Poll: Fake Geek Girl Meme

[DrOswald]

-snip-

Interesting, but there's a couple fatal flaws in your thesis. One: You assume that girls didn't do the same as guys, belittling their nerdier and geekier peers. This is not the case, it does happen, just in a less physical sense than how guys go about it.

Actually, I had a whole section about female bullying, but I decided to cut out because my post was already too long. Since we are talking about the males in a male dominated group discriminating against women it seemed less important to establish the universally accepted fact that nerd culture has, for a very long time, been mostly male.

Two: On the topic of girls dating down the social ladder. Ones biology tends to lead to a predisposition to date up the social ladder, so its highly likely that you didn't even notice female nerds and geeks because they weren't on your radar growing up.

It is a fact that there were 3 girls in my group to more than 15 guys. The chess club was almost all male, the Lord of the Rings club had some 20 guys and 4 girls. I remember each of them specifically, though ten years after the fact I can only tell you 3 of their names. There were no girls in our Warhammer circle. They never joined in our after school halo parties (which were open to anyone who would care to come.) If there were many more geek girls around that I realized it was because they were doing their best to hide it.

A social outcast is not always a geek, and a geek is not always a social outcast.

 

[deathzero021]

Here's what i think. The only people i might think of as a "fake geek" are those people that don't really know anything about geek culture and enjoy a small mainstream amount of a certain type of media.

example being a Naruto fan thinking they're an anime geek despite the fact that they don't watch any other animes or really know much about it. These people some times call them self a "geek" but the rest of the nerd-circle of that media would disagree. I DO NOT think it's because that person wants to be a geek or is trying to trick people, they're just stupid and ignorant to what it all means. (same can apply to games and other nerd stuff)

As for genders, this stuff applies to all genders. Perhaps it is more common though to see normal or awkward girls be interested in nerd-guys and culture but aren't exactly nerds them self. You know the girls that wear "I <3 Nerds" on their t-shirt or may call them self a "nerd" in general but not really be all that informed in most things we consider to be geeky. again i don't think it's because they're trying to "fake it" they just lack the information to know what nerd generally applies to. It's ignorance people.

 

[Thyunda]

I don't know which is worse, the hostility of the opening post or the blatant misuse of the meme. The geek girl meme applies to girls who are vocal about their 'nerdy' tastes and yet somehow manage to get them blatantly wrong. Like a Facebook status declaring "I'm going to play some Mind Craft before bed <3"...or endless statuses designed specifically to tell everybody that she's a geek because she plays Call of Duty.

It's merely mocking the image she wants to create for herself, not the concept of geeky girls at all. Men doing this is virtually unheard of - I've never seen a guy do it. Maybe you have. But I sure as hell haven't.

Apologies if the opening post seemed hostile to you - that wasn't my intention, as I'm genuinely interested in what everyone had to say on this topic.

I don't think the appropriation of the meme IS 'blatant misuse'. I understand what you mean, that the 'idiot geek girl' meme is about girls who make mistakes with their geeky knowledge and some people would call 'fake' or 'a poser'. The point of the author of the article, and the maker of the new meme, is that if a man made these mistakes they would more easily be written off as that, just mistakes, rather than someone who is pretending to be something they're not. None of us have the right to say someone isn't a geek because they write a facebook status saying they played CoD once and they're a hardcore gamer. Yes, that's a bit daft, but maybe they know more about sci-fi lit than most uber-nerds. Or maybe they collect moon dust in jars, or they're a massive film geek. What right do we have to point at anyone and tell them that they're a poser, a fake, just because they don't reach some high standard we've decided upon for geekdom. When you think about it it's just horribly judgemental. You have every right to think that someone is a phoney, but just keep it to yourself, and keep an open mind. That's the message I took from the article, and the new meme, anyway.

If a guy makes a mistake like the aforementioned 'Mind Craft' then I guarantee his friends will ask him if he wants to play 'Mind Craft' for years to come. I think the question is - why do people go through school laughing at the guys who stay home on weekends playing videogames, and then refer to themselves as geeks? I thought the idea was that other people called you a geek. Kind of how labels work, you can't just label yourself that's silly. Are you a geek because you post Facebook statuses about playing Call of Duty?

No. No more so than you are a film nerd because you're watching a rom-com with your girl-friends. Or going to see The Expendables 2 with your big manly sports friends. You are not a geek because you play a game every now and then. That is not what the word means. Why do people feel it's okay to mock the 'geeks' in their life, but then if a girl says she's a geek, it's somehow attractive.

