Get Your Own Fridge – Schrödinger’s Geek or The Problem with the Fake Geek Girl

According to some, there is a plague in geek culture. Batten down your hatches, clutch your copies of Justice League, and grab your lightsabers; the fake geek girls are invading!

There is a feeling among some male fans that these “fake geek girls” are just there because they crave the male attention. That women spend spend buckets of money making costumes because they want to impress the boys, and not because they love the characters. And the costumes are skimpy and tight because then men will stare, not because many female comic book, movie, and TV show costumes are cut more for the male gaze than for practical use. To these men, who assume that women are at conventions to meet them I have this to say: get the fuck over yourself.

If you complain when they put pants on Wonder Woman, don’t understand why brokeback is offensive, and assume every girl at the con is there to meet you, don’t be upset about the booth babes. If you created the culture, you don’t get to be upset about the culture. They’re marketing to you with scantily clad women, because you’ve made it abundantly clear you expect scantily clad women and will be personally offended if your dick isn’t catered to.

It amazes me the lengths some of these fanboys go to avoid the Occam’s Razor answer. The girls are there because they like geeky things.

Geek girls are expected to prove our geek cred. Not in a pissing contest kind of way, but in a “you need to PROVE yourself before I let you into this club we claim is so inclusive” kind of way to a bunch of different men with different ideas of what makes a geek. Felicia Day is apparently Schrödinger’s Geek; one journalist holds her up as a true geek, while another as a fake geek girl.

Fangirls can’t win. We’re all Schrödinger’s Geek. The game is rigged and the rules keep changing like we’re playing freeze-tag with a five year-old. No one is gatekeeper of the con. No one needs to keep the geek culture “pure”.  I can read what I want, watch what I want, wear what I want, enjoy what I want, discuss what I want. Isn’t that the whole point of being a geek?

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