Are you a closeted poke-fan?

[chanveil]

I remember way back when I was 12-13 years old.. I loved pokemon! I was addicted, bought poke-merchandise, recorded the anime series and, proudly caught "all 150 pokemon" on my Pokemon Blue.

But I was bullied and teased relentlessly by my classmates as pokemon was "uncool" and was nothing more than a "childs game" and I was a fool for playing it.

Now, about 10 years later..I'm 23 and I've recently rediscovered pokemon and realise I still love playing! but I dare not tell others for fear of ridicule!

how about you guys? are you a closeted poke-fan or do you let the world know? lol

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

I must say I have never been a closet fan. I had a fake tattoo reading 'Pokemon' on my forehead on the day I started my 9th grade. Of course, I had to endure some bullying as well but I never gave up unless you count autumn 2002 when Sailor Moon anime began in Finland and I disliked Pokemon for a while. But even there, abandoning Pokemon wasn't a result of any group pressure, it was my own choice.

[Austrian ViceMaster Alex]

I've never hidden my liking for Pokémon. My friends found it odd at first but most actually got into Pokémon at some point as well.

[MeLoVeGhOsTs]

Nobody knows. Except one friend and my brother.

I'm cool with that.

[Telume]

Most of my co-workers like Pokemon so.... I have no reason to hide it.

[Cynder]

Closeted. People finding out about me liking it = the rest of my life in high school being hell. Yeah, don't you just hate average teen logic?

[Blademaster]

I'd say I'm out of the closet, but I have no friends to tell anyway.

So... It might not count.

[Shadow Wolf]

I think this conversation with a classmate from college will answer for me:

*while playing Pokemon Diamond*
Girl: What's That, Pokemon?
Me: Yeah, why?
Girl: I can't believe you waste your time playing that.
Me: I haven't criticized your waste of time on facebook.
Girl: ...*unable to say anything, as she used facebook with her cellphone while speaking to me*

[Oslo]

My friends know, but I like to believe I have the panache to pull it off. It's perhaps the least ridiculous thing about me.

[mattbcl]

Nope. Everyone knows. Loud and proud for over ten years, and I don't think I've EVER been ridiculed for it by anybody.

[kenshinhimura]

maybe other people think that pokemon is for kids only, but i dont feel ashame for my self if people may know that im still watching pokemon until now.





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roulette strategies

[crown34]

Everyone knows and nobody cares.

[classy_cat18]

I'm not closeted. People just don't care, and I don't talk to them about Pokemon because they wouldn't understand it. There's my brother, but he's more into Halo these days.

[firepokemon]

No.

I sell pokemon games on Trade Me (its like Ebay).

Pokemon games make the most money out of any handheld game.

[Magmar]

I'm open about my membership here but I don't play the games so I have nothing to hide there really.

[mymyilikepie]

I brought my ds and pokemon Soul Silver with me on the second day of school. I was called a nerd for about a week. At the end of the school year LITTERLY EVERYONE had a ds or gba and was playing some kind of pokemon! I'm such a good spreader

[Whitlea]

I was a fan since before, during and after it's popularity. I was always bullied for liking something in particular. Weither it was PoKéMoN, Yu-Gi-Oh! or even prefering jeans over skirts... I was bullied. However, I never saw anything wrong with it therefore nothing to hide. I just accepted it because obviously they had a problem with me. Not my interests. I dunno, I'm a very open person. PoKéMoN made me what I am today. A comic artist with dreams. To hide my love of PoKéMoN would mean hiding my source of inspiration.

[mr_pikachu]

Admittedly, yes, I'm pretty much in the closet. Perhaps an example will help to demonstrate why. For the last couple of years a Master's student in my department was constantly harangued because, when she first arrived, she said that her "fun fact" about herself was that she could name the first 150 Pokemon in order. After that, most of the other graduate students laughed at her behind her back any time her name was mentioned. (She finally finished her M.A. last spring and is going elsewhere to pursue her Ph.D... it's easy to argue that she was outright driven from the university.)

Graduate school, I've found, is like middle school all over again, only with more permanent consequences if you're outside of the circle of "cool kids." Sadly, gossip spreads fast in academia, so good luck joining research teams and subsequently finding employment if everyone thinks poorly of you. Hence why I've long been concerned about my co-workers or students running a few internet searches and discovering my presence here. I've seen what can happen. It's distressing, and I've been very disappointed to witness my peers' immaturity in handling people whose interests are "different."