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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 7651512" data-attributes="member: 5143">Of course, I wasn't trying to be scientific.  Just stating what I've observed, because in this situation what is observable is really the point.  People ask where the "fake geek girl" meme comes from.  I say because the average geek looks around and sees a number of women that aren't as deep into the culture as the guys.I think the real issue is that at the beginning, geek culture kind of grew up mostly in tech circles in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s.  Where you needed to be able to program, work in a tech field, or have an obsession with fiddling with modem strings just to access the culture(BBSes, very early internet).  That was a field that was almost entirely male.Over the years, the geek culture has become more and more open because it's been easier to access.  The definition of geek got broader and broader.  Which is why geek culture has so many subgroups now.  It's now in sub sub sub groups at this point.  When "People who like My Little Pony" are considered to be a subset of geekdom...it's been split pretty far.I think some people see some newer geeks who have just discovered their geekdom and showed up to a convention with their geek qualification being "I saw the batman movie and avengers"...it frustrates some people.  And before people accuse me, it doesn't frustrate me.  I'm happy to see new geeks of any kind join our community.I'm not attempting to say that someone needs to pass some kind of test to be a geek.  However, those are the types of activities that make you a geek.  If you are really into(or have EVER been into if you have no time now or just grew out of it) at least 2 or 3 of the items in the list...you are solidly in geek territory.  The more of them you are into, the more geeky you are.  Though I've forgotten to put a couple key ones up there like science.Being a geek is about a mindset where those things are the kind of things you'd probably like.  I currently don't really watch anime.  But I've enjoyed a number of them in the past when I had friends who were way more obsessed with anime and we'd watch together.  I own a warhammer 40k army, but I last played years ago because the friends who really wanted to play moved away.  I wouldn't have time for all of it if I wanted to.  Though, those are amongst things I like.  I think, for old school geeks, being a geek isn't something you join or you dip your feet into because you like one aspect of it.  It was a lifestyle that came natural to them and you couldn't separate from them if you wanted to.  It isn't something they make time for.  It IS their life.  It was easy to qualify someone as a geek in 1990.  If you knew what the internet was and had ever logged in, you were probably a geek.One didn't use the internet at that point without dedication.  It required knowing a lot of stuff and likely having access because you were a computer science student at a university.  You socialized almost entirely with other geeks because no one else knew what you were talking about.Geek used to be something that affected your personal, social, and professional life.It's gotten to the point where I go to GenCon and attempt to talk to D&D players and it feels like we're speaking an entirely different language.  I find that as long as someone is geeky, I can find enough common ground to be friends with them.  Over a number of years, I've met people from ENWorld and attempted to have conversations with them.  I went to a meetup and felt like I didn't really fit in.  Like I was TOO geeky for that crowd.</blockquote>

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