Day Two Hundred and Thirty One: Call to arms!

So this is less of a “One good year thing” and more of a “for the sake of humanity, stop, please god stop” thing.

Right now is Con season. For those of you who haven’t been following my blog or whatever, you should know that I’m a comic book kid. Because I’m dyslexic and was raised by boys, my initial introduction to literature was Spiderman, X-men and Hell Boy. In today’s society I’m classed as a geek girl, although I’m certainly more than just that.

I have several friends who also frequent the cons as well as several who cosplay (google it if you don’t know what it is.) But I’ve noticed, among both my male and female friends, nerd and un-nerdy alike, a mildly alarming trend.

In this group of people who consider themselves unique because they are accepting of each other’s differences, there is a significant amount of judgment and stereotyping being committed against women. For the record, I am in no way a feminist, I’m not really a fan of modern day, bra burning feminists, but I am female and therefore I am required on some level to have some sympathy for my own kind.

But what I’ve been hearing a lot of is this:

·         Girl walks into a video game store and is asked if she’s buy the game for her boyfriend/brother/dad/male friend.

·         Girls being quizzed on fandom at cons, asked arbitrary questions in order to discern their level of fanness.

·         Girls being sexually harassed, assaulted and berated while wearing costumes deemed slutty or whorish.

·         “Fake Geek Girl” stickers being slapped on the asses of girls at RTX last weekend.

And dozens of other culturally depressing creations of the mass mind intended to alienate, harass and embarrass people. And while the target of said inequality is generally female, the alleged “real” gamer girls are just as guilty of these bullshit scenarios as the men. You ladies feel insecure about yourselves, so you create a catty posy of girls who shun anyone who might not fit into your social standard. Sound familiar? Yeah, you spent all of f*cking high school bitching about it.

Okay, so I know my own assumptions about the issue are based off the actions of a few, internet memes and opinions expressed to me by my friends, but that doesn’t make it any less of a real issue. The real question is how do we stop it? As a whole, we probably can’t. But you can. Remember my call for everyone to make this their One Good Year. Maybe the next time you’re at a Con, you can be that One Good Person. Don’t talk about real and fake as opposing dichotomies unless you’re referencing the Matrix. Don’t touch people who don’t want to be touched. Express positive opinions and keep your negative ones for your blog and twitter account later.  Judge people for their personality, not their body and how they choose to express it.

This attack against “fake gamer girls” is a non-problem, as in it shouldn’t be a problem. People are not inherently real or fake. We’re alive, we’re here and we love who we are. Isn’t that enough?

Challenge to my Readers:

Do your part to stop the stereotyping of women, geek and non. We all make judgments about people based on initial impressions and how they look. Go ahead, make your judgments, but keep them in your own head. Later, examine them, consider them and try to figure out if those opinions are valid or not. Even if they are valid, if that impression isn’t causing you significant internal strife, keep it to yourself.

If you must express it, remember your I statements: “I feel that she is a psychopathic bitch…”

To read more about the issue:
The Creepy Side of E3
The Fake Fan Girl Stickers
The Sticker Creator Responds
One Guest's Call for a New Policy