head shaman. Equal to the chief but respected as being separate.