Stop biting the heads off of live chickens!

You ever been to a Carnival?

It’s a crazy thing to see. Bearded ladies and two headed dogs. It’s a real spectacle. And within the carnival there is a person wilder than the rest, a person so disgusting and terrible that they stand out amongst all the other horrors there. This performer is called a ‘geek.’

Geek has been used as an insult for a long time. If you are anti-social or just not like the others you are called a geek, like the guy in a carnival biting heads off of live chickens.

But over the years that word has changed and now it’s about being a huge fan of something. Being a weirdo that’s into comics or cartoons in kinda cool now.

Social media has expanded things so we all can link up with others and discuss our favorite fandoms. You can even follow artists and creators online and send them messages and get an inside look at your favorite thing.

What a world we live in, what a great time to be a geek!

As an artist I can tell you that I love social media. I have over 10k followers on Facebook and it’s great to get my work out to so many folks. However, there is a price to fame.

After a while some fans think they own you. They think that because they love your art they can now tell you how to do your job. So now we are seeing guys online savagely attacking people and leaving some creators with no other option than to walk away from social media.

This needs to stop, this needs to stop now. I am asking everyone to grow up a little right now.

If you love something, then enjoy it. However, if it is upsetting you then turn it off and try something else. Don’t go online and harass artists.

I think for years we have watched pundits and commentators argue and yell at each other on TV and we have decided that that’s how we are supposed to treat each other in real life.

Recently Steven Universe storyboard artist Lauren Zuke had to leave Twitter and delete her account after days of harassment.

Stop it people, stop it right now, seriously. I am tired of seeing stories about this.

I don’t know Lauren Zuke but I am sure she is a nice and talented woman. There is no reason why people should be harassing her. I just don’t get it. After all this time and after all the good work that has been done.

It’s not all the fans, I think most of us are decent people that know how to be civil. But some geeks make me wonder if that name given to us as an insult wasn’t more fitting than we would like to admit.

Because I look at some of these geeks online and it’s still nothing but biting heads off of live chickens.