The Geek Beat: Why Can't Geek Girls Be ... Girls?
Filed under: Comic/Superhero/Geek, The Geek Beat, ComicCon
I know, it's another "girl power" piece on Cinematical, but where there is ranting, the Geek Beat must weigh in.
Last Friday, you may have come across the LA Times "Girl's Guide to ComicCon." You may also have come across the ranting it inspired on Gawker's Jezebel and io9. Now this list ... it was cheesy, I'll grant you. The LA Times (or more accurately, Zap2It) suggested that girls might really like ComicCon because there might be beefcakes there. They hinted at panels for Twilight, The Prince of Persia, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and so on. Yes, there were some insulting comments suggesting women wanted nothing more than to gawk at Jake Gyllenhaal's abdominal muscles ... but it didn't bother me. In fact, it bothered me so little that I did a goofy piece for my other gig at MTV that echoed and quoted it.
Did I betray the geek sisterhood? When I saw the furious headlines, I suffered a real moment of salted slug stomach, and decided I must have. Perhaps it's out of a feeling of self-defense, or maybe I'm just contrarian, but once the cold sweat passed ... I realized I hadn't felt that way when I wrote the MTV piece. I saw it (and its LA Times original) as retaliation against years of booth babes and "Hot Chicks of ComicCon" lists, a bit of tit for tat. I see nothing wrong with encouraging girls to gawk at Nathan Fillion or Jake Gyllenhaal because the boys have been doing it at con for years.
Last Friday, you may have come across the LA Times "Girl's Guide to ComicCon." You may also have come across the ranting it inspired on Gawker's Jezebel and io9. Now this list ... it was cheesy, I'll grant you. The LA Times (or more accurately, Zap2It) suggested that girls might really like ComicCon because there might be beefcakes there. They hinted at panels for Twilight, The Prince of Persia, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and so on. Yes, there were some insulting comments suggesting women wanted nothing more than to gawk at Jake Gyllenhaal's abdominal muscles ... but it didn't bother me. In fact, it bothered me so little that I did a goofy piece for my other gig at MTV that echoed and quoted it.
Did I betray the geek sisterhood? When I saw the furious headlines, I suffered a real moment of salted slug stomach, and decided I must have. Perhaps it's out of a feeling of self-defense, or maybe I'm just contrarian, but once the cold sweat passed ... I realized I hadn't felt that way when I wrote the MTV piece. I saw it (and its LA Times original) as retaliation against years of booth babes and "Hot Chicks of ComicCon" lists, a bit of tit for tat. I see nothing wrong with encouraging girls to gawk at Nathan Fillion or Jake Gyllenhaal because the boys have been doing it at con for years.
I also feel that any way you can encourage women to attend an event seen as a boys club is valid. A girl may go to gawk at the New Moon panel, but my hope is that they'll walk away with some trades, comics, and nerdy t-shirts. I have seen a lot of newbies go into conventions and come out as hardcore genre fans. (I'm not just blowing smoke. Rick Marshall of the MTV Splash Page has encountered the same thing.)
Is it shallow and cheesy? Sure. Is there a bias that girls are "only going" for the hot guys? Naturally. I have fought against that every year that I've attended. I've gotten plenty of comments about how I couldn't be a geek because I'm a girl, or that I'm only a Browncoat because of Nathan Fillion, or I'm interested in Wolverine only because of Hugh Jackman. It's annoying and insulting, and the automatic response is to name drop some arcane trivia, assert my cred, and downplay my femininity in order to be accepted as a Geek with a Capital G. Every girl geek does this – oh my gosh, don't see me as a girl, see me as a geek! It's ridiculous. After all, I'm confident in my tastes and knowledge. I know that I go to ComicCon for the comic books and the panels, and if I can catch a glimpse of Nathan Fillion, Hugh Jackman, or Robert Downey Jr., I'm not going to apologize for taking the chance or the thrill. No guy is going to apologize for doing the same if Summer Glau or Scarlett Johansson shows up, after all, and it never occurs to me to quiz them on their geek cred for doing so. Geek girls should get to enjoy being girls as much as geek guys can continue to enjoy being guys. We're all human. We all like to look.
