Geek chic is cool. Fact. Wikipedia states: “Geek chic refers to the embracing of stereotypically unpopular ‘geek’ characteristics such as glasses, comic books, and computer games.” From the current trends in British Fashion, the British Music Scene, British Television and the British Film Industry – we all get the message. Man or boy in a cardigan? Cool. Angsty cute teen wearing thick rimmed specs? Again, cool. Even a boy showing an interest in an underground Sci-Fi series can turn some girls to into quivering, giggling versions of their former selves. I’m not stating anything new or original with this…but what about the fact that actual geek and no sense of chic is cool?
For example, Louis Theroux has been a not-so-secret crush of mine since he made Weird Weekends and anyone who has seen Peep Show must see the allure of David, surely?..
…Okay, maybe not David, so we’ll stick with Louis. Oh Louis, Louis, with your bespectacled, deep brown and ever so slightly sexy long lashed eyes, how can your intelligence and mysteriousness be so captivating? Because that is what is truly compelling about him. On the surface he does not fit the typical aspects of what makes a man attractive to the opposite sex. He is an actual geek – he hasn’t bought a grey cardigan to fit in, he doesn’t have a particularly edgy yet not too pretentious haircut and you can tell his clothes have been bought by his girlfriend which is why they aren’t too lacking in style but they’re hardly couture, dahling.
This is why this man is an oxymoron – he isn’t trying to be geek chic, unlike the rest of the British male population, yet he manages to pull it off with the most panache. I do believe that this is due to that thing we all can and should possess; a true personality. His charm and wit even managed to make Christine Hamilton come over all drunkenly seductive, sat on his knee, talking alarmingly close to his face and slurring ‘I do like you…I don’t put my arm around everybody…’ whilst in the middle of a sex scandal whilst filming ‘When Louis Met The Hamilton’s’. Now that is charm in abundance.
But it’s his genuine interest in people that seems to be the winning offensive, he actually cares. Whilst reading Jon Ronson’s ‘Them: Adventures with Extremists’ – another documentary maker aiming to explore the weird and wonderful world of ‘eccentric views’ – I wasn’t touched with how he cared for the people he was talking to, but in ‘The Call of the Weird: Encounters with Survivalists, Porn Stars, Alien Killers, and Ike Turner’, Louis makes me care. He has said about his work, ‘To me, it’s almost a privilege to be welcomed into these communities and to shine a light on them and, maybe, through my enthusiasm, to get people to reveal more of themselves than they may have intended. The show is laughing at me, adrift in their world, as much as at them. I don’t have to play up that stuff. I’m not a matinee idol disguised as a nerd.’
And this is what matters.
So is it a case of personality over looks? Or is the fact that I can mould this mysterious and alluring personality of Louis’ into being acceptable to fancy because of his glasses, hair and v-neck jumper and the fact that he is successful? Whatever the case, I can’t be the only one who sees it, Louis was once voted the Seventh Most Wanted Single Man in Tatler magazine, for someone who speaks to a man named Bob in Colorado who claims to be a robotic channel for an alien called ‘Korton’ , this can’t be bad…
Louis Theroux – Actual Geek….Not So Chic.
