At a glance, nerds are among the savviest, most future-oriented among us. Yet a vocal minority remain troglodytes in form, gleefully chasing after women who dare challenge the fundamental order of nerd-dom.
Grab your torch and pitchfork — witches be afoot. They go by many names, such as Zoe Quinn, Brianna Wu or Anita Sarkeesian.
Do not be fooled by their female sorcery. These women do not truly love ?gaming. They are not “real” nerds.
Despite the mainstream popularity of nerd culture, things such as gaming, comic books, fantasy or sci-fi, male nerds remain highly territorial.
Like many marginalized groups, they sought to empower themselves within their own spaces, but in the process of lifting themselves up, they pushed women down.
Women who profess nerdy interests are often quizzed to gauge their ?legitimacy.
Women at conventions are often criticized for dressing in revealing clothing as “fake geek girls” looking for attention from the easily seduced men the cons are really for.
Women who reveal themselves as female on games or nerd forums are greeted with shock and disbelief. Few games allow women to play as women, and when they do the avatars are often hypersexualized caricatures.
Women who create nerd culture, such as game developers, face male-dominated workplaces rife with harassment.
They report having been groped or being confronted with fellow developers’ erections and then being blamed for the harassment they receive.
And women who dare to criticize games are attacked with the same territorial fervor as a European criticizing American culture.
You aren’t from here. You aren’t one of us. You have no right to tell us how to live.
No matter how many issues of obscure comics a woman owns, no matter how many games she’s played, fantasy books she’s read, no matter how much LARPing she’s done, there are still those nerds who refuse to accept her simply because she is a woman.
Sometimes this exclusion turns violent, which brings us to Quinn, Wu and Sarkeesian. These women have endured so much online harassment due to the misogynist-despite-purported-intentions Gamergate movement that they no longer feel safe in their homes. Just like the witch hunts of yore, men are attacking women who threaten their monopoly on power.
Sarkeesian was forced to cancel a speaking engagement due to a credible shooting threat for saying she likes games but wishes they were less sexist.
Quinn received credible death and rape threats for ostensibly being a shitty girlfriend. Wu just tweeted a joke.
It’s easy for outsiders to say these women are overreacting, that no one is going to rape or kill anyone, not really.
But when hackers have already attacked financial assets or social media accounts and threats are specific, it would be more concerning if these women weren’t scared.
What’s more, these threats are criminal. Some men are committing criminal acts of harassment and intimidation just to stay the imaginary king of some imaginary hill. And by insisting these crimes are no big deal, we’re letting them get away with it.
Keeping women out of nerd culture doesn’t give male nerds cajones. It just proves they’re dicks.
