Springtime for Geek Girls?

[curses]

Originally Posted by The Lone Ranger

I thought the display of entitlement was rather interesting. A simple "Thanks, but no thanks" was apparently insufficient, since he almost-immediately demanded to know why I was refusing his marriage proposal.

Much like random dudes in real life. Usually yelled from cars or in bars.

Huh? If the opportunity had been there, I thought of sending out a message saying: "a.) Not everyone has (or wants) a microphone, b.) Why on Earth would it matter what color your skin is?, and c.) How on Earth am I supposed to know your skin color? You're playing an Orc; does that mean I should assume your skin is green?"

To which they would have asked you why you were offended, it was just a joke. If you can't handle the internet, honey, go in the kitchen and make me a sammich *cue tired laugh track*

ETA: The experience did get me to wondering what they talked about after we completed the dungeon and I left the group. After all, they clearly thought they were teaming up with a "chick," from their comments. So what, I wonder, did they have to say once they knew I could no longer hear them?

TBH they probably laughed for a minute then went on with their day.


The funny thing is I bet this is the sort of stuff that they would never say in a day to day setting* I hate the anonymity on the internet sometimes. It's a coward's shield.

*most of the time

[Megatron]

Originally Posted by curses

I hate the anonymity on the internet sometimes. It's a coward's shield.

Honestly I think it's responsible for the new rise of racism and sexism we've had over the last 10-15 years. The protection of anonymity has given the otherwise voiceless shitheads a megaphone, and without that they'd have maybe been forced by sheer integration to bury their -isms, even if they couldn't overcome them. Now they wear a mask in public - and really we all do, let's not act like this is something weird - but the mask covers something much more toxic.

It covers empty space. Absorbed into social media and various insular internet communities, there is an underbelly of people who have made an entire life out of avoiding human interaction at all costs. Real human interaction, like meeting someone for a cup of coffee or a beer. Talking with their actual voice, instead of sending text messages that can never carry inflections and nuance. Things like going to a concert, watching a movie, things like dating, dancing and fucking.

Trust me, I've been close to that cliff myself. The internet provides a lot of things the real world can't. Awkward, hopeless people can find a lot that takes work in real life for virtually no effort. Friendship, even intimacy. And no I don't mean just porn. There's a lot of real to be found, but none of that helps people develop an identity for themselves.

What do you always hear from the people who did some atrocity in a school or whatever other public place they decide to just open fire and murder people? They didn't fit in. They had no place in society. They were probably fucked up and welp, we're in the land of guns and ammo and NRA republicans and guess what, you too can have your own personal arsenal as long as you haven't YET killed anyone, we totally trust you, here you go kid, go put bullets into everyone you can, it's okay, we have millions invested in the congress.

Bah, that's a derail, I'm sorry, that shit just pisses me off. Anyway, point being, is anonymity really a benefit, when all it does is help the disenfranchised become self-righteous and spiteful? It certainly hasn't done what we hoped it would, and bring us closer together. Then again, maybe I'm listening too much to the vocal minority. It's hard NOT to do that, since they're so fucking loud it nearly kills the eardrums.

[curses]

I think you're right, tbh. And I'd like to add to it. The internet is such a vast source of, well, everything that those who want to validate their beliefs can do so easily without ever having to investigate the other side. Things like the chan boards, everyone's favorite white power board that might rhyme with FormStunt, many subreddits, and various other messageboards are absolute cesspools of "see I'm right!" And it helps push very impressionable people towards a direction they might not go if they spent more time elsewhere, either other websites or off the computer/xbox. What they're lacking, sometimes willfully, is another viewpoint not told through the lens of their preexisting belief.

Although I do disagree with you on the fact that th'internet doesn't help people find an identity. Mostly personal anecdote, though. It not only helped me work out who I was, it helped me find my voice and gave me the knowledge and strength to use it in real life.

