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Gender's Game
6
A few years ago, a meme appeared on the internet. This meme was so devious, so nefarious, and so damn catchy, that it imbedded itself in the collective narrative of geek culture. This is none other than
Today we will discuss
- The memes
- The retaliation
- The facts
- The explanation
Your Facts are Relevant to my Interests
Sexism is an ongoing issue in video games. Women in games are notoriously underrepresented, portrayed in a sexist manner, or both.
"The masculine prevalence in both the video game development community and audience, for instance, is the main reason given for the sexist portrayal of women in most video games, if they are represented at all." (Cassell & Jenkins, 2000; Huntemann & Media Education Foundation, 2002)
Y U mad, bro?
A Challenger Appears!
The meme gains in popularity, sparking both commendation and condemnation. Both sides present arguments in support of their position. Advocates for the meme bemoan the newfound popularity of their long-cherished IPs, thus enticing girls to claim membership of their subculture to be cool. Protestors of the meme point to it as reflective of the systemic sexism in geek culture. More memes are made.
Over the past semester, I have been monitoring the debate and analyzing the media pertinent to this discussion. Little headway toward a resolution has been made. Haters continue to engage in dialogue patterns including, but not limited to, the aforementioned hate. This is due to the following issues
- The emotional nature of the topic
- The ambiguous definition of "geek"
- The historical ostracism of the group resulting in:
- Exclusionary attitude
- Self-righteous narrative
- Strong identification with the group
- The institutionalized sexism
- Fear of "special" small group identification
being lost
Y hullo thar!
Conclusions. I have them.
A Wild Meme Appears!
About three years ago, an unremarkable meme made its appearance on an unremarkable message board. However, the tropes it called out, sexism, elitism, and self-righteousness, was the perfect storm to create
THE FAKE GEEK GIRL.
A girl writes "nerd" on her hand, and the internet reappropriates it. It was an image to launch a thousand memes-- nerds loved making them and websites loved posting top 10 lists.
http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/115265/Idiot-Nerd-Girl-Meme