#NoWallNoBan: When Nerds Protest Our Signs Are The Best

The cover image for this article is by Maryne Lahaye. You can buy the print or t-shirt here. I have been going thru it, these last two weeks. We all have, haven’t we? I mean, being a Black American has always been living life on hard mode (understatement understood here), but that was before some absurd percentage of my fellow humans went to their ballot boxes and voted for someone who’s been openly supported by the Klan and the (infinitely punchable) Nazis. Something’s changed on this side of the inauguration for me, something permanent. But that’s a different post. The Women’s Marches on the Saturday after the inauguration were a bright spot, even interwoven as they are with so many problems. To combat the rising tide of bad news, I’ve spent more time than I’d like to admit flipping through pictures of marchers all over the world, admiring their tenacity and their humor. Here’s a thing I noticed: [quote_simple]We nerds were out in force.[/quote_simple]There’s been plenty of think pieces about how superheroes are the mythology of this generation. Judging from the signs, costumes, and catch-phrases coming out of these marches, it isn’t just superheroes — science fiction and fantasy characters have their places in the new pantheon as well. Their images and names have become true memes, elements of culture passed from one person to another, shorthand for constellations of meaning and emotion that would otherwise be too complex to convey without a 2-hour conversation. Here are …