Judging the fan girl.

Should fan girls be judged for being a nerd?

Being a fan girl or boy about a specific fandom is considered the norm in modern day society, wether that is boy bands, football teams, rock stars, artists or writers. Yet when we go to nerdy things like, scifi and fantasy movies, games and comics there is a metaphorical stand off with genders. Regardless of how confident a woman is in her position of being a fan girl of anything nerdy, there is this subtextual feeling that she is being judged by males.

Ever heard of the term fake gamer/geek/nerd girl? These terms still float around today, and come from the concept that girls can’t be real nerds or gamers; that they pretend to play video game for attention or to gain some sort nerd cred with the boys.

A survey form Entertainment Software Association in 2010 shows that 48% of woman in the modern age of 18 years old and up play video games. So then why are women being scrutinized by men? Well basically because these industries and communities were mainly male dominated at the start and I think its possible that back then guys just didn’t want girls crashing the party and it stayed like that.

In the recent years the industries of Marvel and DC Comics have had massively successful movies; through that has peeked an interest in the female demographic and has caused a wide spread of their products to be placed on clothing and accessories. This does not help the fake nerd girl concept due to guys not being able to tell whether or not a girl is being genuine with their love of their fandom or that they are a poser, hipster who knows nothing about the design on their clothing or in other cases some one who has just seen the movies and is really only interested in a single character or actor in the film and buys products to show their dedication to only these charcter (e.g the Avengers with Loki /Captain America, Tom Hiddleston / Chris Evens).

This is where the stereotypical fan girl becomes a thing, which can cause friction amongst both the same and opposite genders in passive aggressive things like memes for example, which can be twisted into positive reinforcement or negative connotations.

When guys think of fan girl or nerd girl they think of the hopeless romantic version of woman swooning over characters of their favourite series, book or movie (e.g Sherlock, dr who, Robert Downey jr.). Even though a lot of nerd girls do in fact indulge in these fantasies they also go into other nerd culture, things like DnD, comics and scifi / fantasy movies. Also in the modern age the range of woman who indulges in nerd things, range from all sizes, cultures and races.

So to put it into perspective when a pretty blonde girl vocalises her love for nerdish things she gets shot down with phrases such as “really?”, “You sure?”, “No, not you?” and “You’re not a real nerd”, as if to say that pretty ladies (or ladies in general) cant, don’t and won’t like these things, and sometimes no matter how much she proves it, some guys will never except. So you can understand if this girl was to hide her appreciation and interest in something nerdy and keep it at home like a secret double life from her friends and not voice her affection for it in case she was challenged or tested on it.

This has a personal experience with me, though I am don’t hide my nerdy ways or the nerdy things that I appreciate I do feel the pressure not to express my interests sometimes due to being challenged head on. The statement ‘your not a real nerd/gamer’ both annoys and scares me due to the sudden random confrontation that it can possess. Luckily this has not happened but as a Batman fan I have been dismissed as someone who is a poser and only has a small about of knowledge of the bat-verse, which I’ve ‘probably gained form the movies’. I have also had the pleasure of dealing with people who (though they may not directly challenge me) want me to prove all my knowledge of Batman.

So really should you judge a girl on her looks in regards to nerdy things? Should you judge her for being a nerd in general?

No of course not, it is their life, they should be able to choose what they want to like and what to be a fan of. So regardless of a girl being a poser or a dedicated fan maybe you shouldn’t hassle them. Thank you.