Basically, this blog consists of topic after topic I poach from other bloggers. Ain't I stinker?
This terrific post at pandagon got me thinking about geekery and what qualifies as "geeky" these days. But before I address that, I wanna address the poster that inspired the post. 
I genuinely believe the graphic is well-meaning. But there are a few things that rub me the wrong way:
1.) The "geek" women are all clearly very thin, attractive women largely conforming to beauty norms. I don't see any fat or old chicks there. Why? Not aspirational?
2.) As Amanda mentioned in her pandagon piece, the presence of Lady Gaga confuses me a bit. I actually think Lady Gaga is kind of neato. She's creative, she's driven, she writes her own songs, and she's pleasantly weird. Sooooooooo maybe not the best pop culture phenomenon to bemoan. Lady Gaga's one of the good ones, guys. Honest.
3.) The top images have one thing in common--they're sexy or at least pretending at sexiness. The message I get from this is that these well-meaning--I'm assuming--fellows are getting all "NOT WITH MY DAUGHTER, YOU DON'T!" on us. That is part of the whole overprotective sex referee shtick that so many people apparently find charming, but I find odd and inappropriate.
4.) The idea that having a raygun makes a woman tough and strong. I got news for ya. Most women are tougher and stronger than you could possibly fathom. And we're tough without rayguns.
But the thing that really fascinated me about the entry and ensuing comments is whole notion of what constitutes geekery in the first place. I've always thought of geekery as anything that evoked a sense of devotion that went well beyond casual interest; it was anything where people got "deep into the weeds" of a thing. And, so, I wonder is it a term that's used too broadly or not broadly enough? And when we describe geekery do we often exclude phenomenons that are predominantly of interest to women? In other words, can geekery encompass things like scrapbooking, crafting, knitting, soap opera-watching, romance novel-reading? And what about things that are not necessarily dominated by either gender, like intense movie appreciation or any sort of creative outlet like painting or digital art (which particularly lends itself to geekery because most digital artists share their works online and communicate with other digital artists)?
I ask because I think geekery is something that is esteemed these days. People demure and say sheepishly "I'm a geek" or "I geek out to music" but when they do so they're really paying themselves a compliment. And that's something I've yet to see discussed...so...discuss.
--vacuumslayer