That said, it's time for studios, marketers, websites, and panels to acknowledge that ComicCon and geekdom isn't a boy's club. To stipulate that one can only enter and win a trip to ComicCon (as IGN and its sponsor Columbia just did) if you have a penis is beyond medieval in this day and age. Geekdom has never been an exclusively male domain (and I can introduce you to a lot of female Trekkers to prove my point), and the only barriers that exist now are those put up by the desperately sexist. The only ones still harping on "Girls don't like this stuff!" are those who love having a secret clubhouse with a sign on the door, and who haven't yet realized that such a stereotype hurts men as well as women. Do geek guys enjoy the image of themselves as pathetic virgins? Because that's exactly the image perpetuated by freezing out women and their opinions.*
That's why I don't care that the LA Times runs a fluff piece about girls and ComicCon. At least they're acknowledging that women exist, and might have an interest in attending, unlike IGN or Columbia's contest. That's a giant leap for womankind after months of sneering when we complain about superheroines or Star Trek. Plus, if I may be terribly blunt, if there's an image geek girls could live comfortably with, it might be one that suggests we have a healthy appreciation of the opposite sex. Who knows? Maybe they'll start hiring us Booth Beefcakes.
*I should stress that I have encountered less and less of this, particularly here on Cinematical. That's why I'm confident it's rapidly becoming an outdated stereotype, and that only a few cling to it because they profit on the inflammatory traffic that it brings.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-16-2009 @ 2:30PM
Premaximum said...
I think much of the skepticism you described coming from the "Male Geek" himself, is simply that. It isn't that they feel a woman can't possibly be a geek, it's simply that the world of comics and sci-fi are so male-dominated that when we meet a young, attractive girl who's into the same thing we are we double-take.
Any quizzing we follow up with is probably just to verify that, yes, indeed...this girl is for real. She's -not- just there for the Twilight panel. She -doesn't- just like Hugh Jackman's abs. She knows who Marrow is.
Nerdgasm ensues.
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6-16-2009 @ 3:15PM
Danielle said...
Can I just point out I'm a girl, and would give anything to go to comiccon. Anything, if only I didn't have to go alone, because granted none of my girlfriends have the slightest interest.
We do exist though.
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6-16-2009 @ 3:20PM
Jennifer said...
I just have to ask Elisabeth- have you ever been to DragonCon? It's the largest con on the east coast, takes place in Atlanta every Labor Day weekend. I'd love to see you there. Now, if you've ever been you will be pleasantly surprised by the number of "hot" women that are there that are just as nerdy/geeky when you talk to them as some of the guys. And very few guys that I've come across have the attitude that you describe, but on the rare occasion I do, I am not above pointing out how sexist they are. Then I bring to light the misconception that they have in their fav comic book/video game. And since I'm reasonably attractive, as Premaximum said Nerdgasm ensues...
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6-16-2009 @ 3:46PM
Batzarro said...
NO STEREOTYPE IS OUTDATED ENOUGH FOR THE MIGHTY INTERNET!(thunder).
No, seriously, good article. Ain't nothing wrong with a little elbow poking. As long as one isn't wearing spiked shoulder pads, haha!
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6-16-2009 @ 3:54PM
Katie said...
" I see nothing wrong with encouraging girls to gawk at Nathan Fillion or Jake Gyllenhaal because the boys have been doing it at con for years."
Because when you encounter The Stupid, the correct response is to lower yourself and roll around in it rather than rise above, naturally.
Perhaps if the LAT/Zap2It piece had offered any useful information like panel times, suggested reading or name-dropped any female creators that are going to attend, I'd have found it less offensive. Implying that my only interest in something like SDCC is to oggle guys is just as dehumanizing and reductive as staring at my boobs.
You may not have been offended and that's your priviledge, I was and my response was just as valid as yours.
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6-16-2009 @ 4:31PM
Moo said...
I get your point, Katie, but there is nothing "stupid" with taking a look at someone attractive, or being excited about seeing them. As the writer correctly points out, we are all human and we all like to look at other attractive humans. There is really no denying this simple fact.
Whether or not gawking at hawtness is the ONLY reason you go, well that's another question. Even for those who maybe wouldn't go but for the New Moon panel or for Jake's abs (or Scarlett's boobs, or whatever) one would hope that in an atmosphere as enormous and diverse as Comic Con the gawkers would find something else of more substance to interest them. As the writer said, hopefully they will come away with some new comics or an interest in an upcoming movie they didn't know about, or something. I think that probably most would. I think that there are probably plenty of people who came to the Con last year solely for the Twilight panel who would be back this year New Moon or no.
