A Modern Chicken/Egg: Which Came First, the Inhaler or Dorkiness?

Recently, as I was struggling to breathe, I thought of a topic near and dear to my heart- the portrayal of asthmatics in the media.  For some reason, unbeknownst to me, in television shows and movies, the dorkiest kid always has an inhaler which he/she (usually a he) uses when the situation starts to unravel.  Also he often has his pants pulled up to his navel, which has got to be uncomfortable.  As an asthmatic, who’s also a female, I have a problem with this.  Why is asthma being associated with dorks?  There’s nothing about being obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons, having a pocket protector or speaking in a made-up space language that causes asthma.  So why do dorky characters carry around inhalers right next to their TI-84 calculators?  Because the vulnerability of not being able to breathe endears the characters to the viewers hearts?  …No, that’s probably not it.  But for some reason the asthma inhaler represents this social inept nerd, who for some reason is almost always a boy, who loses his ability to breathe in stressful situations.  So for anyone out there who isn’t an asthmatic, here’s the truth: 1) girls have asthma too 2) pocket protectors are not a common cause of asthma, nor is a strange fondness for Star Trek a common symptom of asthma (if this proves too confusing for you, check it out on webMD) 3) Asthmatics don’t have a predisposition to wear their pants really high- that’s exclusively asthmatic nerds.

So, I hope that all you non-asthmatics out there realize now that asthmatics are just regular people who suffer through coughing attacks when someone is smoking 20 yards away, or who wheeze when the seasons change, or who need the school nurse to sign a note saying they can keep their inhaler in their backpack.  And all you asthmatics out there who have been misrepresented by the media for years, take a puff of your inhaler (remember, breathe in slowly, hold it in for a count of ten, release and repeat), and say proudly “I’m an asthmatic, I have an inhaler, and I don’t even know how to play Dungeons and Dragons!”