Revenge of the ... Jocks?

Fan Expo, an already massively huge late summer celebration of nerd culture, is getting a whole lot bigger this year with the addition of a sports section, and have enticed some pretty heavy hitters for their first go-round.

Already on board for the four-day event in August is Joe Montana, Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr and Hulk Hogan, among others, who will compete for autograph hunter attention with the usual celebrity guests from the worlds of comics, sci-fi, horror, gaming and anime.

It’s all good, right?

No way say Geek Nation, who are afraid that letting the jocks loose in their party will lead to high school all over again.

The people who make up the core audience of comic conventions like Fan Expo – which attracted more than 80,000 people last year – took to social media platforms like Facebook to vent their anger over the decision to add sports this year.

“Nerds and jocks do not mix!!” shouted one, while recommending that they should “discriminate” jocks “just as they discriminated (against) nerds everywhere in the past.”  Another warned that cosplayers – those who dress up as their favourite characters – “can now look forward to catcalling, grabasss playing jocks who will treat them like strippers.”

Protection from the ‘jocks’ who are expected to mingle with the regular convention goers seemed to be top of mind for the posters, despite the fact that the sports expo will be housed in a different hall at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

“This is a really, really bad idea. I hope you have, like, 10 times the security for us cosplayers,” pleaded one fan, with another citing an incident at an anime convention where some “evil jocks” assaulted cosplayers.

Seriously?

I’ve been to a few comic conventions and one or two sports shows as well and frankly, I don’t see much of a difference in the people who attend. Sure, there will be a few extra jocks – that is to say, people who actually play sports – at this year’s Fan Expo because of the star-studded line-up, but most sports fans that go to these kinds of events are into sports cards and memorabilia. They’re geeks, just like the gamers and sci-fi dudes, just with different interests.

Besides, I see more muscles among the artists and exhibitors at comics cons – there’s something about Superman t-shirts – than I’ve ever seen walking the convention floors at sports shows.

Not all the Facebook posters were complaining about the changes at this year’s Fan Expo. Some suggested that instead of staying home to avoid the jocks, they should show up and stand up for themselves. “It’s like they think the sports fans are going to give wedgies to everyone looking at comic books,” said one. “Since when does liking sports and respecting athletes make you a jock? You guys are mixing up jocks and bullies,” chastised another. “Not every jock is a bully and not every bully is a jock.”

While the concerns expressed by cosplayers and friends do seem overdramatized, their fears should be taken seriously. In this day and age when we pay special attention to bullying, the nerds and geeks that make up the traditional – and to a large degree, clichéd – base for these conventions remember high school all too well. Most of the posters have been out of high school for at least a decade, but clearly old wounds, and old fears, linger.

Hopefully they can “embrace the Fan Expo newbies” and “chill out,” as one self-proclaimed geek advised.

“Relax,” he added. “No one is getting beat up at this show just because they add sports.”