Should the LA Times piece have had more substantive information for women than it had? Sure, maybe. Does the lack of same make it inherently insulting to women? Sure, maybe, but not necessarily. Both responses are valid, and I don't think the writer said otherwise.
Just like there is nothing wrong with a woman who enjoys Preacher or Scott Pilgrim or BSG, there is nothing wrong with a woman who does enjoy Jake's abs. Calling a woman who has a healthy enjoyment of the opposite (or same for that matter) sex "stupid" is just as reductive as anything in that LA Times piece.
Of course, all of this is coming from a dude so feel free to ignore it ;)
6-16-2009 @ 4:08PM
roshow said...
Elisabeth,
It's not just attractive women who are greeted with skepticism. When I was an overweight slob, no one questioned my geek cred. One day I got healthy and put myself. I also started spending time going out and chasing girls, successfully. Since then I'm greeted with the same skepticism you are. Nevermind that I read more comics now than I did when I was lonely and fat, or that I'm in line for hours on opening night at the movies or that I can tell you every difference between the TOS, TMP, TNG and new Enterprise. I can't imagine how much more skepticism I'd get if I told them I actually followed a sport too.
Ironically I have always felt more ostracized by the "geeks" than the "cool kids" despite having many more passions in common with the former.
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6-16-2009 @ 4:51PM
Eden said...
I think a lot of people objected to the LA Times piece because it was all about movies & TV shows -- like no woman would ever to got Comic-Con for comics.
But otherwise, I thought it was kind of fun. I mean, I think we've all sat through plenty of "Hot women of [X event]" or whatever. And I know I've seen my fair share of "Megan Fox is so hot!" articles lately. So I did like that LA Times did a reversal of that sort of thing.
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6-16-2009 @ 4:59PM
Meredith said...
THANK YOU! I posted an angry piece about this on my blog last night; it's good to know that I'm not the only one wo noticed how insulting the whole thing is.
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6-16-2009 @ 6:14PM
Mark Rooster said...
I find it absolutely mind-boggling that ANY male geek is complaining, or criticizing, girls for coming to a convention, regardless of the reason. . . . Yeah, it's so much better going somewhere with ALL dudes and no girls. Makes it more, uh, cool and exclusive, right?
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6-16-2009 @ 6:45PM
semigeekgirl said...
I saw the LA Times piece and was not so much offended as disappointed. I've attended Comic-Con for the past five years and have never found a shortage of things to amuse myself with, despite being a girl and only tangentially interested in comics. While it is in retrospect a fairly insulting piece, I feel it's more derogatory to the Con and geekdom than to females - it's basically saying "this event will probably bore you, except wait - HOT GUYS!" In the end, though, I hated the article mostly because it was stupid. It contained less useful information than any other "guide" I've ever seen, including the fact that it was only published AFTER all the tickets to the Con had sold out. Really, epic fail.
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6-16-2009 @ 7:16PM
cablebfg said...
I support the enthusiasm to get away from this Guys-only mentality. I think geeks in general are a special bunch. Of which I am included. Despite the fact that there is a large amount of females that play videogames, the idea is still hard to get through with many guys. The same can be said for comics and other popular media.
I think this topic is interesting in that you suggest that superficial reasons might lead to actual reasons to go to Comic-Con. I can see lots of geeks offended by this, but at the same time, the ultimate goal is to get people hooked as well as remain a female and a geek, with their own needs and wants. Interesting article.
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6-17-2009 @ 6:35AM
Melanie said...
Totally agree with everything you said. Great article!!
Bring on Tron 2.0 / Tr2n!!
Mel x
www.myspace.com/melanieault
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6-17-2009 @ 9:55AM
ML said...
Wow. I hadn't realized the Times had gotten so silly.
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7-21-2009 @ 8:48PM
Seher said...
girls going to con to see male abs, thats the dumbest thing i've ever read... who ever wrote it i the first place must be doig it thou...
do i smell someone's comig out in LA times? (i assume its a boy, coz i dont think girls actually do it, ot the ones i know at least)
(sry for misspellig)
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