Not sure why it’s suddenly bugging me. Maybe it’s just me, maybe I’m just reading through a filter, but bear with me a sec here.
If you’re a Fangirl, you likely know about this first one. There’s been a flurry of commentary regarding Vaneta Rogers’ “Fangirl Invasion” series on Newsarama. Even I got in on it to drop my thoughts on the term “Invasion” and Ms. Rogers replied to the blog post with, what I thought, was a really well reasoned and generous comment. Still, the Fangirls are definitely taking umbrage with the concept that we’re either “invading” or that we suddenly decided to like comics this morning — or that there’s been some mass conversion to geekdom thanks to the Twilight franchise.
Now, I get the anger. I do. And I sort of just let it be there because I am, at heart, a fangirl and peeved by the fact that loads of people out there just don’t seem to “get it” when it comes to girls in Geekdom.
Then I got asked to check the comments over on this post regarding Halloween costumes at GeekDad. Why not. I commented. I mean, I have an opinion on the subject.
Then I’m wandering around the office and working away and the thought just kept coming back and bugging me.
My observation:
We geeks tend to like making sure we comment to things we think are non-geek friendly. And those comments are often a bit snarky or condescending in some way. It’s as if, because we have the ability to dress someone down using the word “Troglodyte” instead of “moron” we are somehow better than the person we’re commenting on.
So, what is it? Now that being a Geek is considered cool, why are we suddenly picking on one another? Didn’t most of us spend enough time feeling picked on to know how much it sucks? Or are we getting a bit of our own back now that we’re not considered social pariahs?
I mean, do I think it’s sad that the media thinks women have come to Geekdom solely because of Twilight? Yeah. But do I need to pick on the writer from the comic book website who took the time to write about it? Maybe yes. But maybe I just need find a way to get the word out about what my Geek joys are and make the marketing folks out there realize they have to pick something besides Sparkly vampires to get my attention?
Just seems to me that we’ve got a lot of pull in a lot of places. Just not sure why we have to go taking shots at one another. Seeing as we’re supposed to be on the same side here.
Oh and, for the record – yeah, I know I went to town on the L.A. Times for the SDCC thing. They asked for it. ::grin::