Nerds Are Sexy: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''We pan to a beautiful woman: platinum blonde with a huge rack. She is the Hottest Woman in the World, but she wears glasses because she is also the Smartest Woman in the World.''|[[Michael Bay]]'s "Rejected" ''[[The Dark Knight]]'' [http://my.spill.com/profiles/blog/show?id{{=}}947994%3ABlogPost%3A355506 Script]}}
{{quote|''Damn right
Geeks and nerds often have it rough in the romance department, especially in popular culture. Typically, they are stereotyped as being so unattractive that only fellow nerds would find them desirable mates. However, it is interest and intellect that makes the nerd, not looks. And for some folks, intelligence is very, ''very'' attractive.
This trope shows what happens when a character finds that a nerd is, indeed, sexy. The nerd's "objective" looks could fall anywhere within the wide spectrum of human attractiveness; all that matters is that a character finds something about the nerd that arouses his or her interest. If said character is in high school, he or she may grow up to be a [[Hot Scientist]].
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'''Only add examples here which are acknowledged ''in-universe''.'''
{{noreallife|this is a trope about how characters are depicted in media.}}
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
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* Even ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' runs into this trope, as a number of girls in Orange Star High (particularly [[The Cutie|Erasa]]) spend much of their screen time in the anime trying to undress [[Genius Bruiser|Son Gohan]] with their eyes. [[Jerk Jock]] Sharpener isn't very pleased to learn that he's runner up to "Nerd-Boy".
* Taken to the extreme as the premise of ''[[The World Only God Knows]]''. Keima Katsuragi is a [[Proud to Be a Geek|proud nerd]] who spends all his time playing video games and prefers 2D girls over real girls. Yet his vast knowledge of [[Dating Sim]]s has made him [[Casanova|an expert at getting girls to fall in love with him]] (in order for him to exorcise the evil spirits possessing them... [[It Makes Sense in Context]]!), all the while remaining an unrepentant otaku. Not to mention he is pretty good looking and dresses pretty properly.
* Professor Kiyama Harumi from ''[[
* Ken Sugisaki of ''[[
* ''[[Legend of the Galactic Heroes]]''; Felicia Greenhill had been carrying the torch for the socially awkward Yang Wenli ever since she first met him.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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* This is pretty much the entire point to ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]''. The boys on the show don't get laid in spite of their geekiness (except Sheldon, [[Asexuality|for whom sex is less exciting than video games]]), they get laid pretty much ''because'' of it.
** The [[Tagline]] is "Smart is the new sexy".
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130628070044/http://oceanup.com/legacy/2009/05/26/david-henrie-selena-gomez-blond.jpg David Henrie], who plays Justin, in ''[[Wizards of Waverly Place]]''. The nerdy boy that builds robots, collects action figures and can't do more pull-ups than his younger sister. Surprisingly (or not), in the show [[Unwanted Harem|he has a lot of girlfriends]].
* ''A Town Called [[Eureka]]'' is this troop in a nutshell seeing as it's a town full of Super Geniuses/nerds. It also created a 'Chicks find the Science talk sexy in some of the episodes. Good examples are Zane, Henry, Alison Claudia (kinda counts she was in both Warehouse 13/Eureka Crossovers)
* Ben Wyatt in ''[[Parks and Recreation]]'' is into math, model trains, skinny ties, plaid shirts, and ''Game of Thrones'', but that doesn't stop Leslie Knope, Shauna Malwae-Tweep, Marlene Griggs-Knope, and Joan Callamezzo from hitting on/chasing after him.
* Castiel, despite being labeled in-universe as "nerd angel", is also referred to as "sexy" and "pretty" by demon and angel alike.
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'': Although Xander, Willow, and Wesley are all sexy nerds in their way, it's Giles who's sexy ''because'' he's a nerd. Or, as a love interest put it, "a sexy fuddy-duddy".
** Later lampshaded when even Tara and Willow, both lesbians, find Giles singing "Behind Blue Eyes" incredibly sexy.
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* In the ''[[NCIS]]'' episode "Singled Out", the team was looking for a killer who believed in this trope, and Ziva goes undercover as a nerd in an attempt to identify him.
* A [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFKwnHJQXsY 2009 Intel commercial] featured a male Asian office worker freshening his cup of coffee. Semi-porn background music can be heard. All the women are staring hungrily at this guy, who sees it but acts too cool to respond to it, like this is normal for him. At the end, a voice over identifies this normal-looking nerd as the inventor of the USB port. (He was actually just an actor, but it gets the job done.)
* In ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'', Rory is seen wearing a t-shirt that says "Reading is Sexy." Considering the action she gets over the course of the series, she's right.
* Spencer Reid of ''[[Criminal Minds]] graduated from high school at 12, has two B As by 16, has an IQ of 187 and an eidetic memory. In one episode Hotch mentions this "Reid was propsitioned by every prostitute we talked to."
* The Doctor, from ''[[Doctor Who]]'', [[No Hugging, No Kissing|at least in the incarnations where he's allowed a love interest]]. Many characters seem attracted by just how intelligent the Doctor is, with such a wide range of knowledge that it vastly out-scopes anything we know. Of course, being good looking and having a time machine probably doesn't hurt, either.
** Several of his companions fit this trope, although they are usually [[Overshadowed by Awesome|overshadowed by the Doctor]].
* As Scully of ''[[The X-Files]]'' says of the two scientists in "War of the Coprophages" who walk off into the sunrise together: "Smart is sexy".
* ''[[Ugly Betty]]'' gets a lot of it. The title character may be cute and even beautiful upon certain occasions, but her sexy turns on only in the last few episodes of the series. Most of her boyfriends are often the embodiment of the trope, with nerdy accountant Henry having some serious male model-like body going for him.
