Women in Geek Culture

       I cannot describe enough how excited I am to be discussing "geek girls" in our lecture on Friday. Growing up I spent a lot of time hanging out with my older brother, who was just five years older than me. We often watched Dragon Ball Z and shows based on superheroes/comic books, watched movies by Hayao Miyazaki, and played a variety of video games on almost every game console you can think of.

       

       While I'll admit my brother played a role in my interest in these types of shows, movies and games, it bothers me when guys assume there is no way I developed these interests on my own. Being a girl, it's typically assumed that I always chose to play with Barbies instead of picking up a Playstation controller or my brother's Game Gear. Or it's assumed I was too busy reading the latest issue of a gossip magazine to consider reading Game Informer instead.

       In my own experiences and from what I've seen online, women often have to defend their identity as a "geek" or "nerd." Women have to prove that they're "true" members of the geek culture - God forbid a girl doesn't know every villain in the Marvel universe.

       But even once a woman has been accepted into the geek culture, she still has to maintain the level of femininity that is expected in our society in general. If you look at cosplay trends, women's costumes are usually pretty revealing - but this is partly influenced by how women are objectified in comics, manga and video games. 

Just do a Google Images search of "cosplay" and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Or, just search Olivia Munn, Morgan Webb or Felicia Day on Google and you'll find a variety of blogs and articles on the (positive or negative) popularity of celebrity female geeks. 

I'll highlight two readings I found interesting:

1. "Morgan Webb, Feminism and Cultural Capital in Web 2.0" - a blog post on why female personalities are compelled to market their sexuality

2. "Booth babes need not apply" - an article on CNN's Geek Out! section on how true geek girls further the community, unlike models hired to be personalities on mainstream geek outlets (ex: Olivia Munn)

      ** interesting quote by the author about the relationship between pretty geek girls and geek guys:

"As a guy, I find it repugnant that, due to my interests in comic books, sci-fi, fantasy and role playing games, video games and toys, I am supposed to feel honored that a pretty girl is in my presence. It's insulting."

On a side note: Christina Blanch recently spoke about comics and their cultural context for the Department of English's Marilyn K. Cory Speaker Series. She teaches Gender Through Comic Books, an online course offered at Ball State. She's done some pretty awesome work worth checking out. Not to mention she's co-author of the web comic "The Damnation of Charlie Wormwood" and co-owner of Alter Ego Comics in Downtown Muncie!