Fake Geek Girls

[Legion]

So, it appears that Critical Miss and Jimquisition are taking on the same problem this week.

Um... was this even a problem before this week? Seriously, I had NEVER, EVER heard of nerds bitching about fake nerd girls until a heard Jim ranting about said bitching. Having everyone blow their lids at the same time like this about a seemingly nonexistant problem is kind of surreal...

Basically some tool made a post about fake geek girls a little while back, some other tools (almost certainly the same kind of people we block when we game due to all the childish, abusive crap) and it has been blown way out of proportion.

I am not sure what exactly caused it to be dragged back up again though.

It's one of those mountains out of molehills things. There are misogynistic arseholes in geek culture, of course. But considering all of the millions of geeks in the world, they are hardly anything more than a very vocal minority.

The same way all of the crazy femi-nazi's and the people who use the "It's called the White House" line when saying Obama shouldn't be President are not seen as a "Problem with feminism/Americans."

 

[Darth_Payn]

Do one of you guys know the origins to this whole "fake geek girl" thing? It just sounds like a big non-issue to me. As geeks, should we not preach the gospels of the things we like to the nonbelievers?

 

[BreakfastMan]

Also are you seriously accusing Grey of pointing out this issue solely for the attention?

Hurr hurr wouldn't that be ironic.

I just ordered some comic books guys PHASE 3 IS IN PROGRESS.

*touches all the nerdy things with her cootie ridden hands*

I for one welcome our new female overlords, being as I am a white knight, self-hating, beta-male who despises masculinity. I submit my testicles to you, my queen!

OT: Great comic as always, Grey. Really helps illustrate just how absurd this whole thing is. XD

 

[Fappy]

Why bring up the clone saga!? It was such a dark time in comic book history

 

[Souplex]

Sure but can you name all the characters the girls are cosplaying as?

Ooh! Ooh! I know! They're Mai Shiranui, Catwoman, and Tomoe Mami. What do I win?

Who's "Tomoe Mami"? I've never heard of her?
It's some Japanime thing, isn't it.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

OK quick question why did the escapist suddenly go apeshit about this whole thing? i mean this meme has been around for some time and you're only now saying something about it? you're slow, very slow, like a turtle.

I think that's just it. It's been around for some time, and they're saying "enough is enough, we get it already, and it's not that big of a deal anyway". Sort of a thing where they weren't going to say anything, hoping that the rage against "fake gamer girls" was just a passing fad that would come and go and everyone would forget about it... then it just kept going.

Edit: Also, I hardly consider two contributors talking about the same topic as The Escapist (as a whole) "suddenly going apeshit". So unless I missed something...

 

[yeti585]

Do one of you guys know the origins to this whole "fake geek girl" thing? It just sounds like a big non-issue to me. As geeks, should we not preach the gospels of the things we like to the nonbelievers?

Well, it all started out when being "hipster" became cool (the irony is killing me). Many people didn't get what hipsters were and thought it was just something geeky. So now you had people going around saying how much of a nerd they are because they play angry birds on their iPhone. it spawned people like the pic from the linked article in today's strip. (I'm not trying to say anything about the person in the picture, just her choice of things in the picture)

Spoiler

It annoyed some people because they would have someone butting in saying "I love video games! My favorite is Draw Something!" when they tried to have a conversation about the Halo storyline with their friend. Or, people just got tired of hearing "OMG I'm such a nerd!" a hundred times a day because someone can do something as simple (to them) as typing with every finger. It was also annoying because, and I can't stress this enough, it reinforced stereotypes. Thick rimmed glasses? that's nerdy. Not being able to dress "trendy"? that's nerdy. Not having a social life (or seeming not to in this case)? that's nerdy. etc.

It really wasn't an issue. Not how Jim or the writers behind Critical Miss have spotlighted it. It was more a nuisance to a select few.

There was also a brief spat about Cosplayers (in general) not being knowledgeable of the character/series they were. This got misconstrued so many times it became "Hot girls who dress like characters from geeky series and fake being a nerd to get attention from overweight, unattractive, unworthy nerds."

