I Clearly Have an Unhealthy Obsession with T-Shirts

When I was in middle school- it was very important to not only be a "punk," but to definitley not be a "poser punk." See, anyone could start a loud rock band to complain about mainstream culture, or wear baggy black pants and die their hair green, but this wasn't enough. Oh no, you had to be authentically unorthodox and somehow oppressed. Stealing from Hot Topic was OK- but actually spending money there? Totally supporting the Man. And if you initially fooled people into thinking you were legit, only to then be discovered and derailed (like Good Charlotte and Avril Levgine) well, god help you.

As years went by, the concept of authenticity slowly became less and less important- Until today. You see, the other day, I saw this really awesome T-shirt:




The problem? I get the joke, but I am by no means a trekkie. OK, so my friends are, and I have very much enjoyed the occassional marathon. Is Spock's eternal struggle between logic and human feelings the story of my life? Sure, whose isn't. Is Seven of Nine both hillarious and bangable? Totally. Is the Borg an interesting metaphor for Cold War communism? Absolutely. Are the retro 1960's episodes worth watching for the props and costumes alone? Yes. But that's pretty much where I draw my line of Star Trek fandom. You won't see me LLnP'ing anytime soon. I can't distinguish Enterprise from NextGen, or even name more than five characters. Wearing this shirt is easily the geek dude equivalent of me stuffing my bra- it's flat out false advertising.

But there is another option: If I can afford it (after Caprica, and Breaking Bad, which I now have to buy per-episode if I want to watch abroad) I will at least make a small effort to earn this T-shirt. I will accept the turn my life has arguably taken already, and become an at least marginallly informed Star Trek viewer. And if this turns out to be too time consuming and expensive, well, it's an awesome shirt, so just deal. Resistance is futile.