* ''[[Modern Family]]'''s Alex is both absolutely gorgeous in all her nerdiness and
* Riley Davis, the tech genius in the ''MacGyver'' reboot.
* Felicity Smoak in ''[[Arrow]]''.
== Myth ==
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* [[Mad Scientist]] Kokonoe from ''[[
* ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'''s Ryusei Date is the epitome of otakuness, having more interest in the features of whichever [[FemBot]] was currently in the hangar than real girls. Nevertheless, Latooni Subota and Mai Kobayashi fall for him, the former going as far as [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75fh1LghX9U imitating his geeky speech out of affection.] [[Celibate Hero|Ryusei himself doesn't seem to mind, though.]]
* Philia Felice from ''[[Tales of Destiny]]'' is a really nerdy priestess, complete with nerd glasses, who have a penchant of inventing self-made bombs. However, that turns out to be one of her charms ([[Lampshade Hanging|she also admits that she's plain looking without her glasses]]), including her nice personality as well as [[Kikuko Inoue|her voice]].
* ''[[My Sims]] Agents'', in an example of the sentiment, has a music-playing object that plays a little tune called "Nerdy Chicks Rule".
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mei_%28Overwatch%29 Mei] from ''[[Overwatch]]'', a pudgy, [[Adorkable]] [[Gadgeteer Genius]] with glasses, she has far more admirers than the typical nerd.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* After finding out about this trope, ''[[FoxTrot]]'''s Jason Fox once tried to make himself as un-nerdy as possible because [[Girls Have Cooties]].
* Alice from ''[[Loserz]]'' thinks so. See [http://the-qlc.com/loserz/go/217 this] strip.
** And Adam from the same strip actually ''is'' a sexy nerd (although he usually hides it - being a gaming nerd, not being sexy). See [https://web.archive.org/web/20101213154844/http://bukucomics.com/loserz/go/397 here].
* ''[[Tales of MU]]'' takes this to the logical extreme—Amaranth is a physically perfect nymph, naked except for her glasses, who believes in science in a world of [[Magitek|magic-based technology]]. Beyond the mere nudism, nymphs in MU follow the more ''open'' version in regards to sex and sexuality (the ultimate origin of the term ''nymph''omania) -- although Amaranth treats it as an enjoyable part time job / chore more than anything.
** It's later discovered this is because of a teenage geek messing with the process that created her, creating the ultimate geek fantasy girl—a confident, polite nudist who will put up with ANYTHING and literally can't get enough sex. Oh, and she's a geek, too. Unfortunately, he was too shy to talk to her afterward, which left her in the dark about the whole thing.
* Moira and Nanetta in ''[[Tales Of Gnosis College]]'' both seem to fit this trope.
* '' [[Times Like This]]'': Cassie, the main character, is a brainiac with a mean sex drive. When she's not [https://web.archive.org/web/20121031162241/http://timeslikethis.com/index.php?id=295 banging famous guys throughout history] thanks to her self-made time machine, she's [https://web.archive.org/web/20121031162310/http://timeslikethis.com/index.php?id=182 sneaking boyfriends into her workplace] for some conference-table whoopee.
** You can also order [http://www.cafepress.com/overdone.305387215 "Sexy Nerd" merchandise] from TLT's Cafe Press page.
* ''Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet'', has computer abilities that reach [[Mad Scientist]] levels. If you try [[Playful Hacker|hack]][[Cracker|ing]] any system she administers, she '''will''' detect it, and she'll set things up so any train or plane you get on will only take you to [[Place Worse Than Death|Fort Wayne, Indiana]]. She's also a curvy blonde bombshell. Once she was pursuing Spencer, [[No Guy Wants to Be Chased|who didn't want to date her]]. When he hid in a nightclub and she barged in looking for him, the mental reaction of every other male in the room was, "Man, is she hot!" One of them, a few seconds later, asked Spencer, "Are you insane? How many other supermodels are chasing you?"
== Web Original ==
* ''[[College Humor]]'' has the skit [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxx6BupgRmI "I'm Such A Nerd,"], in which a nerd [[Geeky Turn On|happily discovers]] that the rather attractive girl he's dating is herself a giant nerd... who then promptly dumps him for not being nerdy ''enough''.
{{quote|'''Girl:''' I thought he was different, you know, but he ''wasn't''. He...he couldn't even name all of the current Batman titles!}}
* [[Whateley Universe]]: brilliant inventor Spark is pursued by Reach throughout the story "The Big Idea". [[Hot Scientist|Genius inventor]] Bugs on the other hand, is regarded as one of the sexiest girls in [[Super-Hero School]] Whateley Academy.
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* In the episode of ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' where the Riddler reforms (or rather, [[Chronic Villainy|attempts to]]), he ends up with quite a few women fawning over him. Unless that's an example of [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]].
* In ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]'', Janine has a crush on nerdy Egon for his high intelligence. So do a handful of minor female characters.
** Janine's crush was a holdover from the movie where she is quite blatantly hitting on Egon, and Egon is either clueless or doing a good job pretending he's clueless.
* Used in an episode of ''[[Robot Chicken]]''. After seeing [[Cue the Flying Pigs|hell freeze over]] we are treated to a nerd dance around in his underwear, gleefully singing about getting laid. The hot girl in bed states, in a rather matter of fact manner, that she thinks nerds are hot.
* Tecna from ''[[Winx Club]]'', though her boyfriend is even more of a nerd than she is.
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[[Category:Turn-On Tropes]]
[[Category:Nerds Are Sexy]]
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