 

[Twilight_guy]

Seems more possibly then the explanation that "EA is evil because they are evil".

Also, Really... a clone saga question? That the best you could do? I'd have asked an Amalgam universe question and actually made some people Wikipedia it.

 

[idodo35]

first of all the comic was funny
second is this seriously still an issue? this whole "fake geek girls"? can someone explain WHY?! i thought hot ladies taking interest in our medium (or not hot ladies or just other people) is a good thing even if they arent hard core! why is that a problem if a girl just wanna dress like catwoman even if she doesnt know shit about selina kyle?

PS the answer is ben riely the name is a combination of the uncles first name (uncle ben duh) and may parker's pre marital name (riely) there was also cain who was another clone but thats a whole other can of worms.. what were we talking about again?

 

[geizr]

I didn't realize this was even an issue. Since I've now been made aware of the issue, I looked a bit into it, and all I've got to say to the people bitching on it is: GROW THE FUCK UP, GET SOME FUCKING PERSPECTIVE, AND GET THE FUCK OVER YOURSELVES! Really! It is clear that closed-minded, exclusive religious-like thinking is not restricted to extremist, fundamentalist religious-zealots. These guys really have the absolute nerve to be perturbed that a bunch of girls are just using them as some means of objectified entertainment? A bunch of geeks who derive objectified entertainment staring at sexually idealized imagery of women are incensed that a bunch of women derive objectified entertainment trying to garner their attention at conventions. Really!? Guys, welcome to the human race; the door swings both ways. Honestly, I would half consider myself in heaven that some hot or semi-hot chick is going out of her way to vie for my attention and affection. I agree 100% with the point that, at a con, ANYONE dressed in cos-play is vying for attention, regardless of the underlying motives.

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

Y'know, I do actually have a contribution on this, and that is Fake Nerds both exist and most importantly are not just girls.

As just about anyone who's spent time working in a comic shop is aware you get a whole plethora of non-fans who stop by to buy things, ranging from the speculators (people who buy comicbooks just because they assume the market still works like it did in the 1970's and they'll be WORTH something in the future, ignoring the fact the only people it'll be worth money to is people exactly like them) to the fakers, and the fakers are apparently now important enough the rest of the geek world is dealing with it.

Ever since the Dark Knight I have to had to deal with idiots telling me how cool Batman is, how the Joker is awesome and how Heath Ledger's version is the best that'll ever be achieved. And I don't mind that they're big on the movie, it's just when this extends into pretending to read the comics. People will buy one batman issue, half read it, decide it's more fun to just claim to love batman/wiki it and spend their days claiming to be a huge fan. Understandably, I find this aggravating when I get told how lame Robin is solely because of a skit on Family Guy or because Christopher Nolan didn't use him (wisely, it wouldn't have fit the tone of the movie but there is a POINT to the character so *rant ramble, WWII and daddy issues, boring and irrelevant*) Aquaman's worse, the cow-eyed shit-spewers on Big Bang Theory say how "no-one likes aquaman" and suddenly he's not cool any more. I get that its cool to rag on him (despite his prowess at throwing polar bears [http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/vv73/scarey_01/01-Polar-Bear-Toss-Aquaman.jpg])

But this problem is one that I've just started ignoring. You know if someone's not really interested and only doing it for the attention and you ignore them and eventually they'll move on, you might overhear them saying how 'amazing' the N64's graphics while wondering what resolution they are and then you'll probably need to smack your head on a table for a few minutes.

Point is (and this is decidedly unhelpful since it's a rant aimed at stopping exactly what the rant itself is doing) if we stop talking about and stop paying attention the problem will go away, or at least we won't need to deal with it. Though as a serious note, it does piss me off that it's always 'Fake Nerd Girls', gender doesn't come into it, you get posers on both sides why do all these articles have to mention that it's a problem with "Fake Nerd girls" not fake nerds in general? + Cosplay is really just a thing people do, it's not neccessarily exhibitionism even if the costume is scanty (Saw a dude cosplaying as Namor, didn't assume he was doing it to show off he was an aspiring Micheal Phelps)

 

