Barbara Keal makes unusual felt hats, perfect for cold winter mornings and pagan orgies. [via Trendland]

The fedora draws increasing controversy in internet circles. In just one hour I found no less than three Tumblrs related to shaming people who wear the creased, curve-brimmed hat—formal with a touch of classic dandy—and the censure is interestingly specific.

The targets are usually men. Nerdy men.

Although one of the sites, You Shouldn’t Wear That Fedora, chides the fashion-oops on men and women alike, the relatively-new Fedoras of OKC (where “OKC” means popular, endearingly-awkward dating site OK Cupid) focuses strictly on geeks who’ve made the choice to crown their search for love with the offending hat. Usually the humor derives from a presumptive consensus: that the fedora-wearers think they look much more suave than they do. Profile snippets, presented out of context, are often caption enough.

Fedoras of OKC doesn’t strictly limit its lambaste to the dapper caps. Once-weekly, it offers Top Hat Tuesday, when it’s time to pick on fans of the geeky “steampunk” trend, like this cog-topped gentleman who lists Japanese cartoons and comics alongside his predilection for dominance sex play. It’s such specific nerd-bullying that one starts to wonder: Is there some kind of correlation between earnest, romantic-if-awkward geeks and a blind faith in the appeal of classical hats?

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