The Big Picture: Original Geek Girl

[IndianaJonny]

I haven't been following this "fake geek girl" thing and now I wish I still wasn't.

Also isn't Daverse the same last name as Ms. Marvel's alter ego?

Excellent ninja skills. Yeah, the adoption name 'Danvers', as in:

Spoiler: Carol Danvers

 

[vxicepickxv]

This whole Geek culture heritage thing is stupid. If people want to enjoy what I'm into, they can do that. If women want to dress up as comic or video game characters, good for them. I don't give a damn about why anyone does it. If you think it looks cool, go for it. If you like the character, good on you.


I work in a very dynamic work environment. I have to go from talking about sports, to talking about cars, to talking about aquariums. I learn new things about this stuff. Does that make me a fake car guy, or a fake sports guy, or a fake fish guy? I don't care.


As for the whole Supergirl thing, it's a rather interesting and bumpy theory. If you think Supergirl is confusing, wait until next week. Your mind will asplode.

 

[Lunar Templar]

i liked where he was going with the fake geek girl 'problem'.

then he got to super girl and i was all 'huh ... well, its a comics are weird, so it'll be interesting', so now i'm waiting for next week to see how Power Girl fits into all this

 

[Gilhelmi]

I like the part where you cut out an estimated 10min rant. Thank you for cutting that out.

 

[Paradoxrifts]

Compared to myiazaki because I find his works overrated

You have a Che Guevara avatar. Frankly I'm amazed that anyone bothered to respond to your bait, when you've already undermined anything you could possibly have said by having one of those.

I like him. And yes, I studied him.
Are you one of the guys who compares him to hitler, tell me, because if that's the case i'll add you to ignore List, something maybe you should have done to me.

An historian could probably easily fill a photo album as thick as my fist with examples of photographs of historically significant Communists, Socialists and other politically left-minded people who are far more deserving of being remembered into the 21st century than that guy.

But I suspect none of them would look quite as fetching rocking a goatee and a beret.

 

[Brad Gardner]

Of Course you don't understand the 'we hate fake gamer girl' people, Bob. You're a well adjusted person with a little self-confidence. Speaking as an asexual paranoid manic depressive person who doesn't know the difference from a friendly hello from a death threat. I can tell you an unknown coming to a very fragile comfort zone leads to extreme panic which leads to a bunch of counter-attacks when there is no true attack.

I'm going through therapy for this. It's the people who aren't that can be scary.

 

[Stabby Joe]

I don't understand where this "fake geek girl" controversy is coming from. I think one internet soapbox threw in their 2 cents and so others did and it grew from there.

However I feel that the issue that some seem to have has more to do with "posers" IE not liking people who feel the need to lie about it, be it games, films, music, fashion, sports etc.

 

[Phuctifyno]

Power girl next week?

My body is ready.

This.
This was made perfect by your avatar.
Excellent work.



Also, that's sexist. You sexist. No sexist zone. Sexist. Sex. [small]where am i?[/small]

 

[Zerstiren]

In all the thousands of posts relating to "geek culture," on the Escapist forums alone, I'll bet anyone my entire years salary, that not once has anyone tried to DEFINE what "culture" actually MEANS; instead, we opt to use "culture" at our whim, on impulse, by an urge to bolster the significance of "geek," turning it into something sacred just because, rather than grounding the term to a concrete definition.

 

[Gather]

I thought the issue with the "fake gamer X" thing was that they were exactly what the title says: Fake. A person declares their love for something and say it is a major part of their life that they would know a decent amount about the culture in order to carry on a decent conversation ("Arrow to the knee, lol! ...What's Skyrim?" ...For example). I would never declare I know everything about comics just because I've been watching the stuff Movie Bob puts up but there are some people who do exactly that.

Then there is the media abusing our "weakness" and making millions off of it.

