This is something I've tried to write on more than one occasion. This is something I have wanted to write for an awfully long time. But this subject I'm about to tackle is thorny and I need to use my words carefully, I want you dear reader to understand exactly where I'm coming from and why I want to rant, shout and holler to make people take notice.
Geek is a feminist issue.
So what is a geek? Simon Pegg defines it like this:
Being a geek is all about being honest about what you enjoy and not being afraid to demonstrate that affection. It means never having to play it cool about how much you like something. It is basically a licence to proudly emote on a somewhat childish level rather than behave like a supposed adult.
So a geek is someone who enjoys something, be it a game, genre, musical theatre, sport or academic subject and has a sense of ebullient enthusiasm about that subject area. On a personal level being a geek is deriving a certain amount of joy and pleasure from learning as much as you can about a subject area, a desire to know more and to share it.
Geeks tend to be outside of the mainstream one way or another and the stereotypical idea of geeks have been derided in mainstream media for decades. There has been a shift in the last fifteen years or so, the rise and rise of comic book heroes alongside the rise of the Internet has repositioned geeks as being more or less respectable, there is now a sense that it is acceptable to geek over things. But this is not without issues, male geeks are accepted but if you are female and a geek then a whole new level of issues are encountered.
My theory is that female geeks have always existed, if you don't believe me go and read Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, Catherine Moreland is the first recorded evidence of a fangirl. I just don't think that female geeks have been all that visible. The Internet, message board sites, live journal communities allowed geeky women to come together and become more visible. I know that I've always been geeky, I don't think there's ever been a time where I wasn't deeply into something, Knightmare and the Mysterious Cities of Gold through Xena the Warrior Princess and Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Battlestar Galactica and Game of Thrones there has always been at least one passion that I have to follow relentlessly.
So it appears that being geeky is now acceptable and we're all just peachy and that is where you are wrong, there are still areas of being a fangirl and fanboy that are derided by the mainstream. Lets take cosplay as an example. I have a huge amount of respect for cosplayers, they put hours of work into their costumes either to create replica costumes that match the originals perfectly or else creating costumes which express their love for their fandom or comment on it in a new way. A lot of mainstream media decides that this is weird and that the cosplayers must either believe they are a storm trooper, hobbit or batman or they are doing it because they are broken in some way. I watched a TV programme last year where Connie Fisher visited the SFXweekender and spent the entire report treating the cosplayers like they were mentally unstable. I would like to know what the actual difference is between someone who goes to football matches, paints their face red and white or blue and white and wears the strip opposed to someone who dons a starfleet uniform and pointy ears?
Women who cosplay get more derision than there male counterparts and this derision comes from all directions. From male geeks who think that female cosplayers aren't real geeks and are only dressing up in order to 'trick' male geeks in some way or are there for male geeks' titillation. This viewpoint is not the default one but it permeates conventions enough for it to be quite intimidating. Over on the mainstream side of things there are the pitying glances, look at that girl, she could be pretty if she listened to what we are saying and bought the right clothes.
Gok Wan, who I used to have a lot of respect for in championing women's self esteem has let me down. Last night his new show went out on channel four Gok's Style Secrets and the woman who was a cosplayer. What disappointed me the most was that someone who presumably enjoyed cosplay was made acceptable to men so that she could find a date. I had always assumed Gok Wan to be about empowering women to celebrate themselves no matter what and not just conforming to what he thinks is normal and right.
I am not broken, I am a resilient woman who enjoys science fiction and fantasy. I choose to wear geeky t-shirts because that is what makes me happy, I feel most like me kicking around in my jeans my boots and my purple genki gear hoodie that proclaims release the attack kittens. I am not mainstream, I have never been cool and I never want to be. If I want to cosplay as a dalek in a dress I have customised then by golly I will. I do these things to please me, I do not seek approval. I have the right to celebrate my fandoms my way and this includes visiting platform nine and three quarters on September the first or speaking like Gollum when the mood takes me. I collect 5" Doctor Who Figures and if I was a man this would accepted as normal geeky behaviour but in a woman, there is some assumption that there are issues there.
I'm reaching the stage where I think noise has to be made and regularly.