[Xanadu84]

I think that the next Geek world boogieman is the, "Guy complaining about fake nerd girls"

I'm not saying that there isn't a rather insidious perspective that seeps into the world of geekdom that alienates women and questions their, "Cred". This is a conversation worth having, and we need to be more welcoming. But in terms of numbers, and not just some very obvious outliars, I feel like this disgust with cultural gatekeeping is the only sentiment more popular in the gaming community then liking Valve. (Most) everyone agrees that we shouldn't have a set of standards that women need to rise to to become geeks. Now, if I can compare this to another issue in an extraordinarily melodramatic way, I feel that condemning cultural gatekeepers keeping women out of geeky hobbies is kind of like condemning the open racism of a tiny, insignificant group like the KKK, and ignoring the more subtle, insidious forms of racism hiding right under our noses without us even realizing it.

Honestly, I don't think its a coincidence that the last big hot button issue was sexism and booth babes. What I think happened is that all those people seen as emblamatic of keeping women out of the boys club really just got into this idea of how insulting it is to be pandered to with the lowest sexual common denominator. They decided to speak out against childish view of the demographic, and they simply failed to direct there anger at the right targets. How can you expect such a massive community to decry the specific act of pandering to men with the sexually explicit for the purpose of marketing, and NOT accidentally target women who are just innocent women bystanders? I think that among the people with the intelligence to write about these issues coherently, the real problem is not a sexist philosophy, but a decidedly NON sexist philosophy that has been executed poorly.

In short, How can you tell the difference between a scantily clad female whose pushing a product and trying to capitalize on a male gamer stereotype, and a female geek who is scantily clad because they genuinely like that scantily clad character? Well, were not really sure how to make that distinction just yet, and the boogiemen of the moment are those who are particularly bad at making that distinction.

 

[Andrew_C]

Basically some tool made a post about fake geek girls a little while back, some other tools (almost certainly the same kind of people we block when we game due to all the childish, abusive crap) and it has been blown way out of proportion.

I am not sure what exactly caused it to be dragged back up again though.

Except this wasn't just "Some Tool" this time, this was a fairly prominent comic book artist Tony Harris [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Harris_(comics)] . There is a link to objectionable post on his blog under the comic. I won't dignify it with another link.

 

[zombie711]

People the answer is Ben Riley.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

Sure but can you name all the characters the girls are cosplaying as?

Ooh! Ooh! I know! They're Mai Shiranui, Catwoman, and Tomoe Mami. What do I win?

Who's "Tomoe Mami"? I've never heard of her?
It's some Japanime thing, isn't it.

Pretty much, yeah. She's from an anime called "Puella Magi Madoka Magica". I recommend it to anime fans... just be warned, this is one anime that'd best gone into blind (As in, no spoilers.)

 

[Frankster]

I call BS, i thought one of the probs with cons was the security was so lax you could make women touch your penis and security guard will just be like "mmhm what u want me to do about it?".

My immersion is broken.

 

[dmase]

My limited exposure to spider man would have prevented from answering that question. However I get your point.

 

[T_ConX]

I don't even read Spider-Man, and somehow I just knew it was Ben Reilly. Easy question, certainly not something worth losing your head over...

The problem with 'Fake Nerd Girls' isn't the fact that they're girls. The problem is that they're fake. It's not like there aren't 'Fake Nerd Boys' out there. They happen to be smaller in number, and much more subtle, but they exist, and I hate them too!

The problem is that at some point in the last few years, smart suddenly became cool. Once Facebook took our social lives and we started carrying supercomputers in our pockets, being seen as technologically literate was a good thing.

And with this, you had a sudden influx of, pardon my French, TREND-W****S. Lacking any scene of individuality, they have never let their lack of understanding or appreciation stop them from jumping from one cultural bandwagon to the next. They'll leave once it stops being cool (can't happen soon enough).

"Nerds are cool, and I want to be cool, so I have to do things that nerds do! What do nerds do? Uh... they watch Sci-Fi TV shows! I can do that! And they play video games! I'll do some of that too! Hey, I kind of enjoy these things! I am totally a NERD!"

