Geeks, you have a problem [View all]

[redqueen]

http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/geeks-you-have-a-problem


So, I'm sure many of you have seen this image going around:





This image drew out my most head-patting, condescending side, I must admit. It's just so cute when delusion reaches these levels. Now, I've got a toe in some geek stuff, but mostly I watch the culture from the outside, and I have to say, from an outside perspective, it actually looks like geek culture has allowed a form of entrenched and vicious misogyny to flourish. It's not the majority or anything like that, but there's a loud minority of geek men who have a hate-on for women that's so grotesque that it often gets to fundamentalist Christianity levels. And it spills over into the rest of geek culture, allowing other geek dudes to congratulate themselves loudly for their non-sexism, even if they're really still reaffirming a ton of sexist messages. This image is a good example. That's Lady Gaga on the right, and it seems that the main crime she's committed to keep her from being a good role model is Teh Sexy. Lady Gaga is an accomplished songwriter and musician who, even if you don't really like her music that much, nonetheless has to be admired for her ability to push people's buttons and push boundaries while selling epic numbers of records doing it. She's a great role model, because she models how to exert control over your career and develop a vision, refusing to apologize for it the whole way. Pushing that all aside because she occasionally wears skimpy costumes suggests that a woman's sexuality trumps all other considerations when determining if she's a good person. That's messed up, but I'm going to guess the guy who made this thinks he's pushing back against sexism.

It's also a good example of the fallacy of cherry-picking, as demonstrated by the rebuttal I found here.




The timing of the original image couldn't have been worse, to the point where I kind of wonder if it was made in a defensive posture to remind people that not all of geek culture is misogynist in midst of a bunch of public, outrageous battles within that culture over misogyny and feminism. A sampling:

1) Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency starts a Kickstarter page to drum up money for a documentary about sexism in video games. She hasn't even made the video yet, but a sea of angry geeks don't need to actually hear her opinion before they denounce it, and so they have mounted an elaborate and mind-bogglingly vicious harassment campaign against her in an attempt to prevent the video from getting made. I don't need to dwell on the details, which can be read at the link if you aren't already familiar with the story. The point is that a bunch of dudes are so utterly attached to the sexist imagery in some video games that they will try to squash anyone who offers a critique of it.

2) Speaking of which, there's a very concerning development in the Tomb Raider series involving the threat of rape of Lara Croft. Alyssa has a rundown of why this is probably not so awesome here, a rundown which caused---invariably---the nasty assholes to come out of the woodwork to fap to the idea of Lara Croft getting raped. This understandably unnerved Alyssa, and her response to it brought out the even more maddening group of men "concerned" that she takes this sexism thing and this violence against women thing too seriously, and wouldn't she just be a lot more adorbs if she could shut up about it and stop ruining their good time? The good news is the whole thing brought out this thoughtful comment from one of Alyssa's readers on just why it is that this group of hard core misogynists find geek culture a good place to hang out, which is they can dress up their misogyny in the clothes of the misunderstood outsider instead of actually have to confront the fact that they're pigs.

...