Listen, I need you to inhale calmly, and take a few steps back. Are you sure this is the article that you think it is? Really? Take a deep breath, calm your mind to the ways of the force, and look at the title again. Go on, it's okay, I'm allowing you...
The problem is the title, well, the problem is your perception of the title. You see girls, and you see geeks. However, you naturally assume that the roles are mutually exclusive. Listen to me Deary, that is certainly not the case. Over 50% of the gaming population is female, SURPRISE! It shouldn't really be a surprise, I mean, you're just as likely to see a woman, as a man, in the middle row of an Avengers movie.
You never want to sit in the front row, because then you have to crick your neck and you'll be in pain for 72 hours, and of course the back row is full of hormone fuelled 12 year olds, who think we don't know what they're doing back there.
Oh, and for the record, we're checking out Captain America's perfect pecs just as much as you're eyeing up Black Widow's boobs and booty. Granted, some ladies will be giving Miss Romanoff the down there stare, because of course a) Not every woman wants a chunk of man meat, b) Some even enjoy both a fish pie and a sausage supper, and c) Scarlett Johanssen is an aesthetically pleasing human being.
The fact that women are automatically excluded from geek culture is ridiculous! Without a woman, there would be no Star Trek, the Final Frontier would have failed, immensely. The first computer programmer was female, and even the author of the first sci-fi novel was a member of the vagina crew. For the record, the women in question are Lucille Ball, Ada Lovelace and of course Mary Shelley, respectively.
With that in mind, it is baffling that the two are perceived as mutually exclusive! There are exceptions to the rule, however, only in extenuating circumstances; in order to be accepted into the guild of girly geekdom, you have to be the best, not good, not great, the greatest. You have to surpass all others in knowledge and skill, because of course, enjoying something isn't enough, no, one must master all difficulties and earn every, single, achievement.
Then of course, there are the quizzes. The bane of every geeky girl's existence, where we are treated to an onslaught of questions about obscure characters/locations/storylines, in order to prove that we are worthy of the mantle of Geek. Which isn't too bad if you're the buck-toothed,frizzy haired bookworm of the group, but the situation is worsened if you happen to be attractive. A few years ago, according to, I don't know... someone, that attractive women at conventions (especially cosplayers) were not true geeks, oh no, they were fake geek girls, and as a result of this, a barrage of abuse came hurtling towards the so called "fake" geek girls.
I still find it bloody hilarious that the basic premise was, women folk were pretending to like video games and comics, in order to attract men. That's it. That is the reason why women who spoke out against this have received hate mail, rape threats, etc.
The thing is, it doesn't make any sense. So what if someone isn't into comics, or sci-fi, I once told a guy that I was a Radiohead fan because he liked them. Granted, he did tell me that he was a huge Bowie fan, but I soon found out that that wasn't the case. Do you know what we did about it? We got over it, like people do. In the end it turns out that we both liked Orange Juice, yes, both the band and the refreshing beverage.
At the end of the day, we need to stop segregating the two. Geeky girls are a great thing, that's what most people seem to forget. If a bunch of women love the thing you love, that means there is a greater audience for the thing that you love. A greater audience means that the people who make the thing you love, will spend their hard earned cash to purchase the goods/service that you provide. The more that we love something, the more that we talk about it, share it, use it. You can only gain by giving half your audience the same rights as the other. The world is changing, it's evolving and if geek culture (and games developers cough cough) don't change with it, they will suffer the same fate as the Sega Dreamcast.
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