Ok, as I'm sure most people on this forum have figured out by now, I'm kind of on the strange side of weird. Growing up, I pretty much hit nerd bingo from the start, poor social skills, bad haircut, no thought of style, played D&D, read fantasy/sci-fi etc... While I wasn't ashamed of who I was, being classified as a nerd or dweeb (the most common terms used where I was) was not something to be aspired to. I embraced the term 'geek' later on but only because it didn't have the painful associations that the other two words had for me.
These days, a lot of people are saying that it's cool to be geeky. Maybe so, but I still don't really care what's cool. What I do find hard to wrap my mind around, is the idea that geekdom has to be defended against poseurs, specifically those of the female gender. lisarea has several times posted links to a geek feminism wiki which has a few articles on such gatekeeping. I've run across a number of blog articles in the last six months or so on the subject. Here are two with differing viewpoints.
This
one, primarily focuses on 'fake' geek girls being used to market stuff. (scroll down to the no.1 bullet)
This
one takes the opposite approach.
Frankly, I endorse the second viewpoint. I paid my dues to be called a geek/nerd/dweeb but you know what? If someone wants to be that, let them. If they say they like something, why does it hurt to accept that? If they're just doing it for attention, that's their problem and in short order, they'll move on.