Written by: TheLatentGeek on 24 May 2011 @ 4:23 pm
Its always difficult to know how to start a new blog. We’ll skip the obligatory “so this is my new blog” baloney and get to some real meat…
I thought I’d comment on the recent trend of “geek girl” posts that have been floating around the interwebs lately. Y’know, everything from the “Game of Thrones” debacle to all the hub-bub surrounding this gathering of geek women.
If you couldn’t tell by the pink, I’m a chick. I’m trying this whole thing out where I don’t make it the focus of the blog, and we’ll see how it goes, but its no secret. Sometimes, I’m as girly as they come, and I’m more than comfortable with that. Actually it took me a long time (and good man) to allow myself to be comfortable with it. I wouldn’t say that growing up I was a “tomboy,” but I wasn’t exactly going to admit to singing Dancing Queen into a hairbrush while dancing around in my pink pajamas…
I would say, for me, the only problem I ever encountered being a (pre-discovered) geek was not being taken seriously. No one ever took me seriously. People still don’t, most of the time. I’m lucky to have a great group of friends, but even they find it difficult sometimes (I’m the youngest). When it comes to my individual brand of geek love, I admit that I’m relatively new to the Marvel universe, and I still get accused of playing “girl games” when I’m picking up a new title at the video game store even though the title in my hand might be some new thing I saw three dudes in line ahead of me with. But is it because I’m a girl? (or a woman, rather…)
I have to say that I agree with the ComicsAlliance panel in that the natural gender dynamics of the universe play a role in the geek community just like they do in any community. I’m just repeating what’s already been said if I say that geekery (whether it be comics, gaming, etc.) is traditionally a man’s sport, and I do think there are still some mountains to climb within the geek community (boobs on superheros, for example…).
But, personally, I don’t think that the average woman in the geek world is, on a daily basis, faced with too much judgement or discrimination from male geeks. The Cons and events I’ve been to have never presented me with any significant amount of predjudice from males. My local comic shop, although mostly guys, treats me with the same respect as they do my male significant other and Darius Rucker (oh yeah, we shop at the same comic shop…).
No, I don’t think its male geeks who are the end boss for geek women. Geek women, I think, are the true end boss we have to defeat. The Game of Thrones issue I mentioned? Started by a woman. The nasty critique of Jill Pantozzi? Started by a chick. The person at the game shop who tells me I play “girl games?” A female. Men, I think, for the most part, have gotten past the whole “OMG! a girl with polyhedral dice in her purse!” phase. Sure they still have their oft-referred to Olivia Munn‘s but honestly, who else would complain about a hot girl but a jealous girl?
So I say: Geek Women, stop being petty. When those celebrity women act like poseurs and claim some hidden nerdy past, brush it off. If some cosplayer you know has armor that’s a little too busty, let it go. When you focus on some other geek woman’s shortcomings, you’re only making yourself look like a jerk. I realize sometimes its annoying when a girl plays up her “girlish charms” (read: boobs) in order to get ahead in the geek world, but they are the exception, not the rule, and by acknowledging them you’re only acknowleding that it matters, that you give a crap, that somehow those boobs posses some extra geek-cred.
Which is just silly since everyone knows geek-cred comes from the size of your database of useless knowledge, not your boobs…