OH! You played a video game? That sure took some effort. You watched an episode of Star Trek? That must have been HARD!

Here's how you tell if someone is a fake nerd:

Do they brag about doing something 'nerdy' that isn't really worth bragging about?

If they constantly feel the need to 'prove' that they're nerds, and the best proof they can offer up is 'I occasionally play video games' or 'I once watched a TV show that had a spaceship or time-machine in it', well, then they get an E for effort!

No really! If you go to Twitter (NOT RECOMMENDED) and look at the tweets under #suchanerd, you would be amazed at how many people think 'reading a book' or 'playing Call of Duty' earns them nerd cred.

Yeah, maybe it's wrong for us to demand that a girl provide us with her nerd credentials when we never ask the boys for the same thing. The sad truth is that we don't need to ask for their nerd credentials. Why would we have to, especially when they're always shoving them in our faces? Look at this picture of me holding a controller! SUCH A NERD! I'm wearing glasses! SUCH A NERD!

Back when sub-urban teens started immersing themselves in hip-hop culture, dressing like Gangstas and acting like they were street tough thugs, everyone got to make fun of them! They were ridiculed over how they simply doing it because it was trendy while having no real connection to, or understanding of, the culture.

Of course, we're suddenly labeled territorial assholes when we say how lacking we find their 'nerdy accomplishments' to be. Why? Why does Pretty Fly for a White Guy get to be the butt of jokes for his cultural fraud, but we're not allowed to make fun of Fake Nerds without someone turning the Sarkeesian-signal on?

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

Of course, we're suddenly labeled territorial assholes when we say how lacking we find their 'nerdy accomplishments' to be. Why? Why does Pretty Fly for a White Guy get to be the butt of jokes for his cultural fraud, but we're not allowed to make fun of Fake Nerds without someone turning the Sarkeesian-signal on?

If someones being obnoxiously in your face about how nerdy they are (or want to be) then thats ok to mock them. They are choosing to be an annoying twat. The thing is some people are taking this to the point where "Any girl who cosplays a character i deem to be slutty is a fake nerd" or "Any girl who takes an interest in nerd culture lower than the desired threshold is a fake nerd girl" or "You must be THIS nerdy to enter" ect ect. It only becomes ok when they try and thrust it onto you. Feel free to quiz them then if they wanna initiate a "Nerdier than thou" attitude. It just seems horrible that some people wanna be the ones to charge up to people they assume only do these things for attention before they even SAY anything purely based on gender/looks and demand nerd cred. Thats a totally douchey thing to do.

Its also because "Nerdery" is such a BROAD term. Ive never read a comic book other than deathnote and Scott Pilgrim. Never seen startreck either. Im far more into the game side of things. Id fail a shit tonne of tests. Its not really fair to call someone out on an aspect of nerdery when they might be totally into another part of it. Two people who are part of the "nerd culture" might have TOTALLY different interests just because of how broad "Nerd culture" is. Id only call out someone being overly obnoxious about it. People minding their own business by cosplaying whatever they damn well please dont deserve to be quizzed or judged.

 

[DementedSheep]

Its kinda annoying to see someone going "I play angry birds, I'm such a nerd lol" but a lot of things people do are annoying and I've seen guys do it too though its usually more "I played CoD this one time". Fortunately I think most people aren't stupid enough to actauly think every attractive girl is faking being into their hobby. I highly doubt its actauly all that common to have someone spending hours making a cosplay costume of a character they don't actually like purely for attention and to "seduce" the guys or whatever the hell they think these girls are doing.

Basically some tool made a post about fake geek girls a little while back, some other tools (almost certainly the same kind of people we block when we game due to all the childish, abusive crap) and it has been blown way out of proportion.

I am not sure what exactly caused it to be dragged back up again though.

Except this wasn't just "Some Tool" this time, this was a fairly prominent comic book artist Tony Harris [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Harris_(comics)] . There is a link to objectionable post on his blog under the comic. I won't dignify it with another link.

yeah, I had this misfortune of seeing that earlier...what a prick.

Also Red is awesome.