[Megatron]

Well, in your case it sounds like you approached things with an open mind and learned who you were through self-exploration that was probably helped by reaching an understanding that there are more people like you out there.

My point was more along the lines of your first paragraph, where people wrap themselves into some or other insular place, and never experience different viewpoints that could help them develop the identity that they feel like they need. Falling in line with blinders on and staring into an abyss is far from what I'd call an "identity".

...and this is coming from a fucking nihilist.

[Zehava]

/ignore is your friend

Get familiar with the /ignore feature of the game and use it frequently

I'm a guy who also will often play a female character in am MMO, and while I haven't been on the receiving end of harassment/unwanted /tells, I've seen it happen all too often.

It could also be that I'm completely anti-social unless playing with people I know.

Random group invite when I'm not flagged as looking for group... /ignore
Duel request... if I want to fight other people (very infrequent) I'll queue up for PvP.... /ignore

Pretty much any unsolicited /tell will get you on my /ignore list

[The Lone Ranger]

[BrotherMan]

[chunksmediocrites]

Relevant to topic in discussion of limitations and flaws to geek culture- I would imagine many of the barriers to non-white geeks apply to women and girl geeks as well.

Dragons Are for White Kids with Money: On the Friction of Geekdom and Race by Daniel Jose Ruiz

With the expectation that geekiness is an embrace of whiteness, what happens when you are in fact not white? I am a geek, and I am Chicano. Over the course of my life I have learned to be both things proudly, but this presents a paradox. How can I justify my geek-cred while also maintaining my street-cred? Often, I cannot. I am a geek, and I am a brown man, and this has earned me a lot of shit from both sides.
On the one hand, I can run a D&D campaign about how poorly certain races like half-elves are treated, and my group will rail against the injustice of it all, but if I bring up any real-world situation of inequality, I get the cold shoulder at best or at worst booed down and given “focus on the game” lectures. As Junot Díaz allegedly said: “Motherfuckers will read a book that’s 1/3 in Elvish, but put in two lines of Spanish and [white people] think we’re taking over.”
But growing up around my more working-class family, I was teased for reading, and I was especially teased for reading books like Redwall or Lord of the Rings. That fantasy crap was for losers, gueros, and jotos.

The anecdote of the store clerk stumped about an appropriate paint color for painting miniature flesh tones that were non-white- that it had never occurred to him- okay, possible; but anyone having painted miniatures before would have a basic concept of blending paints to get the color they desired, especially considering many miniatures are monsters with flesh tones in every color of the pallette.
Additionally, many figurines today come pre-painted. It would be interesting to see how skin tones in pre-painted figurines average these days; though I would say Pathfinder, D&D, and other game art and miniatures these days seem (from my white male perspective) pretty inclusive of ethnicities and sexes, if still occasionally tending towards sexist/ fantastical armor for women.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by chunksmediocrites

though I would say Pathfinder, D&D, and other game art and miniatures these days seem (from my white male perspective) pretty inclusive of ethnicities and sexes, if still occasionally tending towards sexist/ fantastical armor for women.

A couple random things related (and possibly reposted, OMG, THE TRAVESTY):

A thing where an artist re imagines WoW races to try to make the genders actually look like the same species:
fantasies to chill the soul - i've been meaning to do this post for YEARS and i...

And a classic, re imagining various fantasy MMO armours to actually look like armour.:
Repair Her Armor

[Ensign Steve]

https://www.themarysue.com/marvel-ed...ed-for-selfie/

My favorite part is how the professional comic book editors are "fake geek girls"

[Megatron]

As opposed to real ones?

My god, people get stupid on the internet. Why yes, the first thing I think when I see seven women getting milkshakes is "OMG FAKE GEEK GIRLS"

Seriously what the fuck

[erimir]

No real geek girl drinks milkshakes. They don't have milkshakes in Middle Earth, DO THEY?!

