Being a woman in geek culture

[KoPilot]

Some people just really really like 5 year old memes.

Isn't liking geeky shit that not even geeks like the epitome of geekery, though?

I'm a fan of C-list mecha anime, designer vinyl, the Beast Machines cartoon, and I still quote Napoleon Dynamite. I've never read a Batman comic in my life. I hate 80's nostalgia, and Ghostbusters wasn't that funny to me.

I'm not a geek to like, 87% of neckbeards out there. Know what I say to geek litmus-test fans?

 

[Stella_Omega]

I personally know geeks that love those memes and the lolspeak and cheezeburgers.
It's annoying as fuck to me, personally, except of course the parts that I like.

 

[BiBunny]

I was watching a youtube video today called "Nerd Nummies" or something like that, and I found the hostess to be profoundly annoying. She kept talking in a baby voice, and quoting really dumb memes like "I can haz cheezeburgers!" I don't think people really act like that. To me, it seemed like she was really pushing the whole, "I'm nerdy! I know memes!" envelope just a bit. That isn't to say that she's not a nerd or anything, but do you think it's necessary for girls in the geek community to appeal to the male geek demographic the way she did? She just seemed very unrealistic to me. It screamed, "I'm being cute, pay attention to me, subscribe to my channel, RaWr!!!!"

tldnr; It'd be nice to have a series of Youtube videos where a girl can host a nerd/geek-related show without spewing out random memes or quotes for no reason. It was almost like she was saying it to prove that she was "a nerd". Isn't just enjoying games/comics/science/whatever enough? Maybe I'm over analyzing, and she's just naturally annoying. But it irked me, and I couldn't help but wonder if it was all scripted to appeal to a male demographic.

That Nerdy Nummies chick is BEYOND annoying. One of my friends loves her and sends me links to her videos, and I can never bear to watch them longer than a minute or two. Her looks and manner of speaking remind me of this crazy bitch I used to work with when I was in college, so that may be why I dislike her so much.

 

[DarlingCunt]

That Nerdy Nummies chick is BEYOND annoying. One of my friends loves her and sends me links to her videos, and I can never bear to watch them longer than a minute or two. Her looks and manner of speaking remind me of this crazy bitch I used to work with when I was in college, so that may be why I dislike her so much.

Ahhh, right? It's like she's trying waaay too hard! And she seems like the type of girl who'd babytalk her boyfriend or something. "I WUV YOU SO MUCH MY WITTLE..." etc. Bah. I guess I'd just like to see someone who's like, "Yo, here's the cupcake we're gonna make today. We made it. Cool. Later." It doesn't have to be memes and rainbows and babytalk. It seems like it really just dumbs her down. But who knows. Maybe the fedora-wearing neckbeards want someone who they can feel smarter than.

 

[Netzach]

She is attempting for nerd Rachael Ray, you guys. She'll get her own stand and stir show in 2 years, I shit you not. THIS IS NOT FOOD.

It's a fantasy for girls who never got over their easy-bake, and it's wank-fodder for non-neckbeard 50somethings. Let's all be skinny-fat and eat refined carbs and smoke 20 packs to fit into our modcloth babydoll dresses. Please come over to the food network and teach us your ways!

Stabby me. For a plethora of reasons. I am not up to date on my memes, but I'm a maximum food asshole.

 

[YourCaptor]

http://www.theesa.com/facts/gameplayer.asp

Boom. 45% of all gamers are female.

What definition of gamer did they use?

 

[DarlingCunt]

She is attempting for nerd Rachael Ray, you guys. She'll get her own stand and stir show in 2 years, I shit you not. THIS IS NOT FOOD.

It's a fantasy for girls who never got over their easy-bake, and it's wank-fodder for non-neckbeard 50somethings. Let's all be skinny-fat and eat refined carbs and smoke 20 packs to fit into our modcloth babydoll dresses. Please come over to the food network and teach us your ways!

Stabby me. For a plethora of reasons. I am not up to date on my memes, but I'm a maximum food asshole.

