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Comment by FillardMillmore | Hacker News Reader

I've noticed it before but never thought too deeply about it. Where did this 'stereotypical hacker' image stem from anyway? Computer 'nerds' are often cast with pressed button-up shirts, pocket protectors, and thick glasses. But if they are a 'bad nerd', they suddenly don a mysterious hoodie that covers their face as they work in a cave-like room like some kind of new-age techno-troglodyte?

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The hoodie is already used to typecast criminals, drug dealers in rough neighborhoods, etc. It's also a sign of relative youth (<40 years old). Dark places are an uninventive way to say they're doing something "bad". What's funny is that while they are depicted as being smart/dangerous, they're also depicted as being white and male, which is also a usual sterotype and conveniently forgets the proportion of extremely knowledgeable people of various origins and genders out there.

And also people over 40 that wear hoodies.

Represent!

I think it comes from recent popular media, like the Watch_Dogs games and the TV show Mr. Robot. Hoodies are a way to prevent people from seeing or identifying you, so media people use it as a visual shorthand for "this person wishes to conceal their identity". Back in the 90s, hackers were all cybergoth ravers; this image is more in line with the $CURRENT_YEAR zeitgeist in which pervasive surveillance is a top issue.

It's definitely a lot older than Mr. Robot. They were only playing into the established trope.

No bro, it comes from the Unabomber and the iconic police sketch.

Hoodies come from gang wear of the 90s, some in the 80s.

In an alternate universe, hackers could all have been rollerbladers. I want to live in that universe.

It’s not “media people”, I can assure you that most modern street criminals wear hoodies. It’s a cheap and easy way to switch to “incognito mode” at will. In places like London and Manchester, most crime-related CCTV will feature hooded thugs. There have been arguments about forbidding hoodies in public areas and shopping malls all the way back to the ‘90s.

To be honest it’s as old as capes, we’ve just lost the cape.

Images and ideas have entered the mythos over the years, I doubt there is a "source" but more of a collective myth which has grown and evolved with some sources in reality and some of reality fashioning themselves after the myth.

But also, I have just known lots of computer people that liked to work on their interests late into the night in a dark room.

You might say Cyberpunk styles are a source. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk

Definitely William Gibson

They're symbolic, not realistic. The only reason they wear a black hoodie is because a striped black and white shirt with a black masquarade mask is because it's too silly.

How else would you tell the difference, some kind of evil gotee?

Flexo vs. Bender

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