Jimquisition: Fake Nerd Girls

[Bara_no_Hime]

Fake Nerd Girls

The latest flavor in the restaurant of controversy is the concept of the fake nerd girl -- women who pretend to like videogames and similar media, all for the express purpose of tricking honest, hard-working Americans.

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Thank you Jim!

And thank the gods for you as well.

I am so fucking sick of having to deal with this stupid stereotype.

Seriously, why would a girl want to fake that? Nerd still isn't exactly a 'good' thing in Western culture - why would someone pretend to be one?

Honestly, I think it's a combination of fear and "stop liking things than I don't like!" when a given girl happens to prefer certain aspects of nerd culture over others.

Confession: I loved the X-men cartoon in the 90s, but I have never read the X-men comics. Because I don't like western comics. But I like the X-men - I like their various cartoon shows that I've seen, and their movies, particularly First Class.

So, once again, thank you Jim for this video. I shall thank the gods for you tonight. ^^

 

[WieldsOblivion]

Actually made this rant a couple days ago;

You know what really pisses me off lately? Geek/nerd guys who think that culture is just for guys. They're the ones who might get bullied in school and mocked for liking video games, comics, manga/animes etc, yet as soon as a GIRL comes along and *f/cking shock horror wtf* -likes these things too-, she's labelled as a fake, as an idiot, and that she "can't possibly be a real fan", just because she so happens to have a fucking vagina. What these guys do when they do this is turn into the bullies that told them they were uncool for liking these things in the first place - so to those "men" that do this to women at conventions, or even on the f/cking internet, maybe instead of acting like the world's biggest prick, you fucking celebrate that you have more people to share the nerd world with, rather than demand that this walking vagina tell you every single line of every single comic ever since the f/cking Golden Age.

/end

 

[MortisLegio]

Wait... Wait, wait, wait. There are attractive women... who go to Conventions and talk about gaming... and people have a problem with this? Really? A good looking woman has something in common with you and wants to talk about it; what's not to like? If an attractive woman came up to me and wanted to talk about gaming I would be happy.

P.S. Good Luck Jared. Hope she said yes.

 

[Rainforce]

Wow, this is actually a thing?...and apparently I'm not the only one thinking that, too.
Shouldn't people enjoy it when...what they deem "attractive" is tryiong to get their attention

Also:
All the best to Megan and Jared.
And @Jim: God, you really made the impression of being completely sleep deprived and accordingly pissed. Hope your next days net you a bit more well-deserved sleep.

captcha: "time flies"
yep, yep

 

[LR100]

One thing I don't see mentioned so far is the portrayal of women in all of this. Just like all other media and advertisement, it perpetuates the unreleastic expectations of women to look a certain way.

Not all gamer girls are size 0 models. Not all size 0 models are fake gamers, but the image that gets portrayed only serves to unconsciously confuse people (both genders) into thinking this is how they should look. It also takes trust away. Am I to believe Kim Cattrall plays on a 3DS regularly? How can I tell for sure? She might, she might not, but I think most people will go with not.

I don't like things to be patronising, disingenuous and insulting in any of my hobbies.

 

[tmande2nd]

Yes this is a thing.

I think its that most men are threatened by the thought of women breaking into and changing "their" hobby.
I seriously heard a guy saying that all women will do is complain until "their games" are the only ones being made.

If it means less COD and FPSes a year then by all means women CHANGE IT.
Hell I know at least half my friends on Steam are girls right now.

 

[ms_sunlight]

Oh, a Jimquisition that, at least in my opinion, misses the point a bit. Or at least avoids a point that shouldn't be.
I think part of the problem here is that people generally don't like fakes, not just limited to the gaming community.

Who the hell gets to say who's a fake and who's not though. That's the thing! If a guy is just getting into something, no-one calls him a fake. If a dude turns up at a convention in a costume, no-one asks him 20 questions to make sure he's entitled to wear it. Why should women be assumed to be liars and have to prove themselves? And what empirical evidence is there that there's a plague of phonies with vaginas trying to invade geekdom and fandom?

When there's absolutely no evidence whatsoever that there is any significant number of "fake nerd girls" out there, you can only call it what it is - a backlash about women coming into previously predominantly male spaces, fuelled by stupidity and misogyny.

 

[Jodah]

I think I need to watch the first half again. I got distracted by that frankly baffling game footage with the chunky people running through walls...

I agree. I want to find out what game that is and who made it...mainly because that horrible, horrible individual needs stabbed in the eye with a spork.

