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.
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.
