Every nerd I know who isn't cishet, male, white, etc, has had a stage of feeling obliged to be a Proper Nerd and love all the 'right' things in exactly the 'right' ways. It's exhausting! It's also stupid.

For example, I really like Batman. By which I mean, I love the live-action Batman series with all my soul, because it's kitsch, silly, homoerotic, colourful escapism. I don't, however, particularly enjoy the films with Christian Bale, because I don't get on with gritty & grimdark, and, honestly, I can't enjoy Batman as a character when he's taken too seriously. And that's okay! My connection with the character is specific, but it's no less valid.

Elena gave me some Batman shoes a while back, and anyone who sees me regularly will know that I FUCKING LOVE THEM. I wear them all the time. But last year when I was travelling to Heathrow for Nine Worlds, I had somebody pull me up on my Batman shoes on the train. He started off with a compliment, but it very swiftly became this bizarre, aggressive interrogation on whether I was sufficiently 'into Batman' to be 'entitled' to wear them. He determined that I was not.

My partners got me a pair of Batman tights for my birthday, and I'm edgy about wearing them in comic shops and other places likely to contain Proper Nerds. Now every time I put them on, I have this sense of anxiety about them, as though angry Proper Nerds are going to leap out from behind a bust of Christian Bale and rip them off my legs. I feel scared and silly if I don't know 'enough' about something I like, to the extent where I find myself apologising for not having caught up with a series or read a comic from 1973. It's BULLSHIT!