Proof Positive
Recopied from Tumblr, for my own records, because Tumblr mostly confuses me.
I had this linked to me the other day.
Click to viewSo first off, geek girls, represent! *fistbump of solidarity* It's a great song, take a moment to have a listen. :)
That being said, I kind of want to address something that I've seen in many places, including this video.
If, as geek girls, we have nothing to prove, why are we still trying to prove it?
No one asks geek guys at what age they first read Tolkien, or when they first sat in front of a console, or when they wrote their first line of code. No one. Ever.
Almost every girl in this video (and let me emphasise that this takes away none of their awesomeness) seems to feel compelled to point out that they've been a geek since they were young. Why is that? Why does youth suddenly lend legitimacy to a claim when nothing else seems to?
Here's something to think about:
The first time I ever "properly" played a video game (i.e. on my own console, all the way through)? I was twenty-seven years old.
The first time I ever properly watched Doctor Who (as opposed to being a four-year-old so terrified of the opening music that I used to switch off the TV and run from the room)? I was thirty-one years old. Eleven is my (first) Doctor.
The first time I read a comic book? I was thirty-four years old. *gasp* *shock* *horror*
Go on. Tell me I'm not a "proper" geek. I dare you.
I could whip out all my other geek credentials, of course. I could tell you my age when I I first read Tolkien (8). I could tell you my age when I first watched Star Trek (5). The age when I first watched Star Wars (5). The age when I started playing D&D (19). The age when I started reading and watching fantasy (3).
But what does that prove?
Absolutely nothing.
If I had done none of those other geeky things as a child--if the only thing I ever did was get into comic books back in March of this year (introduced by a friend of mine who convinced me that I should get over my loathing of "unfinished" stories and give comics a try)--then that should be enough.
There is no entrance exam for being a geek.
If one of my non-geek friends decides tomorrow that she LOVED the Avengers movie and on that criteria alone she wants to be a geek, then I for one will spread my arms and say: Welcome, sister!
Geeks have had to deal with enough mockery and harassment and bullying that we should know better than to inflict it upon our peers. And by peers, I mean women, because, really, when was the last time a man was asked to prove anything about his own stated identity?
(Um, looking at that last sentence, I feel there should probably be a really long caveat about queerness and gender politics, so can we pretend I put that in there? Okay, thanks.)
Geek women are nothing new. We have been here all along. It's not that we're not present in geek life, it's that men have chosen not to see us, or have dismissed our presence as irrelevant (sound familiar?).
This is my identity (or part of it, anyway). I am done justifying it.
This entry was originally posted at http://ratherastory.dreamwidth.org/233088.html, where there are
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