On Being a Geek
I don't know when I started to self-identify as a geek. It may have been as far back as junior high, when I was reading my way through every Star Trek tie-in novel I could get my hands on. It may not have been until later, like when I wore a Starfleet insignia pin the day Gene Roddenberry died. It was definitely by college when I joined strek-l, moved to the computer interest dorm, and was reading all these old sf books from the library. I seriously miss a good university library.
I never qualified that as 'girl geek' or 'geek girl'. I thought 'geek' was sufficient and pleasantly gender-neutral. But apparently now I'm wrong about that?
The times I have considered using it is in contemplating new blogs, as a way to show that the blog would be geeky with a, let's face it, feminist bent.
I'm not particularly comfortable with identifying as a 'geek girl' without it being heavily in a context where it makes sense to do so. Partly because women and girls can be geeks, just plain geeks. Partly because I identify as genderqueer and more than 50% female only as a convenience.
But, you know, 'geek' is qualified by lots of other words too. Star Trek geek, Star Wars geek, computer geek, gamer geek. The list is as endless as geeky interests are. But how often do you run across gay geek, black geek, disabled geek? And in those cases where you do, isn't it the person self-identifying themselves that way? It's not that they're a gay geek, but that they're gay and a geek. So a girl and a geek?
But that doesn't quite work if you're not the sort who feels a need to say 'I am a girl' as an assertion of your identity. Especially if it's not even 100% true!
And it definitely doesn't work if it's another person doing the labeling. Why did you feel a need to qualify that person as a girl geek and not as a geek, or as a comics geek, or a robotics geek? Do you say in your introduction to your blog post, "As the famous boy geek, Cory Doctorow, says.." Or even 'guy geek', because I do think guy-girl is an opposite sort of thing, in some instances. (Even though I also think 'guys' is gender-neutral.) ((I'm also prone to using 'chick' more often than 'girl' or 'woman' myself.))
Once that label morphs from just a label to a series of stereotypes, then it gets even more problematic. Of course everyone realizes that every Star Trek geek doesn't necessarily know Klingon, wears pointed ears or bumped foreheads to every con, can do the Vulcan handsign, or can spell xenopolycythemia. I mean, you do know that right? Not all Star Trek geeks are the same? So why believe the girl geek stereotypes floating out there?
I've only recently come to identify as feminist. It's even a little weird to type that now. I think instead of asserting in any location that I'm a girl geek, I'm going to go with feminist geek, if that's what I mean. Or queer geek. Or Star Trek geek. Or sf writer, MUSH admin, blogger, webmaster, grad student, or a hundred more geeky titles that I could assign myself.
But firstly, primarily, mostly, and always, just a geek.
I never qualified that as 'girl geek' or 'geek girl'. I thought 'geek' was sufficient and pleasantly gender-neutral. But apparently now I'm wrong about that?
The times I have considered using it is in contemplating new blogs, as a way to show that the blog would be geeky with a, let's face it, feminist bent.
I'm not particularly comfortable with identifying as a 'geek girl' without it being heavily in a context where it makes sense to do so. Partly because women and girls can be geeks, just plain geeks. Partly because I identify as genderqueer and more than 50% female only as a convenience.
But, you know, 'geek' is qualified by lots of other words too. Star Trek geek, Star Wars geek, computer geek, gamer geek. The list is as endless as geeky interests are. But how often do you run across gay geek, black geek, disabled geek? And in those cases where you do, isn't it the person self-identifying themselves that way? It's not that they're a gay geek, but that they're gay and a geek. So a girl and a geek?
But that doesn't quite work if you're not the sort who feels a need to say 'I am a girl' as an assertion of your identity. Especially if it's not even 100% true!
And it definitely doesn't work if it's another person doing the labeling. Why did you feel a need to qualify that person as a girl geek and not as a geek, or as a comics geek, or a robotics geek? Do you say in your introduction to your blog post, "As the famous boy geek, Cory Doctorow, says.." Or even 'guy geek', because I do think guy-girl is an opposite sort of thing, in some instances. (Even though I also think 'guys' is gender-neutral.) ((I'm also prone to using 'chick' more often than 'girl' or 'woman' myself.))
Once that label morphs from just a label to a series of stereotypes, then it gets even more problematic. Of course everyone realizes that every Star Trek geek doesn't necessarily know Klingon, wears pointed ears or bumped foreheads to every con, can do the Vulcan handsign, or can spell xenopolycythemia. I mean, you do know that right? Not all Star Trek geeks are the same? So why believe the girl geek stereotypes floating out there?
I've only recently come to identify as feminist. It's even a little weird to type that now. I think instead of asserting in any location that I'm a girl geek, I'm going to go with feminist geek, if that's what I mean. Or queer geek. Or Star Trek geek. Or sf writer, MUSH admin, blogger, webmaster, grad student, or a hundred more geeky titles that I could assign myself.
But firstly, primarily, mostly, and always, just a geek.