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Chico State's independent student newspaper

The Orion

Chico State's independent student newspaper

The Orion

Chico State's independent student newspaper

The Orion

Geek culture is a stronghold for sexism

Illustration by Rachel Dugo.
Illustration by Rachel Dugo.

Ah, the “Nerd World.” A social universe filled with comics, cosplay, video games and sexism.

The sexism portion may be surprising to some, but it is by no means a secret in the geek and nerd community. For years, women have been at the ridicule of men for liking typical “male” things, such as comics and video games, and it’s no different today.

Despite women rising to be one of the biggest demographics in the “Nerd World,” they still face scorn and harassment when cosplaying, gaming and entering a comic book store, as depicted by the BuzzfeedYellow video “If Geek Girls Acted Like Geek Guys.”

In fact, the sexism is so bad that women cosplayers featured on SyFy’s “Heroes of Cosplay” told a first-time convention cosplayer that she had to be aware of the type of attention her costume would bring her, i.e., verbal and sexual harassment by men and even other women.

This sort of sexism really appalls me. As a long-time geek, cosplaying at a convention and buying my first comic book are at the top of my bucket list, but I’m very hesitant to cross those items off the list because I know the type of harassment I’ll face.

Personally, I don’t feel like having some guy grab at me when I’m cosplaying Lady Deadpool or trying to degrade my knowledge and interest in the Marvel and DC universes.

And really, shouldn’t geek guys love the fact that women are interested in the same things that they are, instead of touching them to make sure they’re real or shaming them out of the culture?

Yes boys, nerd girls are real and we’re here to stay.

And no, I will not make you a sandwich.

Megan Mann can be reached at [email protected] or @meganisthemann on Twitter.

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