Recently I read an article about an idea called the OkCupid 10.
This idea has roots in the very basic concepts of supply and demand. Something that is relatively unpopular in the context of regular life becomes extremely popular when supply is low and demand is high.
Just for today, we’re not going to go from economics to apocolypse toilet paper..
No, today, we’re talking about communities where one gender outnumbers another gender 4 to 1. We’re talking about craft fair vendors, where there is only one guy for every four women. We’re talking about OkCupid where there are twice as many heterosexual women for every heterosexual man.
In that last example is where we find the OkCupid 10. On a normal day, any member of OkCupid could be quantified. If they are in possession of just-slightly-above-average intelligence, education, job, and personality, they’re a solid 6 of 10.
Unless they’re female. Females are so under-supplied and in so high demand that they’re graded on a curve. A respectably-quantified 6 becomes a qualified 10 — in slang, they become an OkCupid 10.
This makes sense to me, and many of us have seen this effect in our own subcultures. Not-quite-above-average people reign in their own specific community as models of perfection. This always looks strange to outsiders.
They look down the street of the craft fair. There’s a man with a friendly smile and a bit of a belly. His hair hasn’t been brushed in days, or maybe ever, and he’s sitting in his Muppet t-shirt sipping a Tab cola. He’s selling candles that look like Ewoks and the line of women waiting to chat with him wraps around the block. They’re simpering and flirting.
He’s a CraftFair 10.
I liken it to the image of people swimming through freezing waters in a post-apocalyptic world, pushing a canoe filled with toilet paper.
I know I said we weren’t going to talk about toilet paper, but I’m a geek and all issues go back to apocalypse situations eventually.
All things go back to geek. This is why, when I heard the concept of an OkCupid 10, my first thought was:
What ever happened to the Geek 10?
I am a geek and do not wear these glasses.
I consider myself to be a solid 5. Quite respectable. The geek community, even now, is vastly under-supplied in the way of women, so a quantifiable 5 should push me into a qualified Geek 8, at least– but I think my presence has always been that of a 5.
There is a bit of a hiccup in the ability to test this theory. Any true geek I know treats everyone like a 10, no matter the quantifiable number. They’ll open the door for an 80-year-old woman at ComicCon just as easily as they will for a Booth Babe or a man dressed like Jabba.
I asked my husband about what happened to the Geek 10, citing movies where the main geek character falls in love with the non-geek cheerleader instead of his female chess partner. If the main character’s chess partner was qualified, she’d be a 10. The only explanation as to why the character would completely ignore a 10 is that he’s not. He’s ignoring a 6– because geeks don’t grade on a curve.
My husband had many thoughts, including the possibility that geeks use their own rating system entirely, but I’m curious about what you have to say.
Are you offended to be quantified or qualified? If not, what do you put your quantified number at? Are you a qualified 10 in some communities? Do you have experience with this effect? If you’re a geek, what’s your experience with the Geek 10?
