Why Do Some Guys Hate Geek Girls?

As I was browsing Pinterest yesterday, I typed in “geek girl” as a means to get a little inspiration for the website. What I got for results was a bit of a surprise, as the board was populated not by photos of cute cosplayers, but by piles comic strips and memes about girls being berated by guys for being “fake geeks.”

Now, I am fully aware of the hate the female population receives in gaming. But it never occurred to me that it extended to female fans of anime, comics, movies, etc. Apparently, there is a population of “real geeks” out there that hate women that like the same things that they do. They are berated for what knowledge they may or may not have about a given subject. As if this validates their interest in any way. This boggles my fucking mind.

I have a few things to say about this, but before I do, allow me to tell you a bit about myself. Pay attention.

I’m 37 years old. Almost 38. I grew up not only on Spiderman comics, but any comic I could get my hands on. I hit up comic conventions as often as my mom would take me. I met Todd McFarlane before anyone gave a fuck who Todd McFarlane was. Stan Lee signed my copy of Wizard magazine three times, and a copy of Spectacular Spiderman once, for free, because back then comic cons weren’t gigantic money-making monstrosities that nickel and dime attendees to death. There were no lines or cosplay. People went to them to buy and trade comics, to look for issues they were missing, and to talk with like-minded individuals about their favorite stories. We went to see comics, not people dressed up as comics.

I watched anime occasionally. I say occasionally because unless you could find a local video store that carried a small selection of VHS tapes on a rack in the back corner, not only were you not watching anime, but there was a pretty damn good likelihood you didn’t even know it existed. I stopped watching anime shortly after I realized that Ninja Scroll and Ghost in the Shell were probably the only ones I’d ever care about.

I know more about Star Wars than I care to admit, but not nearly as much as others. I’m okay with that. I have a video tape from the first and only airing of the god-awful Christmas Special and that’s all I need.

I loved Jim Henson movies, and still do, because I have always been fascinated with the art of puppetry, and I love set design.

I was a Simpsons fan since they were just animated shorts that aired during the Tracey Ullman show. I watched the first 20 years of The Simpsons, as well as Star Trek: The Next Generation, X-Files, and Stargate SG1 not as a binge-watch on Netflix, but weekly, as they aired, on network TV. That even meant spending my Friday nights at home, thank you FOX. At least I get to binge watch X-Files and Stargate now, since I own all the seasons of each on DVD.

I’ve seen every Harry Potter movie multiple times, but I’ve never read the books. Yes, I know there are differences, I just don’t care.

I’ve watched all the modern seasons of Doctor Who, and enjoyed them, but do not consider myself a Whovian.

I was upset when FOX canceled Firefly. I’ll repeat that. I was upset when FOX canceled Firefly. Not 15 years later after watching half a season online.

I’ve owned a lot of gaming consoles in my lifetime. The Atari 2600, NES, Gameboy, SNES, Playstation, N64, Gamecube, Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Advance SP, Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Wii, Wii U, PS4, and Xbox One all found their way into my entertainment center within a few weeks of their launch. I still have most of them today.

I frequented the local BBS’s because I loved playing Food Fight. If you know what that means, Hey! <highfive> <username>!

So why did I tell you all those things about myself? To let you know that I might not be a super geek that can recite the alter egos of every Justice League character in every timeline of every fucking multi-verse ever, but I was still a geek when being a geek was social suicide. I lived for that shit, I still do, and I always wished that one day I would get to let my geek flag fly.

And now guess what, now I can. Geeks are cool. It’s a wonderful time to be a geek. It’s mainstream, it’s acceptable, and they keep making really cool fucking movies out of everything we geek over! It’s even got to the point where guys get to be their geeky selves in front of women, and not only is it okay, but these ladies participate with them!  It’s insane!

So imagine my complete and utter bewilderment when I see these ladies, that love what they love, getting slammed and shamed on whatever troll-feeding message board is the flavor of the month. They get accused of being “fake geeks” or “posers” or whatever, just because they like a genre that has long been solely a male dominated geek territory?

I need a minute to process this. Guys, you mean to tell me, that a female (and likely a cute one) FINALLY likes the same shit we do, and wants to share it with us, and the only thing you can think to do is quiz her? Then laugh and point and heckle when she doesn’t know some minute fucking detail that only you would know? I don’t know about you, but that just seems a little fucking backwards to me. Geekdom isn’t a clubhouse with a secret handshake and a shitty painted “NO GIRLS ALLOWED” sign on the door. I should know, we had clubhouses, and not the fancy pre-fabricated shit you see at Home Depot. Ours were cobbled together by whatever we could find. I remember we even used a car door as a wall panel once. It was awesome. If it ever got stuffy inside, we’d just roll down the window. But you know what we never had? A No Girls Allowed sign. Why? Because we wanted girls around!

Nobody likes a sausage fest, guys. And that’s all our group chats, all our art table conversations, all our NBA Jam tournaments ever were, just one big sausage fest. We didn’t like it then, and I sure as hell wouldn’t like it now. So can you please tell me why you want to keep it that way? Is it intimidating? Is it bros before hoes? Why do you try so hard to push against the one thing we geeks from the 80’s and 90’s wanted so bad?

Is it because Lara Croft no longer has big fake boobs? And they want Wonder Woman to wear pants? And it’s okay for each of the Avengers to walk around shirtless, but once Black Widow appears in leather tights we can literally feel the eyerolls in the theater?

I get it. I photograph ladies in barely-there outfits all the time. I have my detractors. But my photography (and by extension, this website) are meant to celebrate the women’s newfound interest and love of our hobbies, just as our Paintball Pinups of Texas website celebrated the fact that a lady doesn’t have to sacrifice who she is in order to kick ass on the paintball field. I’ve experienced first hand the hate they get from other paintball groups, just because they’re female. I just always assumed it was a competitive thing.

I never would have thought that the movie geeks, the comic book geeks, the anime geeks, and the sci-fi geeks out there would pull the same shit. We were such a shunned group for such a long time, and we’re finally accepted as the social norm, and there seem to be people out there clawing and screaming every step of the way. And for what? So their comic con can go back to being one giant weenie roast?

That just doesn’t sound like fun to me.