If you’re a regular reader of the blog or follower of Jordandené in general, you’ve probably seen me around in the last handful of weeks. But in case you haven’t: hi, I’m Kara Dennison, and I’m apparently a fake geek girl.
I’m also the lead editor for multiple well-known anime and game localizations. I’m a published author and a journalist with ten years of experience. And I’m an interviewer who’s been lucky to share the stage with a few people you might have heard of. But that doesn’t stop me from earning the title, it seems.
Recently, Jordandené and Sam Maggs collaborated on some cool merch. A few items sport the “Fake Geek Girl” title, and people asked Jordan about it. Why would anyone sell, much less wear, that title willingly? After all, it’s used on the regular to call women’s validity into question in geek spaces. It’s a way of saying “You don’t belong here.” And now the site is selling T-shirts and pins sporting that phrase. Why? And why would we smile and wear it?
The short answer is because screw these guys, that’s why.
Getting to Belong
The concept of having to be “good enough” as a geek never hit me ’til after college. I come from a family of rocket scientists and sci-fi nerds; there was no concept of what I “could like.” I watched Star Trek and played video games (a bit). Just like others in my family.
Then, once I was out of college and into the wider world, things changed. Trivia buffs at cons couldn’t believe I actually knew the names of all six members of Monty Python at a trivia booth. Wearing a Doctor Who shirt to a party in 2014 got me cornered by a bunch of guys, taunting me about how sad I probably was that the Doctor wasn’t young anymore. And I get accused of feigning interest in multiple things — most of which I do for a living — to get guys to like me.
And that’s where we get the concept of the “fake geek girl”: this alleged type who, in order to appear cool and attract guys, will feign interest in gaming or sci-fi or anime or superheroes. But don’t worry. You can easily out a Fake Geek Girl with a simple 100-question pop quiz.
It doesn’t happen to all of us, but it happens to a lot of us. I’m sure some have been fortunate enough to miss this. And equally fortunate is the fact that this is a subsection and not an overarching opinion.
But it still happens. A lot.
Why Embrace it?
It doesn’t feel right to say we’re “embracing” the Fake Geek Girl title. “Reclaiming” seems a bit closer to the mark. We’re taking it from being an insult and an accusation to being a joke — our joke. Yep, that’s me, spending all my time and money on a hobby I don’t care about just to get attention. Fakest of fakes.
And honestly? The further it spreads, the funnier it gets. Professionals in the industry dubbing themselves Fake Geek Girls just makes it better. How far will I go for attention? I’ll literally dedicate my entire life and career to this genre. Not because I love it, no: because I want to date judgmental boys.
That’s what it comes down to, really. The term is ludicrous. (I mean, okay, there’s seven billion people in the world. Maybe there’s someone out there who really does spend all her time pretending to be a geek for male attention. I don’t know. But whoever she is, she is an outlier and should not be counted.) It’s so ludicrous that we now find it funny. So it’s ours now. The fanboys can’t have it anymore. And if they try to use it on us? That just makes it funnier.
It’s a joke, it’s a shared experience, it’s a rite of passage. It’s something we can make ours and laugh at, while still living our best geek life. It may not change the world, but it takes the edge off one little corner of it.
If you’re jonesing for your own Fake Geek Girl gear now, check out the Fangirl Galaxy Collection!
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