Fake Geek Girls, Where did it start?

[yeti585]

Wait what, why is this a thing?

Girl likes a sexy outfit.
Girl puts on sexy outfit, 'cos it's sexy, without having any interest in the medium from which the outfit originated.

The end.

The only lesson here, people, is that some outfits look good.

It's more a "hey, I'm going to go to a male dominated area dressed in things that they are interested in to get attention" thing the way that the escapist keeps talking about it. It's not really a big deal at all.

I actually hadn't heard of women going to cons just to get attention before the escapist started talking about fake-nerd-girls. I had only seen the "OHMIGOSH I'm so geeky guys!!!!1!!1!one!!1" people who were just following the trend. I think we have a small bone to pick with those people though because their views of what's geeky are so buried in stereotypes.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Eh, bunch of rather sad people have decided that their is One True way of being a geek, which just happens to be what they are, and that all others are to be held in contempt.

People pick on them for being geeks, and not real men/whatever, so now they want to find someone they can pick on for being not real geeks.

Any number of people aren't happy unless someone is less than them.

...

Oh, and a little panic because the industry might start catering to some people who aren't exactly the same as them.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I don't know, but it's my understanding that it's hardly a new thing going back at least as far as the xbox/gamecube/PS2 days, if not earlier. Regardless of when it started, it's still ridiculous.

Although that demotivator is incidentally hilarious.

 

[Mrkillhappy]

My theory is that a few very devoted fanboys got upset that some cute girl didn't know every tiny detail of their favorite series and the fanboys accused her of being a phony. A better question is who is really harmed by this... I mean seriously is this truly as horrible as some people are making it out to be.

 

[Joccaren]

Honestly, I don't know. When people talk about "Fake Geek Girls" they seem to be talking about completely different things all the time, which makes it impossible for you to know.

I mean, even in this thread you've got people like me to whom fake geek girls are girls that dress up and pretend to be a geek whilst not having the slightest inclination to turn on a PC or console to play a game, and who do it to sell a product or to make a mockery of Geeks and say "OMG, look at me, I'm like a geek lol" with a selfie sent to all their friends.
Then there are people who take it to be girls who play games but don't know absolutely everything about that game - I.E: someone who plays pokemon but can't list all 500 types of pokemon in the pokedex and their numbers by heart.

The former its easy to see where it started, the latter... Who the hell knows?

Honestly it would help if there was a concrete definition to base this off, but as said, people seem to be talking about different things in regards to 'fake geek girls'.

 

[MorganL4]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tarabrown/2012/03/26/dear-fake-geek-girls-please-go-away/
for me it started with this piece of shit excuse for an article ( yeah it?s by a girl ?. Not that it matters) .
what bothers me more is that it?s on Forbes a publication I sometimes pretend to respect . this is writing I?d expect from Gawker .

EDIT: here is a nice little dose off common sense
http://sexyvideogameland.blogspot.co.il/2012/03/about-that-fake-geek-girls-article.html
( Leigh Alexander ?.wow I completely forgot this girl existed . I remember reading some of her stuff on gamasutra. )

I could believe that it was that forbes article, except that that came out in march and this whole uproar thing occurred 2 weeks ago.....

Anyone else have any clue what set off the sites contributors?

 

[Astoria]

Well fake geek girls IMO make it harder for real geek girls to be taken seriously, which is hard enough as it is. Some of us genuinly like gaming and not just Angry Brids. Apart from that it's just really annoying when people talk about things they have no idea about.

 

[J Tyran]

I don't consider someone who only plays Call of Duty a 'real' gamer (ugh), compared to someone who experiences a wide range of genres,

I do not consider someone a real gamer unless they own several platforms and at least several hundred games, these part timers that only own a PC or an Xbox simply do not play enough games to really have an opinion that is worth anything. Same goes for these part time bookers, TVers and filmers, unless someone reads classical literature, knows Quatermass off by heart and can quote Charlie Chaplain scripts they simply lack experience in all the genres.

 

[EeveeElectro]

Me and some of the others basically went over this in the latest CommuniCast.

I can understand why some people are bothered by it, but honestly, it's pretty fucking ironic, all things considering.

'Oh, I suffered through my early years being a geek, why should others get to call themselves a geek without the having to go through the social scorn I had to?'

It's not just that, the girls who used to bully me in school for being a geek are now wearing fake glasses and strange versions of what they consider to be clothes nerds wear and saying "I watch Big Bang Theory, gosh I'm such a nerd lol"
I was geek to them because I didn't go shopping every Saturday with daddies card, I rarely wore make-up and I didn't open my legs to every guy that said hello. Being fairly unfeminine and just the opposite of them basically (also owning a PS3/2, watching anime etc) made me in a GEEEEKKKKK (also a lesbian, apparently) in their eyes.
That's just not on, just because a magazine tells you that geek chic in the year, doesn't mean you should start acting like the girls you bullied in school, whose confidence you destroyed.