 

[PunkRex]

I'll give my take on it at least.
I'm not afraid of people getting into my shit. I actually actively try to get people interested in my shit. My fantasies, the comics and books I like, the anime that I still like now that my demented otaku phase from high school is over. I enjoy introducing people to the stuff I like because I feel the stuff I like deserves to be liked and enjoyed by people.
The thing I hate is when stuff I like becomes a fad and people are into it because it's the "in thing" to be, and not for it's merits. This encourages garbage to be made in imitation of the stuff I like, but it ultimately shows how little it understands what's good about the stuff I like. I remember when the anime fad took over. Lots of people were going on about how into anime they were, but all they talked about was shit like Naruto, or stuff of similar quality. But you ask them about Mamoru Oshii or Hayao Miyazaki, or the people who have earned their places as the best in the industry and they know nothing about any of that, because they aren't really interested in anime, they just want to appear like they do because it's popular. It's all purely superficial.
Surely, you, Bob, understand that. I mean, look at what Hollywood trying to mainstreamize geek culture did to Star Trek.
But I take some comfort in knowing that fads come and go. Sooner or later, the vapid, identity-free populous will find something else they want to imitate. The poseurs will go away sooner or later, because they always do. BUT! Some people will stay, because, while they may have initially gotten into it for superficial reasons, some of them will find that they genuinely like the stuff and that's a net positive. Provided, of course, we don't frighten them off.
So, even though I find fake geeks (men and women, let's not kid ourselves by pretending that only the girls fake it) annoying, why are we not trying to bring them into our group? Nothing will scare the fakes away faster than us trying to get them interested in something that they'll quickly find they're not really interested in and, as a result of our trying, we'll bring new blood into the fold who may, as initial outsiders, have new ideas to lay on the table. That's a good thing, is it not?

Wow... er, okay... look, you basically just desribed what happened to me but calling Naruto shit makes it seem that your just asking for a freaking flame war. I'll be the first to put my hand up and say the series has reeeeeeeeally lost focus since it bagan but the reason it was hyped up so much was because it had a wide audience. Granted these would eventually cripple it by meaning the series could never STOP TALKING ABOUT THE FREAKING SHARINGAN!!!!... however it can still yeild interesting results sometimes, im not hating on your oppinion I just grew up with these characters and feel honour bound to defend it especially while I still devote myself to this mofo's teachings.

 

[PunkRex]

Naruto ain't shit.

More enjoyable than Spirit Away or Howl's Moving Castle...

What a nonsense statement. Naruto is aimed at teenage boys (I guess you at least where this when you started watching) while Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Sipirited Away) and Howl no Ugoku Shiro (Howl's Moving Castle) are aimed at kids. That you don't like something not aimed at you means nothing. I happen to have a strong connection to my inner child and therefor can watch children's entertainment and enjoy it, but that is not the standard.

Naruto is still pure tripe story wise, character wise and pacing wise. Go watch Koukaku Kidoutai Stand Alone Complex (Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex). It does all three of those things properly. Or if you just really like fighting watch one of the original fighting animes like Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star).

Or you could join the adult crowd and watch some of the more mind blowing stuff out there, some of my favorites are:
Shoujo Kakumei Utena (Revolutionary Girl Utena): Sure it's technically for girls but it is some of the deepest stuff ever made.
Serial Experiments Lain: If you are a geek you should watch this, even if you don't like anime watch this.
Neo Genesis Evangelion: If you have not watched this you can not technically call your self a anime geek.

And those three are just my personal favorites, there is a lot of great stuff out there. There are some truly mind blowing anime out there and you are sitting there saying something with no depth is great.

Relax, I just said that because I don't like Naruto hating, it's actually enjoyable if you exclude the fillers and before Shippuden (shippuden as too much ups and downs). What bothers me is that Naruto despite its flaws is much better than Bleach, and not better than One Piece but more enjoyable because OP pacing is absolutely terrible and watching it weekly is annoying. Despite this Naruto bashing is much more common than the others. Just mentioning shounens of course.

Compared to myiazaki because I find his works overrated


I do know a lot about anime, got a long list, but it's still interesting I haven't watched those you mentioned. Ghost in the Shell doesn't look like my type of anime, my brother downloaded it, but it was in English dub and I just watch sub, so I never watched it and never felt like downloading in japanese. Never watched EVA because I hate mechas (only exception so far was code geass). Did watch 3 or 4 episodes of lain, wasn't bad but it wasn't addicting so I started postponing and never finished it.

