When did it become cool to be a nerd?

I remember when I was little, being a nerd was like being a gazelle in a lion herd. You would get made fun of and/or possibly beaten up(yes people would get beaten up, it's not an urban legend). Back then the tale tell(yes I said it backwords) was wearing glasses. This would leave you open for the classic 4 eyes. Reading comic books also instantly made you a nerd, superman and batman were considered uncool reading material. Surprisingly, liking video games didn't make you a nerd nor did reading video game magazines. Comic book stores were obviously not as prevalent so you went in them in a similar manner to going to an adult bookstore, with shame and regret.

Nerds were as uncool as one could get and they certainly weren't "hot". Women weren't into you because you rolled the 20 sided dice or knew the dark night from darkwing. Something caused society to shift towards nerds. It suddenly became cool to wear glasses and like comic books. Even girls, the long time no way I'll be a nerd became nerds. To give you a better example, it's like computer science majors. Girls are far and few between and that major is seen as niche. What if it became extremely popular to major in computer science? that's how I feel about the whole "nerd" culture.

I blame the 1st xmen movie because that lead to the trend of having comic book movies. This lead to comic con becoming cool and now you won't get laughed at for wearing glasses or liking a comic book