She Geek: Women and Self-Labeling in Online Geek Communities
She Geek: Women and Self-Labeling in Online Geek Communities @ From Austin to A&M: My intent in this project was to examine the labeling of female-oriented geek spaces on the internet. What I found was that self-labeling of geek women often defeats the potentially subversive act of creating a female-oriented geek community.
I would argue that the mere creation or and participation in geek communities labeled “for women” are aggressive acts towards male-dominated geek culture. One of the reasons we can see these communities as a challenge to mainstream geek culture is the still-prevailing myth of internet neutrality.
This myth argues that since we are “disembodied” on the internet, everyone begins on equal ground.
Bodies don't matter in cyberspace. This is not how it works in real life, however, particularly in geek spaces. It is true that until you mark yourself as Other than the privileged class-male, heterosexual, cisgendered, abled, middle-class, and white-you will be assumed to be those things. However, this will not protect you from hate speech or sexist, racist, and homophobic “jokes,” since geek communities often engage in these forms of discourse. Even objecting to these discursive acts, without revealing the state of one's own body, will immediately mark you as Other, and leave you vulnerable to harassment and denigration. By labeling their spaces as for women, female geeks challenge the neutrality myth, by making their female bodies conspicuous and by demonstrating a need for safe cyberspaces for women.
Read the rest here.
The nerdy college student in me really enjoyed this.
Anyway, a lot of people in this community have some thoughts about the use of "girl" to describe grown women, particularly in the context of geek culture - as the original author mentioned, a lot of groups created for women often use "girl" as part of that group's name. I don't really agree with some of the analysis in the piece, such as how IDing as a girl (rather than as a woman or lady) has the potential to subvert heteronormative structures, but... nonetheless, it's all pretty interesting.
I would argue that the mere creation or and participation in geek communities labeled “for women” are aggressive acts towards male-dominated geek culture. One of the reasons we can see these communities as a challenge to mainstream geek culture is the still-prevailing myth of internet neutrality.
This myth argues that since we are “disembodied” on the internet, everyone begins on equal ground.
Bodies don't matter in cyberspace. This is not how it works in real life, however, particularly in geek spaces. It is true that until you mark yourself as Other than the privileged class-male, heterosexual, cisgendered, abled, middle-class, and white-you will be assumed to be those things. However, this will not protect you from hate speech or sexist, racist, and homophobic “jokes,” since geek communities often engage in these forms of discourse. Even objecting to these discursive acts, without revealing the state of one's own body, will immediately mark you as Other, and leave you vulnerable to harassment and denigration. By labeling their spaces as for women, female geeks challenge the neutrality myth, by making their female bodies conspicuous and by demonstrating a need for safe cyberspaces for women.
Read the rest here.
The nerdy college student in me really enjoyed this.
Anyway, a lot of people in this community have some thoughts about the use of "girl" to describe grown women, particularly in the context of geek culture - as the original author mentioned, a lot of groups created for women often use "girl" as part of that group's name. I don't really agree with some of the analysis in the piece, such as how IDing as a girl (rather than as a woman or lady) has the potential to subvert heteronormative structures, but... nonetheless, it's all pretty interesting.