You should have seen her put batter into the damn cupcake tray. She was using A SPOON and completely covered the entire tray in drips of batter. And she acted like she was surprised she made a mess. My mom happened to be watching and was just like, "Is she really that stupid?"

The answer is yes.

She really is too stupid to ladle cake batter into a cupcake tray.

 

[Stella_Omega]

What definition of gamer did they use?

62% of gamers play games with others, either in-person or online.

36% of gamers play games on their smartphones.

25% of gamers play on their wireless device.

http://www.theesa.com/facts/gameplayer.asp

 

[KoPilot]

Is it just me, or is it kind of fucked that you guys are bitching about someone that offends your sensibilities just because you find her to be an annoying fake cook girl? Can we not talk shit about women who haven't actually done anything wrong?

It's not your thing. Just stop watching and get over it, then.

 

[BiBunny]

Is it just me, or is it kind of fucked that you guys are bitching about someone that offends your sensibilities just because you find her to be an annoying fake cook girl? Can we not talk shit about women who haven't actually done anything wrong?

It's not your thing. Just stop watching and get over it, then.

Because absolutely no one has bitched about anything at all whatsoever in this thread?

 

[KoPilot]

Because absolutely no one has bitched about anything at all whatsoever in this thread?

Uh, how is complaining about sexual harassment, poor representation in video games, TnA in comics, sexism and leaky pipelines in STEM, and guys coming in here to say "but we're not all like that" at all analagous to "god this bitch annoys me for no other reason than she can't cook and she's really annoying"? Maybe I'm missing something.

Anyways, go ahead and hate on other women for not actually doing much of anything actually offensive. It's very productive and cathartic, I'm sure.

 

[BiBunny]

Uh, how is complaining about sexual harassment, poor representation in video games, TnA in comics, sexism and leaky pipelines in STEM, and guys coming in here to say "but we're not all like that" at all analagous to "god this bitch annoys me for no other reason than she can't cook and she's really annoying"? Maybe I'm missing something.

I didn't say it was analogous.

Anyways, go ahead and hate on other women for not actually doing much of anything actually offensive. It's very productive and cathartic, I'm sure.

Finding someone annoying =/= hate

I don't care what the chick does. Someone wondered if other people found her annoying. I said that I did and even pointed out that it could just be me because she reminds me of someone that I despise.

It just seems like we've got a lot of thread policing going on up in here, which must be equally productive and cathartic.

 

[Netzach]

Uh, how is complaining about sexual harassment, poor representation in video games, TnA in comics, sexism and leaky pipelines in STEM, and guys coming in here to say "but we're not all like that" at all analagous to "god this bitch annoys me for no other reason than she can't cook and she's really annoying"? Maybe I'm missing something.

Anyways, go ahead and hate on other women for not actually doing much of anything actually offensive. It's very productive and cathartic, I'm sure.

How is "she's being validated for holding up an infantilized bullshit stereotype as the epitome of geek awesome" the same as "annoys me for no reason?"

I mean, ok, whatever, LIKE your baby talking MLP universe as much as you want, just why the hell is this what everyone is forwarding to one another?

I got a few problems with certain aspects of the "new domesticity" It's just the old domesticity, set up to make normal women feel like they are failing.

The pleasure of being a geek is the possibility that your desire for exploration and explosions might put you out of the range of cupcakes for a few hours, for me, anyway. It's an escape from the massive shame-based economy of "you fail at girl" that we all exist within.

 

[midwestyankee]

I got a few problems with certain aspects of the "new domesticity" It's just the old domesticity, set up to make normal women feel like they are failing.

The pleasure of being a geek is the possibility that your desire for exploration and explosions might put you out of the range of cupcakes for a few hours, for me, anyway. It's an escape from the massive shame-based economy of "you fail at girl" that we all exist within.