I think the problem here isn't misogyny, it's more of a sense of "Why would you tell everybody you're that thing that you hate?" And if that's not their intent, what're they doing? Saying it ironically? Look at me I'm such a geek (but not as much of a geek as those losers).


Now I must end this with a little disclaimer - there's no level of hate in this post. The girls I've met who call themselves geeks or play games have been nothing but nice to me. I don't think I know anybody personally who fits into the meme's target. However I HAVE noticed that games are so much more socially acceptable now than they used to be. People I'd never expect to know Slender felt obliged to recommend it to me when I was TRYING to play Amnesia.

 

[kickassfrog]

I don't think I've ever had to prove my geekishness to people, but only because I'm either way more of a geek than they were, or because I'd known them for years and we always discussed the geeky stuff and generally liked the same things.

 

[Spartan Altego]

Wait wait wait.

Being a nerd is popular now. How the fuck did I miss that?

OT: Never experienced it myself.

 

[Stu35]

Well, I thought this was going to be an unproductive thread which I'd waste a bit of time reading through, chuckling at the overall social ineptness and out-of-touch-ness of the average Escapist member...

Instead I discovered what Yuri is, and now I'm gonna go spank it until I get bored and go back to Redheaded Dominatrices.


As for the topic itself: I think that yes, some lasses to get criticised overly for not being "geeky" or "Nerdy" enough, but then, so do some lads - I have to put up with it all the time, because whilst I identify as a nerd/geek/whatever, many of my friends are the sort of incredibly hardcore nerds that they have indeed, read all 900 (or however many thousand) issues of Batman.

Such is part of having other interests than Games/Comics/etc. etc. - Interests including Rugby League, Rugby Union, Ice Hockey, American Football, Drinking, Fighting, Experimenting Sexually, Cigars, Whisky, those little marshmellows that you get from Costa Coffee that go in your hot chocolate, and so on.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Being a nerd is popular now. How the fuck did I miss that?

You were probably busy doing nerdy things.

 

[OuroborosChoked]

It seems pretty irrelevant to post at this point, but every subculture has authentic people who just ARE that culture... and then there are the people who want to claim to be a part of that culture. Gamers, goths, metalheads, punks, and so on... every group has 'em. They're called poseurs: people who act like they're something they're not... sometimes it's to get attention and sometimes it's out of a genuine desire to participate in the culture (without actually learning anything about the culture). THAT is what that series of advice animal pictures is spoofing; not girls specifically. It just so happens that there are a lot of girls who want to don (what they feel is) the garb of gamer-dom for the attention... without knowing anything about gaming (e.g. that one about Link being called Zelda)... I mean, just google image search for gamer girl and see how many softcore porn pics you get...

But like I said, it's not gender specific, nor is it gaming specific. Go to any high school and you'll find some kid in black jeans and eye liner claiming to be a goth... ask him what his favorite bands are and he'll say Evanescence and Paramore (or whatever band is in these days...). They're EVERYWHERE... and you just want to smack 'em.

Frankly, whenever I see anyone with a video game tattoo, I think they're trying too hard. Real gamers just game. I don't need a triforce tattoo to play System Shock 2...

 

[ManInRed]

Are groups of guys are competitive over who knows more about a subject of shared interest? Pretty much. Doesn't matter if its geek trivia, sports, music, business, politics, or religion. Though, I would be shock to hear groups of women do not engage in the same sort of banter that routinely picks out new members as posers.

The thing I don't understand is why there are groups that are stereotypically female labeled as ostracizing men. What could I do that girls would label me as a fake poser for joining?

 

[Vault101]

[quote="OuroborosChoked" post="18.386852.15473908"
Frankly, whenever I see anyone with a video game tattoo, I think they're trying too hard. Real gamers just game. I don't need a triforce tattoo to play System Shock 2...[/quote]

I dont think its trying too hard...its just pure passion/obsesssion

not sure a poser would go "that" far

 

[DoPo]

Well, I thought this was going to be an unproductive thread which I'd waste a bit of time reading through, chuckling at the overall social ineptness and out-of-touch-ness of the average Escapist member...

Instead I discovered what Yuri is, and now I'm gonna go spank it until I get bored and go back to Redheaded Dominatrices.

Oh yes, you do that. Here, let me get you started on Yuri

Spoiler: Might be NSFW

I don't know, if your boss is a Red Alert 2 player. I don't want you to take chances and get fired over it. I've seen some very passionate RA2 players.

