Timewaster's Guide Archive
General => Everything Else => Topic started by: 42 on February 28, 2004, 02:44:32 AM
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So I've been thinking recently, which is usually a mistake. It seems that most "geek" activities are masculine. Being addicted to video games or trading cards or rpgs seem to be primarily a male stereotype. If a woman adopts these addictions, then they inherit a small measure of geekiness.
But are there geeky activities that are primarily feminine in nature. I can't think of much. Perhaps reading romance novels, watching soaps, scrapbooking or being addicted to talk shows. So lets say you know a woman who is addicted to talk shows, scrapbooking and romance novels. Would it be valid to classify her as a geek?
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that would depend on how you defined geek. I know those who define geek as obsession and expertise in a particular field. So by that, yeah, they'd be geeks.
Your traditional geek, however, likes computers and games and comics and SF, science and math. So if you're going to be conservative and strict, than no, they aren't.
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No, I wouldn't call them geeks. "Geek" implies a certain obsession with an intellectual field, and none of the things you mentioned really do. I got called a geek once as a kid for all the reading I did, which is sometimes considered a fairly feminine activity--or, at least, the books I was reading could be considered feminine: horse stories, girl detective mysteries, fantasies with girl protagonists, etc.
Or we could just go with the real meaning of the word "geek" and say that none of us are circus performers who bite heads off chickens. (How embarrassing, by the way, is the way I found this out--when I got called a geek by this girl at church, my mom got all upset, looked it up, and called her dad to complain, saying, "Do you know what a geek is? In the dictionary it says..." ::))
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no, see, we're dealing with English here.
In English, a word essentially means what it is used as. If we can only use the word's original meaning, then most of our current vocabulary is messed up, including at least three words in your first paragraph.
I have NEVER heard "geek" used to describe a carnival performer except in the context of someone telling me that is the real meaning of the word. It is in fact, the LEAST real meaning of the word, because it is used so infrequently.
The only agreed upon part of the definition of the word by people who actually USE it is to imply obsession and expertise as I mentioned earlier (and which Stacer appeared to agree with, using the word "obsession" in her connotation). Generally, it implies the fields I mentioned earlier, with less emphasis on intellectual/academic pursuits than computer/technical pursuits.
Sorry about the spiel about how the circus performer is wrong, but I'm really sick of people telling me that it means that when it doesn't anymore. It did at one time, but then, at one time, "Thesaurus" meant "treasury," and by extensive use of metaphor, it came to literally mean a collection of synonyms. Anyway, it irks me that this definition even shows up except as a fourth or third meaning, when it is no longer used that way. It irks me even more than dictionary.com says it means "socially inept," though this definition is certainly used more often than "chicken head biter."
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Ignoring the ridiculous argument about circus performers....
Livejournals. Not blogs, necessarily, but LJ. I think that Livejournal is a primarily female thing, (guys have them, yes, but they don't spam their LJ's with pics, quizzes, and 4 posts a day). It's a very female/social activity, but because it involves computers and the internet, obsession with it definitely qualifies as geek.
Also, (and I'm going to go out on a limb here) things like fanfic-ing and cosplaying are often a female-dominated field. You go to a convention, the women's costumes are more elaborate than the guys.
More later- must drive husband to work.
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SE, I should have put "real" in quotes. I didn't mean to say that I endorse that being the definition--it just brought up that memory about my mom and the bishop's counselor having it out because his daughter called me a geek, and she had NO CLUE what "geek" meant, which is why she looked it up in the dictionary. She'd never heard the term before.
Oh--and I was referring to the romance novels, etc., not the computer stuff about not calling the women geeks. I think, reading my post again, I was unclear on that.
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Well, i know or know of 4 female roleplayers in my town. Compared to 40ish male. My current GURPS GM is female, much to Jampaladins surprise.
Nothing else to add, really, other than that SE is a whore for english lang arguements.
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Pasty little tart, isn't he?