What I see in the fetishization of food and cooking on the shows at The Cooking Channel and others is an attempt to geekify the practice. There's the excessive use of highly specialized tools, arcane knowledge of such things as different types of flour and the eleventy-twelve kinds of garlic, and the step-by-step programming of the process. Maybe it's just me, but under the surface I see a whole lot of Bill Nye meets Bill Gates underlying all of those shows from Alton to Rachael and beyond.

 

[Netzach]

What I see in the fetishization of food and cooking on the shows at The Cooking Channel and others is an attempt to geekify the practice. There's the excessive use of highly specialized tools, arcane knowledge of such things as different types of flour and the eleventy-twelve kinds of garlic, and the step-by-step programming of the process. Maybe it's just me, but under the surface I see a whole lot of Bill Nye meets Bill Gates underlying all of those shows from Alton to Rachael and beyond.

Do you think it's a trickled-down version of gastronomic chemistry, like "oh you've read about this, but you live in Iowa and you can do it in your own kitchen!" kind of thing? Also, if cooking is chem it makes it OK for men to do it, so you don't have to live off of frozen dinners and we can sell twice as many pizza wheels?

It just freaks me the fuck out that almost every food blog by a chick (in the DIY indie craft sphere) is a dessert blog. WTF? Emphasis: look good, offer nothing of substance.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I've always geekified cooking, influenced by Heloise who was pretty much a housekeeping nerd in her own right all those years ago-- and the fith edition of "The Joy Of Cooking" especially the chapter "The Foods We Heat" which is all about kitchen chemistry.

So maybe this trend simply seemed comfortable and familiar to me-- I didn't notice it.

 

[midwestyankee]

Do you think it's a trickled-down version of gastronomic chemistry, like "oh you've read about this, but you live in Iowa and you can do it in your own kitchen!" kind of thing? Also, if cooking is chem it makes it OK for men to do it, so you don't have to live off of frozen dinners and we can sell twice as many pizza wheels?

It just freaks me the fuck out that almost every food blog by a chick (in the DIY indie craft sphere) is a dessert blog. WTF? Emphasis: look good, offer nothing of substance.

I definitely think it's impossible to ignore the commercial implications of DIY shows of all kinds, including cooking shows. There's a reason, after all, why even the Public Television DIY shows (This Old House, New Yankee Workshop) were all given massive donations by tool makers and home centers. And definitely, if you geek up cooking enough, it will appeal to the inner engineers of some men (not excluding myself here at all). And yes, there's that "even you out in South Antlersville can reproduce the finest meals from Le Tour d'Argent in Paris with just a few hours of watching my show" going on and has been going on since Julia Child first chopped an onion for Boston Public Television.

I've always geekified cooking, influenced by Heloise who was pretty much a housekeeping nerd in her own right all those years ago-- and the fith edition of "The Joy Of Cooking" especially the chapter "The Foods We Heat" which is all about kitchen chemistry.

So maybe this trend simply seemed comfortable and familiar to me-- I didn't notice it.

Our whole generation has generally geekified almost everything. We've even turned education into a consumerist industry - look at all the rating schedules of public schools, colleges, and so on for your evidence. We started checking out pre-schools and daycare centers for our kids starting in the late 70s and it has been an accelerating process ever since. When I was young, the local school superintendent was a man of power in the community and the public listened to him when he spoke about the needs of the schools. Now, superintendents cower in the face of the public's cries for "accountability" and their hatred of all things paid for by taxes. But that's a rant for a different place, I'm sure.

I think the link I'm seeing here is that like so much else in our lives, even cooking has become an object of formal education and you're judged somewhat on how well you stack up against the models being set by Alton, Rachael, and all the other uber-geeks of fooddom.

So, how does this end up in this thread? Because cooking for the home has long been designated as a female task (note that professional cooking for pay was primarily a men's thing for centuries), the cooking shows seem to serve to accomplish two things that might even seem contradictory: prove to men that cooking for the home is something they can do on their own technical (and not artistic, thus male and not female) terms; and that women have to do more to measure up today than ever before. Another way to look at this is that cooking, as a practice, is only done right when it's done according to the principles and practices established by male cooks who do it for a living. Why do divas like Rachael Ray and that skinny DeLaurentis woman and Nigella survive in this world? They're translators on one hand and eye candy for men on the other.

