Split?: Geek Physiques

This trope proposal is at the bottom of the list of YKTTW proposals I have replied to, and I figured I may as well make a thread about its corresponding current trope before I forget.

Right now, this trope covers stereotypes about geeks being skinny and stereotypes about geeks being fat. However, these are very different, if only because, in turn, the stereotypes about fat people are so different from those about skinny people. I get that there are some similarities, but it still seems unfitting to have such opposite things covered by the same trope.

I always heard it as "geeks are fat, nerds are thin." That would also include other things like geeks being disorderly and nerds orderly. No idea about its relation to the trope, though.

Yes, split. They're two tropes, with different cultural significance and representing different things.

I imagine Geek Physique aims to be some kind of Geek Dimorphism - geeks are fat and thin but never in between. But examples of that shouldn't include fat and thin geeks across media. It would really have to be fat and thin paired off, or within the same series, to show that they balance each other. And phrases properly, the "dimorphism" trope would just beg for people to post aversions.

edited 7th Feb '12 10:11:47 PM by Routerie

Bumping to see if there is further support for a split...

For starters, it isn't just skinny, it is scrawny, with barely any muscle.

Whether fat or scarw, I think it really is the same thing. The idea is that geeks never do exercise, therefore they have bodies that are unathletic, unhealthy, and more often then not unattractive.

edited 23rd Feb '12 5:13:55 AM by Catbert

I have to ask, those of you that say there's a difference between the way skinny geeks and fat geeks are represented: how, exactly? (Honest question, I'm really not good at spotting trends on my own.)

The skinny ones tend to be a lot more orderly, prone to working overtime, and somewhat neurotic.

The fat ones tend to be lazy and messy.

It really goes into a lot of the stereoypes of skinny and fat people generally speaking.

edited 23rd Feb '12 7:00:10 AM by Feather7603

I don't see any pressing need to split, however it is argued the two tropes are closely related. It's that if you are a geek you don't have a normal athletic build, indicating a lack of physical exercise and/or having a fairly sedimentary lifestyle. I can't really see any major personality differences between overweight geeks and scrawny geeks, at least until you go into the fat slob level of overweight (The "Ah Hell Naw!" level.

I'm inclined to agree. There is a soft split as it is, and I think that's enough. If there were more than twice the number of examples, I'd reconsider, if they also had context to support the split.