I did my Parenting for the evening--I brought my 13 year old geek son upstairs to make him watch this video. Because I never want him to think a girl can't be just as much a geek as him (which I don't think he thinks, but it's good to re-enforce it, especially since his current D. and D. club has only boys in it....).
I am a geek, and have been one for decades. Patrick O'Sullivan and I wrote each other letters in Elvish when I was 12. And I went to my first Star Trek convention back in 1982. I played D. and D. before ten sided dice were in general use....and I still have mine.
And now I blog about kids' fantasy and sci fi--yay geeky fun! And have geeky etymological conversations with my husband (not Patrick O'Sullivan, but he also was writing in Elvish at about the same age) just about every day, and make up bad element puns (which element is most like a pirate with laryngitis? Arrr gone) and make sure the boys watch Star Trek, and I go to Discworld conventions with my geeky friends...
And I work as an archaeologist (geeky)...and get pissed off when male visitors see me in the front office, assume I'm a secretary, and ask me to do their xeroxing. (I don't like it when they ask the secretary to do their xeroxing, either. Note to self--make sure my boys know how to make their own darn copies).
Anyway, the video made me a little teary-eyed, and I wanted to share it.
Oh, I want very much to see the video, but don't seem to see the link? And I would have loved to play D and D with you at age 12--I bought it when I was in junior high but no one would play with me (sniff).
ReplyDeleteAnd there I was, just ten blocks away....sigh.
DeleteOh, there it is! Off to watch.... Thank you!
ReplyDeleteYay for girl geeks! I'm not hard-core (but my oldest is, so I done good there), but I totally have respect for those who are. And I love the video.
ReplyDeleteOne of the nicest things, I thought, was that Discworld Con had so many women - girls - females - Doing Things. I think that Pratchett hasn't limited them to Seamstress roles within the books, thus they are All Kinds Of Things - Members of the Watch, Dwarfs, politics-playing vampires, witches, opera singers...
ReplyDeleteI think I felt awkward at the Con, though, because I have kept my nerdishness under wraps for YEARS. And yet, I've wanted to go to SteamCon and DragonCon and ComicCon and I ADORE Geek&Sundry and watch Wil Wheaton teach games there that I want to play, and at NADWCon there were all of those people, letting it shine, and I ...wanted to... but sometimes, you forget how.
Nerdery: use it or lose it, I guess.
I love this post - I am easily intimidated by people who get offended that I really like certain games or shows and think I'm just doing it to pretend I like them (a concept I've never really understood). A good part of it is because I am a girl. Luckily I have an awesome set of friends from undergrad who never questioned me when I said I liked something and who introduced me to all sorts of other "geeky" pursuits like D&D and Magic the Gathering!
ReplyDeleteI love that video, and this post. I hate the fake geek girl trope, particularly because although I am geeky, I am not THAT geeky and in spite of myself I get anxious and insecure about my geekiness sometimes. Hence the row of hearts that appears in my mind when I watch that video.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I love the point that you can be a Geek without competetivly checking off boxes --so you don't have to dress up, or you can be geeky about Roman history, say, instead of particle physics...and it's all good.
ReplyDeleteThat video made me cry. Showing it to Bit now. (Who just the other day schooled a bunch of boys at the gym on this very point. They told her she couldn't beat them at sword fighting on the Wii because girls "suck at all video games". She beat them 8 times.)
ReplyDeleteOh Bit....how sad that she had to show them, how great that she did!
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