Hmm, those two sexy...eyes

 

[Teacakes]

I have mixed feelings about Fake Geek Girl.

On one hand, getting verbally reamed for rookie fandom mistakes or accused of just looking to get attention is all kinds of terrible. You feel like you'll never find any group that will take you seriously or have any sort of discussion with you that doesn't end with "What the hell do you know about comics/TCGs/video games/whatever? You're just trying to have 'quirky' interests." It's one of the reasons why I occasionally pose as a man on some forums.

On the other hand, there are deeply annoying females who really do fake nerdiness (despite their only "geeky" activity being that they follow an Avengers yaoi Tumblr) because they like the easy attention. I dislike them, because quite a few forums and the like have treated me poorly before even talking to me on the assumption that I was one of these types.

People who call this meme sexist are probably right, but there's definitely some truth to the thing.

 

[Loreley]

I'm on the fence about this meme. Yeah, there are some who girls use it for attention, but there's a lot more who get accused of using it for attention merely because of the fact they exist and have these interests. Someone else said they weren't once attacked in 20+ years; you, my lady, must have the best luck on the face of the planet in that regard.

I'm a female casual gamer and sort of a part-time nerd, if you will. I enjoy my Marvel comics, but I don't feel guilty when I throw my hands up at the ball of tangled spaghetti that could best describe their 50 years of backstory. I play DA2 on hardcore, but I get super-happy when I manage to beat the Space Marines with my Imperial Guard on normal difficulty in Dawn of War 1. And so on. They're hobbies, not jobs. How far I obsess over them is purely decided by my mood. So that makes me a target for the "You're not a REAL Gamer/Geek/Whatever" crowd. And because I'm female, I get the added bonus of "You obviously just do it because you want male attention (i.e., their attention - pretty high opinion of themselves the geek boys imply there, if females will do this whole song and dance just to get at them)". For that reason, the Fake Geek Girl meme pisses me off.

 

[BroJing]

I've been told once or twice then I'm not a 'real' geek for various reasons. Once because although I was obsessive about 90s era superhero cartoons (Batman TAS, X-Men etc) I never picked up the comic books until quite recently and a few times because I played organised sports at Uni. But one of the latter was from my best mate who was joking.

Women seem to get it alot more, and to be honest its crap.

 

[Loreley]

@matthew_lane
But we are talking about a male-dominated group discriminating against women, or at least the accusation that the meme in question could be seen as such. I haven't seen a Fake Geek Boy Meme yet. Sure, these annoying Real Geeks will play the entitlement game with people of any gender, but there's still a difference between being called a n0ob and a being accused of pretending to have certain hobbies just because you enjoy the attention of the other gender. At least if you're a n0ob they still grant you that you might have fun with your hobbies, inadequate as you might be to join the High Council Of Geekdom. The other one basically means you're an attention whore, which is a slightly more insulting accusation.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

I remember my wife once told me about the girls at Blizzcon. There was a dancing contest for WoW. They mostly did that blood-elf dance except one... who did the troll dance. The one who did the troll won the contest.

Girls who pretend to be geeks only get so far. They are eyed up like sexual objects, but they are never treasured like the true geeks. So it doesn't bother me that much.

Heres a video:
I think the best part is shes really not that attractive, yet she beat all the "hot" blood-elves. Shows our true priorities when it comes to women I guess.

 

[Stasisesque]

I remember my wife once told me about the girls at Blizzcon. There was a dancing contest for WoW. They mostly did that blood-elf dance except one... who did the troll dance. The one who did the troll won the contest.

Girls who pretend to be geeks only get so far. They are eyed up like sexual objects, but they are never treasured like the true geeks. So it doesn't bother me that much.

Heres a video:
I think the best part is shes really not that attractive, yet she beat all the "hot" blood-elves. Shows our true priorities when it comes to women I guess.

First of all, in what universe are any of the women in that video considered "not really that attractive"? Secondly, the female troll dance is by Shakira, you know, the hot Columbian singer/dancer famous for "dem hips"?

 

[LiquidGrape]

I would ask people to collectively please stop giving a crap about how people choose to express themselves. It has literally no impact on you unless you allow it to. Male gamers consistently and constantly exert properties of their sex, but when some women choose to follow suit it is suddenly an act of appropriation and "fake"?

The thing I don't understand is why there are groups that are stereotypically female labeled as ostracizing men. What could I do that girls would label me as a fake poser for joining?

Nail meet head. Exactly. I can't think of any activity men are free to engage in where they would have to face the same process facing women involved in guy-centric culture.