*Relaxing* I don't know your tastes but I'd say you should give Eva a shot. Just like Code Geass the Mechas are just there to fool the people paying the checks. In Evas case the only way it would get made was if it had mechas so they could make toys to sell. It is really a show about one kid and his serious emotional problems and how he is slowly forced to deal with them (or more exactly it's a very complex author insert so the author can try and deal with his own emotional problems). I like introspective stuff like that.

I still got a problem with Naruto, mostly because it's b grade stuff and some people treat it as the BEST THING EVA! If not for those certain people I would just ignore it like so much other stuff I don't like. More specifically I don't like the creators clear view of women as worthless in any real situation. I dislike when a group of people are treated with a lopsided bad perspective like that. It's something I can overreact on badly.

B grade is better than C, D or E
Downgrading female roles is common in shounens made by males (or practically any media made by males), but even there you can find some good roles, but yeah, Naruto is the worst in that aspect.

Well, in one of my country anime forums I am at, a lot of users hates EVA, so they kinda put me off.

Naruto's female characters... I can deal with the fact that damn near every character without the sharingan who isn't Naruto is basically redundent now but the girls were basically like this from the begining.

I actually relised yesterday that its been part of my life for a decade now and watching it turn into the mess it is now is grating. Series should get better as they develope by playing to their strengths not worse by ignoring their faults.

 

[Darth_Payn]

The fake geek girl can all be summed up into one universal idea. No one likes a poser.

While it's fine, in fact great if someone wants to get involved in a topic (in this case geek culture) and learn about it, that's awesome. However in any culture when you just walk in acting like you know it all, it turns off the people that actually are a part of that culture, and the person "posing" in that culture is obviously faking it.

It's ok to not be knowledgeable about something, someone wanting to learn what makes you tick is a great thing, but you can't just walk in and pretend to be an expert on the subject matter.

The other problem with fake geek girls is that they bring down the overall image of genuine geek girls because everyone starts to assume that any girl involved in geek culture is just pretending to fit into it. The stereotype is that there aren't any women interested in geek things (which is untrue), but pretty girls pretending to be into it, just discredit those who really are. Which is true for any topic, hell women interested in sports for that matter would be a great example too.

Personally if someone takes an interest in what you are interested in, let them embrace it and maybe find the same love for it that you have. But if you find out they are just pretending to you, that's not far removed from lying, and no one likes being lied to.

Holy crap, get out of my head! We geeks and nerds are territorial by nature, and we hate posers and anyone who claims to like our stuff "Ironically", cheapening the value of our favorite things AND the meaning of irony. As nerds, it should be our duty as "the high priests of popular culture" (Bob's words) to spread the word to the masses, if they are truly willing to listen.

 

[MegaManOfNumbers]

Power girl next week?

My body is ready.

ROFL

This is either Power Girl's attempt to admit her character flaws and being extremely bad at choosing her words...

Or this is the most straight-faced confession for pity-sex I've ever read.

 

[Aureliano]

Neat episode, Bob. Only had a chance to check out the first minute or so before I went to work today but I was very pleased at what you would have said. Y'know, if misogyny bugged you at all or something.

Excellent analysis of supergirl (as far as I know; I don't read comics much myself), really curious now as to the Power Girl-Supergirl connection. I always assumed that Power Girl was just a regular woman who got bitten by a pair of radioactive breast implants.

 

[Hagi]

I'm still confused about where this whole "fake geek girl" thing is coming from.

I've not seen anything anywhere indicating that suddenly there was a need and cause for people everywhere to point out the misogyny in the, apparently existing, people who complain about fake geek girls.

Why is everyone suddenly coming out with stuff like this? Why exactly now? Is there some major news story by some important person who bitches about fake geek girls I missed? Or is this just a bandwagon everyone feels the need to get onto to prove to the world how not sexist they are?

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Bob, I'm not gonna lie. You diss Power Girl and I am gonna go all Bryan Mills on you.

 

[OtherSideofSky]

Dear god, why is so much Supergirl art so... terrible?

Seriously, it's like they deliberately sought out artists with no grasp of anatomy, and the attempts at cheesecake shots are just... disappointing. It's like the writers and artists are announcing on every alternate page that they don't care about the material or trying to establish any kind of dramatic tone (it's not just the costume either, it's the angles, positions and expressions the artists choose). I think Power Girl might actually have a much better track record when it comes to how she's drawn.