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

A Marvel Editor Is Being Harassed for A Selfie | The Mary Sue

My favorite part is how the professional comic book editors are "fake geek girls"

Some follow ups:

Requisite Lewis' Law reaction

Responses to the Harassed Marvel Editor Story | The Mary Sue

A 12-year-old cartoonist's interpretation of the situation



DC's response

Cheers @Marvel ladies! #MakeMineMilkshake pic.twitter.com/3Xky93iFSN

— DC (@DCComics) August 1, 2017

[Megatron]

My experiment, if anyone is willing to do it: Get your (male) self and six men you work with and go get milkshakes, take a selfie as close as you can to that one and see what responses you get.

100% guarantee it will have no shitty sexist rhetoric even if they call you "gay" for getting a vanilla smoothie or something.

[Megatron]

I'm dead ass serious. Six or seven men together probably won't even catch any gay slurs unless you look a certain way. Women, however, will catch ANY sort of slurs just for being women in a public place. As we've seen from the tweets that came from something as simple as going to a goddamn shake shop.

Fucking hell I'm starting to try to figure these morons out. Help.

[Megatron]

Come on, assholes, I know there are six people out there somewhere who will go to the shake shop or the coffee shop with me. You might have to deal with the fact that I smell like mineral oil and iron from building furniture all day but really... REALLY is that the worst smell you've had to deal with? I think not.

Let's go get some fucking milkshakes and take selfies. Just angle the camera slightly to the left so you don't catch me in the frame, my face will literally break your screen. Let's do this in the name of SCIENCE.

[Megatron]

(Yes I'm bored and I'm off until Monday)

[Megatron]

Oh and also, I can't wait for this to become a thing.

Arguably the best guitarist on earth right now is an 18 year old girl.

Ludwig van Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata ( 3rd...

I'm not fucking kidding.

[Megatron]

I just wish they'd have hired a drummer. Imagine that with some killer drums, it would be even better.

[Megatron]

Do incredible guitarists count as "geek girls"? I think they do but I might be 100% wrong, wouldn't be the first time, or the last.

[The Lone Ranger]

So, remember how the Amazons in Wonder Woman wore more-or-less practical and realistic combat armor, based on the armor worn by ancient Greek warriors?


Well, that's apparently not the case in Justice League. Reportedly, the Amazons will be wearing what amounts to leather bikinis for "armor" in Justice League.

Amazonian warriors from Wonder Woman (left) and Justice League (right).

[erimir]

Don't be silly. The old armor makes them too hot now because of global warming. That's the obvious explanation, not the fact that the director of Wonder Woman was a woman and the previous and current directors of Justice League are men.

[Ari]

A youtube channel I watch has been doing test cutting against different armors and amusingly has discovered that any amount of non skin tight clothing is better than nothing. And you might say, "yeah well duh" but the surprise has been just how big of a difference. Any loose fabric that wants to move against you or other fabric will catch the blade and allow it to slip off easier. The other surprising thing has been how effective Gambisons are (a quilted jacket made from many layers of fabric). Even though the material itself isn't tough, the amount that needs to be stabbed through offers good protection from anything that isn't a solid stab or blow.

While I like the look of stitches and showing seams it drives me nuts when "Amazonian" or "barbarian" soldiers don't seem to know how to use a single piece of cloth/leather and must construct all their clothes out of tiny bits (at least they seem to know how to make leather and aren't wearing freshly killed hides).
Not only is she wearing almost no armor, her armor has already been damaged and laced back together, so even the covered bits aren't really armor.

[Ensign Steve]

I had the privilege of attending a Q&A with Anita Sarkeesian this afternoon at my work. It was a lot to unpack and I’m probably not supposed to disclose the details anyway, so suffice it to say:

She’s a p. cool chick. She doesn’t afraid to use the F word. She and I agree on a lot of stuff, and that’s a bummer cuz it’s all pessimistic stuff and we are super jaded.

[BrotherMan]

2017 Word of the Year: Behind the Scenes - YouTube