 

[BiBunny]

Do you think it's a trickled-down version of gastronomic chemistry, like "oh you've read about this, but you live in Iowa and you can do it in your own kitchen!" kind of thing? Also, if cooking is chem it makes it OK for men to do it, so you don't have to live off of frozen dinners and we can sell twice as many pizza wheels?

It just freaks me the fuck out that almost every food blog by a chick (in the DIY indie craft sphere) is a dessert blog. WTF? Emphasis: look good, offer nothing of substance.

I'm suddenly incredibly ashamed.

I love to bake. I can't cook for shit.



On the other hand, I don't have a blog dedicated to my (ugly) attempts at cake-baking, so there's that, at least.

 

[midwestyankee]

I'm suddenly incredibly ashamed.

I love to bake. I can't cook for shit.



On the other hand, I don't have a blog dedicated to my (ugly) attempts at cake-baking, so there's that, at least.

Too bad. I'd read it. I can easily imagine you having the funniest and most profane cake-baking blog in the universe.

 

[BiBunny]

Too bad. I'd read it. I can easily imagine you having the funniest and most profane cake-baking blog in the universe.

I don't know about funniest, but it would definitely be the most profane.

 

[KoPilot]

How is "she's being validated for holding up an infantilized bullshit stereotype as the epitome of geek awesome" the same as "annoys me for no reason?"

It's not, because that's not the discussion you all were having:

I was watching a youtube video today called "Nerd Nummies" or something like that, and I found the hostess to be profoundly annoying. She kept talking in a baby voice, and quoting really dumb memes like "I can haz cheezeburgers!" I don't think people really act like that. To me, it seemed like she was really pushing the whole, "I'm nerdy! I know memes!" envelope just a bit.

That Nerdy Nummies chick is BEYOND annoying.

Ahhh, right? It's like she's trying waaay too hard!

She is attempting for nerd Rachael Ray, you guys. She'll get her own stand and stir show in 2 years, I shit you not. THIS IS NOT FOOD.

She really is too stupid to ladle cake batter into a cupcake tray.

If you wanted to talk about the gendered politics of cooking, you kinda should have said so to begin with. And for the record, BiBunny did call her an annoying bitch. I'm just using her words.

Anyways, there's a reason that they say that women get to be cooks while men get to be chefs.

 

[KoPilot]

It just seems like we've got a lot of thread policing going on up in here, which must be equally productive and cathartic.

Um, yeah, I'm going to point out problematic behavior where I see it? Especially in a rather feminist thread where we've ganged up on dudes saying very similar things about various female personalities? Or is that like, a faux pas and it's OK bash women if you're a not-dude now?

 

[KoPilot]

Or did it just suddenly become "too much" because I got on you about it? You seem to have no problem when it happens to someone else.

 

[IrisAlthea]

Um, yeah, I'm going to point out problematic behavior where I see it? Especially in a rather feminist thread where we've ganged up on dudes saying very similar things about various female personalities? Or is that like, a faux pas and it's OK bash women if you're a not-dude now?

To me it is quite possible to be annoyed by people regardless of gender. Having an opinion about a specified womans behaviour does not equal bashing women, in my opinion.

Pointing out that you think a certain behaviour is problematic is not a faux pas to me, but neither is expressing the opinions you quoted.

 

[BiBunny]

Or did it just suddenly become "too much" because I got on you about it? You seem to have no problem when it happens to someone else.

Honestly? There are a lot of things about this thread that burn my ass. I try not to say anything about it, but I'm not always successful.

And, yes, I did call her annoying, but it was the asshole I used to work with whom I called a birch. Either way, please don't act as though I don't curse like a sailor all the time. You just chose now to be offended by it.

I'm sorry, but nobody is exempt from irritating me by sheer virtue of having a vag.