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I am fairly sure that the word geek has gone through several evolutions in meaning. It is originally thought to come from a term for circus performers. When I ask my grandmother (age 95) what geek means that is what she thinks of. When I asked my parents and my older siblings what they thought geek ment, they thought is ment someone who is socially inept. It's really just seems to be the younger generations that associate geek with computers and technology.
I think I tend to use the word to mean someone who is socially lacking more often than I use to imply someone who is obsessive about something. Though I think I often connect both meanings together. So someone who is obsessed about a certain activity and therefor has become socially inept.
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Ok, I spent about three months defining geek for an English thing. To be a geek requires interest in geeky things such as computers or sci-fi. It also requires an obsession - if you have this obsession for something not-geeky, you have geek-like traits, but you are not a geek. Work with me here, otherwise Jocks are geeks because they're obsessed with sport and social interaction. I am *not* willing to allow jocks into my subculture.
Anyway, Girl geeks exist. They're rare though, rare like Francium (More reatcive ceasium, to the point it has only been theorised to exist. It disappears immediately because it reacts so fast). Which is typically why only the Alpha geek in any group has a geek girlfriend.
I know a female who is sort of a geek. I also know one who claims to be a geek, and really isn't. At Brisbane Anime Society yesterday, I saw several females who we're definately geeks.
I have never heard of a female playing a Role-Playing game. Maybe in Pom-land, but not in the real world.
Also, I must compare "nerd" and "geek" here. A nerd is often an insult, implies lack of social skills and status. A geek is like a nerd who transcends nerd-dom - they have the same traits and interests, but can actually have a social life. Both terms are insulting from outside, but can be used as a compliment from another within the culture.
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I thought you defined geek as "someone who is anti authority and has an interest in complex structures like computers"? Part of our discussion back when i read your short story.
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Yeah, that's another part of it. Up there ^ is my nutshell description. I spent four months on my actual description, and it took about three pages, and about six more pages of other peoples defiitions to put it into context. But yeah, generally a distrust of authority is a part of geekdom. (In fact, it seems to be near universal, which is why this board is probably a bad sample space.)
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I have never heard of a female playing a Role-Playing game. Maybe in Pom-land, but not in the real world.
I'm a female, and I play role-playing games. As a matter of fact, the last big campaign I was in consisted of four married couples--and all the wives played. We do exist. :)
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yes, I'd like to defend my role-playing status. I even *ran* a roleplaying game last semester, so ha.
Since you put so much time into it, what is a girl called if she enjoyes roleplaying, videogames and such things, but isn't obsessed with them?
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Since you put so much time into it, what is a girl called if she enjoyes roleplaying, videogames and such things, but isn't obsessed with them?
/me considers.
'Cute'?
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Taken.
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So much for equality in geekdom.
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There will never be equality as long of one of the sides is male.
Anyway, I think it's interesting that the word 'geek' has been adopted with pride by the community it was probably originally applied to pejoratively. Sites like "Think Geek" and the like are examples, as are the infamous "Geek Code Blocks."
As a side note, geekdom has come to be mostly adopted by the computer community. Therefore, I think the word is coming to associate less with people like myself--fantasy authors--and more with people like my roommate, Earl, who is a computer programmer.
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several things occur to me about your definition, JP.
It's fine for a personal usage definition
However, any definition that goes longer than a few sentences is probably too restrictive to actually be used by more than a couple people.
Also, that definition ignores entirely what most of the population means when they use it. Like the term with pride as much as we like, but most of the world, I think, outside of web site culture, uses the term "geek" perjoratively still.
And EUOL, same thing happened with "Yankees" and "Mormons." Kinda cool, huh?
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Not to mention the Forsaken....
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Actually, the definition was the opposite. It wasn't long to restrict the definition, but to broaden it, and define all the different usages and connotations of the word. That said, maybe "definition" isn't the best term for what I wrote. Maybe it was more of an explanation thing. That is, it needed to be that long to include both EUOL and Earl, without including someone who plays sport and obsesses about it, as well as playing the occasional game of Magic: The Gathering.
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I think that we can all agree that obsessing about the definition of the word "geek" makes you a geek.