 

[idodo35]

wait... thats really a thing? seriously?
well... yea i agree with jim... wierd...
can someone explain this to me?!

 

[idodo35]

I think I need to watch the first half again. I got distracted by that frankly baffling game footage with the chunky people running through walls...

I agree. I want to find out what game that is and who made it...mainly because that horrible, horrible individual needs stabbed in the eye with a spork.

a spork? thats kinda harsh...
about the game WHAT THE FUCK JAPAN!? (because i can bet you on my left testicle that this is japanease!) seriously what was that?!

 

[Mister K]

Oi! Be glad for at least THIS kind of attention to games. Where I live, girls play only farmville-ish games and tend to distance themselves from you if you play vidia-gamez. This tendency has been disappearing for the last few years, true, but still...

Point is: If a girl likes games that we tend to call "serious", then embrace it, share your knowledge and recommendations, but don't overdo it.

 

[Undeadpool]

My roommate and I were talking about this VERY thing last week and all I can guess is that it's holdover bitterness from lack of female attention (or even female derision) in jr high/high school/even college for some. But now that games are "cool," hot chicks are into them and they're seen as "Janey come lately." Which is INSANE. Women like Felicia Day (who made an ENTIRE SERIES based on her love of WoW and STILL GETS QUESTIONED on her cred) who are not only attractive, but relentlessly joyful in their love of games, should be CELEBRATED, and not merely because they're women, but because games are reaching and impacting so many MORE people than they were twenty years ago. The same people who were always whinging that games would never be looked on as mainstream art are now the ones whinging the loudest that that's exactly what's happened.

 

[Griffolion]

I'm not going to go all out hatred on a "fake nerd girl". But please don't be mad at me if I regard them a little suspiciously if they are rather blatantly putting on the act for attention.

Also, the episode made me remember this picture:

 

[jollybarracuda]

Easiest way to explain how i feel about the subject - Look at Dodger (Presshearttocontinue) compared to MissHannahSomethingOrOther.

See the difference? Yah.

Anyways - congrats to the couple that (hopefully) got engaged! Best of wishes!

 

[aba1]

The only issue I can think off is these people is they do exist are likely to be the same kind of people who 10 years ago would have bullied someone for liking games so I can see the problem there.

I could see this being the mindset of some people. I also suspect it has to do with a similar mind set of indie kids and that people are afraid that the things that define them are being adapted by the main stream which would make these defining features much less defining so they are effectively losing a piece their identity.

 

[jmarquiso]

The only issue I can think off is these people is they do exist are likely to be the same kind of people who 10 years ago would have bullied someone for liking games so I can see the problem there.

People who at one point would not like a thing, than ten years later do? That's what people call progress.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I'm gonna chip in here and say that the annoyance I have with the "fake nerd girl" has nothing to do with a pretty girl talking about games. It's just that it simply echoes the mainstream media's failing attempts at covering a subject they know nothing of apart from the stereotypical.

Add to that the fact that the gaming community is very protective of itself due to being ridiculed for years, and the stigma of the "horny nerd", and you can understand there might be some wariness.

 

[teebeeohh]

hey jim, don't mess with firefly
and i generally don't get the issue with "fake nerd girls" if they are same people who bullied you ten years ago for liking video games, why don't you dig up your superiority complex and think about how how you set on the winning horse and they have to attach themselves to something they don't even like to get attention.
and that is if you even consider this a thing, i really can't see what is wrong with hot women dressing as characters from videogames, even if they just like dressing up or the craft involved in making costumes or even if it's just for the attention, how does that hurt you?

 

[jmarquiso]

The reason that these people are a nuisance, is because they're fake, because they pretend to take an interest in any subject to pass as a diverse person in order to get short-term attention. It's not even hard to differ between these people and those who use it as an ice-breaker, because the latter actually asks about the subject instead of pretending to know what the hell they're talking about.

Poseurs exist in every subculture - be it cinephile or fine art. They don't get nearly as much vitriol as I've seen on gaming forums and gaming conventions.

When someone shows interest in a thing, even if they're feigning some of it, it's a time to educate that person in that thing. It's a time to accept them and help them along their way. When someone willfully turns that person away, it's called elitism.

 

[getoffmycloud]

The only issue I can think off is these people is they do exist are likely to be the same kind of people who 10 years ago would have bullied someone for liking games so I can see the problem there.

People who at one point would not like a thing, than ten years later do? That's what people call progress.

Sorry I didn't mean the exact same people but the same groups of people who only like something because it's popular and gets them attention.