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Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Mike Gillis' Aquaman Shrine

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F.O.A.M. member Mike Gillis posted this pic of his personal Aquaman Shrine over on his Facebook page today. A nice collection of orange and green, with the F.O.A.M. certificate being the cherry on top!

A discussion popped up on Mike's wall about whether a collection like this might discourage any potential female if she saw it on display in the home of a potential suitor. So the Shrine wants to ask the ladies out there in the audience--what say you?


(I know that if you're here, you're obviously not the type to be turned off by such a thing, but hey we're doing what we can here at Shrine Central!)

4 comments:

Mike Gillis said...

My take on it is that I don't want to be with someone who would be scared off by my fandom.

As I said on my Facebook page, I've always hated that scene in the 40 Year Old Virgin where Steve Carrell's character sells all of his geeky stuff as a part of "growing up."

Being an adult means liking what you like and not using the judgments of other people to shape how you live your life.

I'm a geek. I love what I love and I am not ashamed to display my love.

If I dated a girl who loved horses or botany or ancient Sumerian history or the Red Sox and surrounded herself with things from her passion, it would be a terrible thing to force them to choose between a hobby and our relationship. I couldn't imagine being so cruel and presumptive to think that I had any right to decide how my partner lived their life or how they spent their spare time and money.

Are they hurting someone? Are they forcing their hobby on me or demanding that I like it as a requisite of the relationship?

If the answer to those questions is "No," then I won't try to dissuade them of their passion.

I've loved comics since I was a kid and they helped make my traumatic middle school and high school years bearable.

The only way I would part with them over a relationship is if I need to sell them to pay for a partner's life-saving surgery.

If they demand I get rid of my comics or my fandom as a condition of dating them then they don't really love me.

Aside from the stereotypes, I see no difference between my collection and that of a diehard sports fan who fills their den with signed baseballs or autographed pictures of their favorite players.

Now I don't care a whit about baseball or sports, but I can understand loving something like that, and I can understand a person who loves their hobbies.

Personally, I find geekdom attractive. I want to date someone who CARES about something, who is PASSIONATE about something, who collects something, studies something.... I don't care if its something that I care about.

I just want them to love something and care about it. Because that's what makes people interesting. And it makes buying them presents a helluva lot easier.

Wings1295 said...

Cool collection! And don't care if someone else would like it or not, like it and do what you want! I have my Aqua-stuff up, my wife doesn't care. To each their own, shouldn't be any other way.

Laurie S. Sutton said...

Mike makes an eloquent point. As far as I'm concerned, he should let his geek flag fly. If a potential girlfriend doesn't salute, it should be hasta la vista, baby.

Personally, I've never had a boyfriend look askance at my collections of comics, action figures, and posters. Then again, the majority of them have worked in the comics industry!

Earth 2 Chris said...

I hate that scene in The 40-Year Old Virgin as well. He had to change himself to be worthy of a mate. Whatever. Bad message.

The first time my future wife came over to my home, she plopped down, picked up a stack of comics and start reading. I knew then, it was love. ;-)

Chris