Incredible Girl Presents: Geeks and Kink at Emerald City Comicon
Because the same people that go to Comic Con go to Dom Con.
"What's this weird connection between fans of Star Trek, S&M, and the Renaissance Faire?" - Margaret Cho, Notorious C.H.O. This is the question I wanted to explore when I brought my panel, "Incredible Girl Presents: Geeks and Kink" to Emerald City Comiccon this past weekend.
Read MoreIs Geek Still a Dirty Word? One Female Engineer Thinks It’s Keeping Women out of STEM Fields
Naturally, we have some feelings about this.
Here at The Mary Sue, we think it's incredibly important to get young girls interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields to fix their diversity problems, and it's great when women in those fields speak up and share their experience on the subject. Still, an opinion shared on The Washington Post by engineer Tricia Berry has us a little perplexed at why people still think geek—a word we use proudly—is a negative term.
Read MoreEver Wonder What It Feels Like To Be A Geek? This Magic: The Gathering Collector Gives You A Taste
I often get asked what makes me a geek. My usual response? Intense passion for something. So yes, "being a geek" to me isn't necessarily relegated to the genre medium of comic books, video games, etc. People who get really excited over sports are no different than people who get really excited about a collectable statue. And collectors, well they're tangentially connected. Not all collectors do it for the money but when a huge score falls on your lap, it's hard not to get really excited.
Read MoreWil Wheaton Talks About the Difference Between Nerds and Geeks (Spoiler Alert: There Isn’t One)
This calls for dancing and capes!
In an recent interview with GQ, nerd superstar and host of The Wil Wheaton Project Wil Wheaton (gee, I wonder where they got the name of his show from?) had some really excellent things to say about what it means to be a geek. Or a nerd. Whatever puts your starship into hyperdrive, I guess.
Read MoreWelcome to Our New Geek Sex Column: Self-Insert
Go, little guy, go!
Don't judge me too much here, but I've never seen Revenge of the Nerds. It's not out of protest -- I just never have. What I have done, however, is osmosed culturally the dichotomy presented by the film's main character: All jocks ever think about is sports, but all nerds ever think about is sex.
Read MoreA Brief History of Fandom, Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Being a Fan
(The) Doctor (and a) Strange Love
In the beginning, I was not a fan. I liked stuff - Firefly, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings - but the tween who freaked over Bon Jovi and baseball grew up and moved out. I knew about fans; I married a classic Trekkie, who memorizes music cues and can name an episode by its first five seconds, and who first went to Comic-Con in 1972. But I thought, as so many do, that fandom was the domain of man-children with a less than firm grasp on reality. Then I met the Doctor.
Read MoreWhy Geeks Do What Geeks Do
That is how the geek do.
The morning after the Isla Vista shootings, I was on Gchat with Sam, my fellow weekend editor. I was supposed to be working, but I was having trouble getting to it. I’d seen people on Twitter looking for friends who lived near the shooting (and who weren’t returning their calls), and the shooter’s disturbing screed was still up on YouTube. I watched as much as I could stomach (not much). Sam and I sat together, a few thousand miles apart, sharing the silence of a blank chat field.
Read MoreThe 10 Geek Commandments
The 10 Geek Commandments
For your consideration.
Read MoreEmpire Strikes Back and Nerd Favorites Top Empire‘s Greatest Films Fan Poll
Oh Hollywood
Things We Saw Today: Happy Geek Pride Day!
Things We Saw Today
Today marks a convergence of geekery: Towel Day (for all you hoopy froods out there), the 37th anniversary of the release of Star Wars, and the Glorious Twenty-Fifth of May. With their powers combined, they are...Geek Pride Day! In celebration, both ThinkGeek and WeLoveFine are offering checkout codes good for 20% off. Hide your wallets.
Haters Gonna Hate: I Love The Big Bang Theory
Essay
The Big Bang Theory takes a lot of crap from the nerd community. We have a hard time being happy, don’t we? The science is too sciency. The science isn’t sciency enough. Where are the women? Well we don’t like those women – give us some we can.
Don’t get me wrong: I like to pick apart a TV show just as much as the next girl. But I really love The Big Bang Theory, and the reason why might surprise you. I totally adore the women in the show. Yeah, I said it. I totally adore Penny and her Lady Posse.
Man of Steel Sequel Writer David Goyer Calls Marvel’s She-Hulk “A Giant Green Porn Star,” Insults Geeks
Today in things that make us scream incoherently
Creators Of WonderCon’s “I Hate Fangirls” Shirt Defend It, Double Down On “Fake Geek” Bullcrap
Your Stupid Minds! Stupid! Stupid!
