Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Because Sometimes Its so Easy You Don't Even Have to Work at It

A comment, left on this post by Cshiana about women, manga, and comics:

All I can speak to is females who enjoy comics:
Females who enjoy comics?
Finding one is rarer than finding a $5 hooker in Beverley Hills.
Gee, I can't imagine why you would have such a hard time finding "females" who enjoy comics.
Believe me, I've tried.
Sadly enough, I do believe you. In fact, I find it quite possible you've spent far too much time trying to find both. Which, as I already implied, may be part of the reason why you can't find the former.
Girls don't get the geek label as often as guys...
This has been my experience also. Us geek girls are usually either called flat out nerds - nothing as cool or sexy as geeks...

...or, more often, our geekiness is ignored by the world at large.
...cuz, no matter what, a female can always be hot no matter what she's doing.
Take a guy and dress him up as Frodo and he's a geek no matter what he looks like.
Take a girl and put her into one of those elf outfits with the shortpants and curly shoes and the male mind starts fantasizing.
Take a guy and dress him like a Klingon and you've got a a big, fat doof whose got no shot of getting laid.
Take a girl and dress her up as a Klingon and the male juices start flowing.
It all comes down to the natural reaction of human beings.
We see a male walking down the street naked and both men and women will start to laugh no matter how hot the guy is.
You see a hot female walking down the street and both men and women start to get aroused.
Simple psychology.
simple minds.....
The good news for online role-playing geeks is that SIMS and WoW have made this hobby no longer geeky. Can't be geeky if everyone does it.
Is that the corollary to "if everyone calls it a duck, then it must be a duck?"
Of the things you listed, I would order their geekyness like this: Most geeky to least geeky--D&D, Star Trek, Comic Books, Video Games.
Of all the arguments you've presented, I would order their idiocy like this: Most idiotic to least idiotic--men are never sexy, all women are lesbians, women are always sexy, male hobbits are always less sexy than female elves. Although, I must admit, its a damn close call.
So stay happy and get your Geek On!!!!
um, yeah

6 comments:

Gwen said...

I think he's talking more about the idea that, in general, more girls can get away with being geeky AND attractive than guys can. Thus the geek name is more often applied to guys... because the term geek isn't usually associated with sexual appeal. Of course this is ridiculous as I know many attractive male geeks - but seriously, there are a lot of the "creepy gamer guys" out there. Also, I've met more guys who are attracted to a girl BECAUSE she is a geek rather than vice versa... I also know too many girls who are turned off if a guy is into geeky things - though this has thankfully lessened as I've gotten older. I am still amused at how much flack I got for being a trekkie from my EQ guild (until I pointed out to them that they were all spending their Sat afternoon playing EQ...).

As for Jeff not knowing many female comic books fans personally - even I don't know many female comic fans in person (and I grew up in a comic book store!)... in fact many of the girl comic readers I've encountered have been people I've introduced to comics. Knowing Jeff as well as I do I'd expect that he's talking about women fans that he's actually met as opposed to how many are actually out there. I've been pretty happy to discover the extensive female blogger community.

Oh yeah. I enjoyed your pictures :)

Mickle said...

"I think he's talking more about the idea that, in general, more girls can get away with being geeky AND attractive than guys can."

I know that - I think he's completely wrong - or at least his reasoning about why this is so is completely off base.

Attractive geeky women are going to get more attention than attractive geeky men within "geek communities" simply because women get more attention period because of the usual gender ratio. As far as how everyone else reacts to them though...

I think for geeky men it hinges on their social skills - the better they are the more likely their geek skills and interests will be valued or considered "cool." Geeky men with few social skills have a harder time connecting with others - and their differentness from the mainstream becomes an even greater barrier.

I think for geeky women, it mostly hinges of looks - as it always seems to for women. Pretty geeky women are certainly fetishized. All "hot" women are fetishized and their other qualities - good and bad - are often ignored.

Geeky women that aren't pretty, though, just get completely ignored - as non-pretty women generally are. Think about how more emphasis is placed on female politician's looks than male politician's looks. Do you think people are really all that different when it comes to daily interactions? Consider the number of times discussions about women - or even simply involving women - devolve into critiques about how certain women look - irregardless of the original topic. Do you really think that non-attractive geeky women even register on such people's radar?

There were a lot of other pictures I could have posted that would have proved my point better than the Eowyn costume. I just didn't think it was right to set strangers up for ridicule simply to prove a point. Jeff was obviously picturing the "hot chicks" walking around in Princess Leia, Wonder Woman, and Galdriel garb - and selectively forgetting any female hobbits or overweight elves he may have stumbled across.

I'll conceed that attractive geeky men may have it harder outside the geek world than attractive geeky women do, but I think that not-so-attractive geeky women have it harder inside - and probably outside - the geek world than their male equivalents.

"As for Jeff not knowing many female comic books fans personally..."

I was trying to point out that phrases like "$5 hooker in Beverly Hills" tend to not endear oneself to women - and thus will probably decrease one's chances of becoming friends with geeky women. But maybe that's just me.

Anonymous said...

I. Love. You.

When I am at the point when nothing is worth the grief of hearing the cries of 'out of context!' and 'i meant it as a compliment!' and I just want to roll my eyes and move on, it is so encouraging to see someone let loose with a bloodcurdling scream of "DIE MOTHERFUCKER!"

Mickle said...

Well I wouldn't go that far :-) - I think I'll save that for lost clown's TA >: P

I am thinking, however, that perhaps my alter ego should develop her own alter ego - one that saves the world from idiotic comments like "naked man are always pathetic!" by plastering pictures of beautiful half-naked men all over the scene of the crime.

I'm open to suggestions as to what this superhero should be called.....

Ragnell said...

I'm not too good with names, but if you need help digging up pictures...

Mickle said...

oh, well, I don't need help - but I'm certainly not going to turn down any. ;)

- my sidekick, btw, should obviously be "Spellchecker"

.... because that should be "men are" not "man are" in my last comment.