So it's a bit personal for me, when I see the girls I used to go to school with thinking they're some cooky, cute little nerd when I know they're just a ***** in fake glasses.
Girls I don't know, I don't care what they do or dress like.

I saw someone make a point on Twitter t'other day. Something along the lines of "Fake geek girls. Because when a babe has nerdy interests, she's obviously faking it to get the attention of nerds; the sexy and most desirable group of overgrown manchildren."

That's a good point but you have to remember, a lot of girls have such crippling self esteem they love attention, no matter who it is off. (Me being one, I'm sad to admit)

EDIT: Ding ding ding! It's the topic of the week! *streamers and part poppers* last month was rape and abortion and this is this months! Someone needs to start making posters.

 

[Syzygy23]

Me and some of the others basically went over this in the latest CommuniCast.

I can understand why some people are bothered by it, but honestly, it's pretty fucking ironic, all things considering.

'Oh, I suffered through my early years being a geek, why should others get to call themselves a geek without the having to go through the social scorn I had to?'

What is a geek exactly?

As gamers, we're always nitpicking over what words mean, we can't even nail down absolute definitions of game genres, let alone label each other ¬_¬

Like I said in the CommuniCast, I don't consider someone who only plays Call of Duty a 'real' gamer (ugh), compared to someone who experiences a wide range of genres, but that doesn't mean I'm going to be a douche about it and start whining about how our club is getting invaded by 'posers'.

You know what this is? It's the N-word of social pariahs and intellectually inclined people. We all were branded as "Nerds" and "Geeks" as a mark of shaming and rejection, if not outright bullying.

Then we grow up, finally managed to reconcile with ourselves and our lifestyles, and suddenly we have these same assholes who made our lives feel shitty using those old insults as some badge of pride for themselves.

I used to be angry about it, thinkin' "Who the FUCK do these people think they are? They don't get to call themselves a geek until they've been shunned and sidelined for 5+ years of their life for looking weird or playing magic cards. They don't get to call themselves a nerd until they've survived a MINIMUM of a 3 month D&D campaign! That is OUR word you preppy ass ************, OUR WORD!"

But then I got over it because I realized these people were trying to emulate the "nerd" lifestyle because they found something attractive about it. They found the sames things I found attractive about it! And I say, the more people we can get to discover the joys of videogames and Pen and Paper RPGs, the more people we can have arguments over whether Han shot first or not, the better.

 

[JagermanXcell]

This really shouldn't be a thing. Makes me miss the ME3 ending hate.

There are plenty of geeks in my school, you can tell by things like The Avengers and Batman films that more and more people want to get into our culture, problem is we're not letting them. A friend of mine just a few weeks ago got a PS3 she came to me and my friends suggesting what she should get, of course we suggested COD Black Ops 2, and while they were appreciating their spungargleweewee and were a bit weirded on why the opposite gender is so interested, I gave her a wide variety of different genres she should consider besides COD, like Ico & Shadow of the Colossus collection, Portal 2, and Persona 3.

As for where the "fake geek/gamer girls" started, hell if I know. If these fake geeks exist we have the power to expose them,
and know we also have the power to make them real geeks in the process. Now enough with this negativity please.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

I think everyone is getting this wrong.

The whole "Geek Girls are fashionable" thing is more tied in with the manic pixie dream girl Zooey "act really cute and quirky so the men love you" Deschanel shtick:


Why are you wearing that much make-up on your lazy day off?!

It's stupid and annoying and should be discouraged.
But it's separate from just being geeky and female, which I don't think anyone sane has a problem with.

 

[Phasmal]

No idea where it started this time.
First ever time I heard of it was a couple years ago, when I got `geek-checked` by one of the dudes who must keep the nerd-lines pure!
Either way it's pretty much a big bunch of nonsense.

 

[Hagi]

No idea where it started this time.
First ever time I heard of it was a couple years ago, when I got `geek-checked` by one of the dudes who must keep the nerd-lines pure!
Either way it's pretty much a big bunch of nonsense.

But... but...

the nerd-lines... the chosen one... the prophecy...

How else will we ever reach nerdvana?

 

[Legion]

An issue that I thought didn't really exist outside of a few crazy guys who can't get laid and want to take that out on the opposite sex......

Beyond an idiot comic book writer and this, it didn't really exist until people made a huge deal out of it. It's quite funny really, as Jimquistion did a video about how Anita Sarkeesian was the "Monster that gamers created" and that's exactly what's happening now.

A vocal minority of sexist assholes say some stupid, sexist things. People knee-jerk and suddenly it's a huge thing. Much larger than it should be, and overall it is pointless, as these tools no more represent "Geek culture" than the Taliban represents Muslims.