And while I’ve seen some argue that the ways that stereotypically/traditionally geeky entertainment are “pleasurable and rewarding” for women may simply be different from the ways they’re rewarding for men, I think the overlap in appeals is pretty strong, as you suggest. Even a lot of the guys who read comics do so despite the hypersexual and anatomically warped portrayal of women in superhero material, not because of it.

Also, readers here may be interested in a Metafilter discussion that has linked to this post recently. There were some particularly insightful comments there, including some brief personal anecdotes by velvet winter (who submitted the links that got the conversation going) that illustrate some of the hurdles women face in trying to interact with geeky guys.

There are a few fairly ignorant comments as well, of course, but they are fascinating to read in their own way. One person even goes so far as to suggest that the sole reason women pursue interests traditionally culturally coded as “male” is because they want to steal what men have. (Some of the responses to that one are particularly clever.)

I would imagine that if a white girl geek like me feels excluded by male geeks (to some extent)…how I would probably feel even more isolated if I were black, since black women are positively represented even less than white women in geek culture.

In answer to your initial question, what attracts me to sci-fi, gaming, roleplay, and extensive reading is that these things are pleasurable and rewarding to me…I don’t like them for special “girl geek” reasons.

My experience as a woman may affect *how much* I like or dislike one particular corner of geekery; I can read Sandman and more “literary” comics, and love the genre of graphic novels in general, but superhero stuff is a huge turnoff because so much of it is he-man wish fulfillment. And because of “woman in the freezer” syndrome whereby strong women get weakened/raped/killed/disappeared in comics storylines.

Girls were not called “geeks” when I was growing up, btw, but “brains.” Said dismissively, as in “what are you, some kind of a brain?”

On another note, do you know how excited I was when the pokemon games let you play as a girl character? For years I was “Professor Oak’s Grandson, Angela.” When I was younger, I thought it was so unfair that in a role playing game where you play yourself, I couldn’t be a girl!

I also wanted to post before I forget: There’s some additional interesting conversation going on about this over at cryptoxin.

Princess Leia was a powerful female character, fairly intelligent, and directly involved with the rebel alliance, however none of those things maker her character a geek. She was in a science fiction movie that APPEALED to geeks (and many others) but I do not think she herself was a geek.

Sydney Bristow was quirky, but not a geek. She was a covert under cover agent who was not so good at ice skating and very good at taking on personas for her missions. In missions she would occasionally play the role of a geek, but she would also play the role of a club chick. Her character was intelligent and needed to think on her feet, however I also would not classify her as a geek. Just because she is attractive, intelligent, and had her own memory erased does not mean she is a geek.

I probably wouldn’t have said anything at all but you had to mention Buffy. I love the Buffy series, as did my whole family and many other people who are close friends. The character Buffy is about as far from being a geek as you can get though. Yes, she was a bit of a social outcast at her school because she spent her time at graveyards, but lets look at a few points here and see if they sounds like qualities of being a geek. 1. Did not like to go to the library (where Giles held court), read up on bad guys, or read at all. 2. Wanted to be a cheerleader and go to parties, and often did things to try to facilitate this to get out of slayer responsibilities. 3. Relied very heavily on her sex appeal to get what she wanted and not her brains. 4. Used other people’s brains to make her work easier so she didn’t have to think as hard (eg. Giles, Willow, Ms. Carpenter, etc). 5. Was terrible at school and really had no interest other than just passing to stay out of trouble. 6.Buffy was coveted by the geeks in the show because she was a hot cheerleader type who was not a nerd so they made their own robot version of her. Buffy very much was a hot and awesome character that was more FOR geeks.

As for the female geek experience, I’m a geek. I think I always have been, and I was raised by geeks. I don’t fit into a lot of stereotypical geek profiles since I don’t play role playing games at all and I don’t even play that many video games. It often feels like in geek circles I have to do things to prove I can be considered a geek and in less geeky circles I open my mouth and am immediately classified as a geek. Sometimes I am just a geek by proxy because of my boyfriend. For the most part I don’t care since fitting into a niche has never interested me and I have a broader groups of people I know because of it. I will say this, in my experience I think men who are of a geeky persuasion are often both attracted to and intimidated by women who are also geeks (or whom they consider equals on some level). It’s their boys club and they like women who can keep up with them but they also want to be more powerful and more intelligent. I don’t think it’s that different in sports, business, law, or anything else really. As a woman, unless you are exceptional, there are many groups that are is hard to fit into.