Fake Geek Girls, Where did it start?

[MorganL4]

I feel like your explanation was missing a sentence..... 4chan and Reddit were busy in response to what exactly? In response to an attack on Felicia Day?

Sorry about that. RECENTLY, they were discussing the Tony Harris blog post heavily. It hit several bloggers on the blogosphere (you can find this in the badassdigest article). This particular resurgence of the issue seems to have started there.

Felicia Day was a reference to something similar that happened not too long ago (I think it was a couple of months). It

okay.... cool thx.

 

[Uhura]

Also, when did Zooey Deschanel take over from Felicia Day for the title of Hollywood/Internet Geek?

Yeah, I was curious about this too. She isn't really involved in anything particularly geeky... maybe it's just an 'Escapist thing'?

There's a pretty good reason for that: at least one subclass of the fake geek girl (and fake geek, period) meme is hipsters using geekery as a fashion statement -- they're the ones who embraced, and maybe even originated, "geek chic."

Some of them definitely embraced it but I think it would be an exaggeration to say that they originated it. Considering that the 'geek' in 'geek chic' pretty much stands for 'glasses' I would actually say that the whole 'geek chic' thing started when plastic frames came back in style 5-7ish years ago. Before that it was pretty common that people wore contacts/frameless glasses in order to hide/downplay the fact that they actually needed glasses. When it comes to eyewear fashion, plastic frames are pretty mainstream atm (my mom and many of my aunts wear flashy plastic frames) so I wouldn't call 'geek chic' a hipster thing. But yeah, this is pretty off topic.

Some people are slightly put off by Zooey's character, and about the whole commercialized "geek chic" fashion, and feel their right to that opinion threatened by these articles that are vocally dismissing any possibility of the phrase "fake geek girl" being used by anyone else but mysogynists.

Others are fed up with facebook comments and youtube videos where ordinary people are overstating their own nerdiness, as a popular thing.

Others are offended by adverzising and booth babes that overuses male-oriented sex appeal of gamer girls.

Some people believe that there are newbie MMO players abusing the fact that female avatars get more help.

But there is no single concerted voice of the masses attacking "fake nerd girls" in general as if it would be a single specific thing. The pretense of this whole controversy relies on looking at all these minor debates, and grouping them together for no reason.

I think the outrage has features that haven't been really addressed in the recent articles but I still think the 'hot women - fakes' thing is big part of the issue and I understand why many of the articles concentrate on that specific aspect of the 'fake geek girl' drama.

But yeah. I guess I just have hard time identifying with people who are annoyed by fake geeks/fake geek girls. Booth babes are models hired for a job and calling them 'fake geek girls' IMO makes as much sense as calling Sean Connery a 'fake agent' or Anthony Hopkins a 'fake serial killer' and getting angry about it.

Getting angry at teenagers seems pointless because
a) they are trying to figure out who they are and that can be shitty enough as it is. Teens in general don't need more people bullying them.
b) it's really easy to overstate your nerdiness if your friends aren't particularly nerdy. It's not that difficult to understand why some 14 year old girl posts "watching LotR, I'm such a nerd' on facebook if that's the message she gets from her friends.
c) I don't think most teens who use those phrases actually have any malicious intent. That's just something they identify with.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

There's a pretty good reason for that: at least one subclass of the fake geek girl (and fake geek, period) meme is hipsters using geekery as a fashion statement -- they're the ones who embraced, and maybe even originated, "geek chic."

Some of them definitely embraced it but I think it would be an exaggeration to say that they originated it. Considering that the 'geek' in 'geek chic' pretty much stands for 'glasses' I would actually say that the whole 'geek chic' thing started when plastic frames came back in style 5-7ish years ago. Before that it was pretty common that people wore contacts/frameless glasses in order to hide/downplay the fact that they actually needed glasses. When it comes to eyewear fashion, plastic frames are pretty mainstream atm (my mom and many of my aunts wear flashy plastic frames) so I wouldn't call 'geek chic' a hipster thing. But yeah, this is pretty off topic.

The thing is, geek chic isn't generally about wearing real, if flashy, glasses. It's more about wearing fake ones, typically 3D glasses with the lenses popped out. Plus, the actual style that goes with it -- the shirts and things -- are pretty blatant hipster styles. But as you said, this is only tangentially related to the topic.

 

[Natalie Norment]

Honestly, the reason the Fake Geek Girl probably started because certain women believe that they are the center of the universe regardless of what previous lifestyle they had. They regard themselves as the 'geek girl' when, in reality, they are not. It's all because they want attention from everyone, because of what they truly believe in. In my definition of "fake geek girl", it's mostly women with self-serving egos who have nothing better to do with their life than interfere with the real geek girls like myself in general. This is why I found it sad that most women are trying to destroy what geekdom is to people. Geek culture is something that everyone should be proud of, except for those who try to forsake it for their own selfish reasons. I would name a few, but I won't endanger the lives of those who were perhaps once companions to them. I know I'm a real geek girl and I wish some certain bitches realize that I'm suppose to be the ultimate threat to their existence wherever they go in life. I admit that I can never EVER live up to those type of women who are famous to the audience, mainly the video game audience, but that is totally fine with me because I am me and I can only be me.

Overall, I believe it's time to tell the real geek girls to fight against the fake ones in particular. I am a real geek girl and I'm sure most of you out there understand how I feel about this fake geek girl problem. It's probably not going to go away anytime soon, but if we can stand up for what we believe in, then we have the right to fight against those who have been using their previleged lifestyles pretending to be geek girls like me and other women who have done nothing wrong in their lives but be themselves.

What do you all think about that?

I think there's always been attractive people, and there's always been competition for that kind of attention. I don't think an Us vs. Them mentality is the best idea.

Geek Culture is becoming mainstream. The top movies are geek culture, the top media is gaming, and most "pop" is dying. Mainstream networks air genre fiction. HBO airs high brow genre fiction. Late night TV hosts do Let's Plays as jokes. The internet and sites like youtube and the escapist forums have been able to link together communities of people that used to be disparate and bullied. And now we're what everyone's talking about. We're the new pop music.

Punk is dead.

You have a brilliant point. I just don't like the idea of competition, especially when looks are involved, are displayed in the media and I have no choice but to accept that in constant defeat due to my past experiences with mostly men. It's a long story but I often got rejected by the 'popular' kids. I have nothing against geek culture in general although I have felt a bit outdated since I've been feeling under a lot of peer pressure which I inflicted on myself for a long time. I would have gotten over it but I'm bipolar in general.

However, that is best left alone unless someone cares to talk to me about it in private. With all due respect, I am all for people spreading the word of geekdom in a positive way. I would rather it be that way for a long time. After all, geeks deserve love a whole lot more than those jerks who tried to destroy them with their selfishness.