"So, we've apparently received some bad word on our fan girl shirt, with accusations of sexism being thrown at us from a certain few bloggers...
...who have completely ignored our other variant shirt on display or didn't even bother to ask our take on it.
Apparently it's only sexism if it is insulting to one gender. Woo double standards.
Anyways, the fangirl/fanboy shirts can best be explained like this: fangirls/boys =/= fans. Fans are people who like and genuinely respect a fandom, and it's creators. Fangirls/boys are like those creepy fedora wearing neckbearded bronies, or hetalia fanfiction shippers, who make us all collectively cringe in pain at what they do to the things we love.
No one should ever defend these kinds of people. Seriously, they make the rest of us look bad.
oh and fyi: the ones who bought the shirt design, the fangirl one in particular, half were girls who bought it." — Yesterday we brought you Greg Rucka's thoughts on a certain t-shirt for sale at WonderCon (a much more accurate version of which is above) that rightfully got a lot of people ticked off because of the way it perpetuates the toxic "there's only one right way to be a fan of something" attitude that's long infected geek culture and often manifests specifically in a way that's intended to push girls out of geek spaces. Tankhead Custom Tees, which made the shirt, responded to the controversy with a grammatically-challenged message on their Facebook page, pointing out that they make a version of the shirt for fanboys too and completely ignoring the whole thing about how no one should be shamed for the way they choose to express their interest. Hetalia fanfic shippers, oh noes!
(via The Daily Dot, image via Joe L. on Facebook)
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Greg Rucka Has Something Important To Say About Your Gatekeeping Of Women In Geek Culture
Essay
Bubble Genius Sent Us Some Soap And It Smells Mathmatically Delicious
For when showering with regular soap isn't fun enough.
If you're a regular listener to the Geekosystem podcast, you might remember that this week we received a package in the mail from Bubble Genius, a LA-based Vegan soap company that makes geeky products. We think they look and smell pretty awesome, so we wanted to show you what they sent us, because we like soap. And also showing off. It's sort of a perk.
Read MoreHelp Make This Hugely Geeky Road Trip Happen [VIDEO]
There And Back Again
Creators Jessica Mills and Alan Kistler (two very good friends of mine) have come up with a really fun idea. They want to go on a geeky road trip to visit famous nerdy haunts and treasures! Sound like something you might want to watch unfold? Check out their adorable Kickstarter video for all the details and see if if you can help make it happen. Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?
Read MoreInterviewer Swaps Usual Convention Questions To Find The Real Fake Geeks [VIDEO]
Submitted For Your Approval
Jennifer Landa decided to do some investigative journalism at San Diego Comic-Con to sort out this whole "fake geek" issue. And she enlisted help from our good friends Andre Meadows and Dr. Andrea Letamendi! I never recommend reading the comments but I find it hilarious several folks on YouTube missed the satire part of this whole thing. For instance: "Yeah, I hate to break it to you, but most of the female cosplayers aren't any nerdier or geekier than the males you accuse of fake nerdom. I find your video incredibly derisive and insulting." Ah, life. Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?
Read MoreBack-to-School: Fangirl Style
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Leigh Lahav decided to make a new video in honor of good ol' back-to-school time! Is it difficult to keep your fandom out of school work or are your teachers more accepting of your hobbies? (via Leigh Lahav) Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?
Read More10 Showrunners. Locked In a Cabin. Told to Create The Ultimate TV Show. This Will End Well [VIDEO]
Aaaaaas Yooooou Wiiiiiiiiiiiish
Leigh Lahav, she of the five stages of fangirl grief and the fangirl meeting, imagines what it would be like if some of the best (your mileage may vary) showrunners/writers in the biz were kidnapped, spirited away to a cabin, and forced to write the best show of all time. Spoiler: Joss Whedon, George R.R. Martin, and Steven Moffat all want to kill things. Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?
Read MoreWhite House Doing a “We the Geeks” Google Hangout Tomorrow
Despite Obama being the one to get hard-core nerds all in a tizzy by confusing Star Trek and Star Wars last March.
With politicians making noise over American graduates moving to other countries, the White House is using this issue as a jumping off point for comprehensive immigration reform and aiming to attract "geeks" from around the world to immigrate here. Thus they are hosting a Google+ Hangout on "Making the U.S. a Geek Magnet" tomorrow at noon, EDT.
Read More
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