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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dragoslav" data-source="post: 7651501" data-attributes="member: 6690267">I wasn't aware that the "fake geek girl" label was being thrown around so frequently as to have become a problem until just now. My first exposure to the phrase was in the context of people scoffing at the use of "generic sexy woman + video game paraphenalia/references" in order to pander to or appeal to nerds. If my only exposure to the phrase had been from this video, I would assume that the phrase "fake geek girl" was being used to assert that all girls who claim to be geeks are fake, and that the label was therefore completely exclusionary based solely on sex. However, in truth, the phrase is used (or at least originally meant) to contrast "people who pretend to be geek girls" with "girls who are actually geeks." Therefore, the exclusion isn't based on sex but more broadly on people who try to cash in on what's currently "cool" in a disingenuous fashion. It's the same reason that some people have a problem with the show The Big Bang Theory, that it isn't truly an outgrowth of geek culture but rather an attempt to cash in on a contemporary trend.Beyond that foundation, this issue becomes a gender issue by nature of the largely secondary status of women in the creation of mainstream culture. Nowadays, video games are extremely popular, but while a significant majority of men regularly enjoy them, far fewer women do. So if a woman wants to be a part of the mainstream, i.e. to not relegate herself to traditionally "woman's" areas and hobbies (cooking, sewing, fashion, etc.), then she has to essentially make her way into a "man's world," since what's mainstream tends to be what men enjoy. The problem arises, I would say, from a disconnect between what those in the mainstream believe and what someone entering from the fringe of the mainstream believes is required to be a part of the mainstream, e.g. a person who says, "I play Angry Birds all the time on my phone when I'm at work and my boss isn't looking. That makes me a geek, right?"</blockquote>

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