#geek gatekeeping

[triangularroom]

Am I Geek Enough?

New on my blog: Am I Geek Enough?

The answer to the above question is an emphatic yes. However, I often encounter rather casual geek gatekeeping – sometimes without the person even realising they’re doing it – not just directed towards me, but also towards other geeks. It’s not always a gender-related issue, either, though I do feel like women have a harder time being accepted as geeks in their own right (as opposed to the…

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[pyremonk]

5 Types of Fan It's Okay to Be (Despite Popular Opinion) 1. It is totally fine to start listening to a musician's work only after they've died and find...

This is a great post about being a fan and fandom.

[profeminist]

"Geek gatekeeping is about the variety of ways that geekdom is defined to exclude women."

Girl stuff - not truly geeky.

Women are accused of being fake geek girls.

Women are assumed to be here with my boyfriend.

The assumption that women are geeks' partners is a pervasive one in commentary on geek topics - rather than geeks in their own right. - Hence terms like girlfriend mode. - This leads some women to be reluctant to admit to genuinely having boyfriend-transmitted geekdom, because of stereotype threat!

At some tech industry events, women are presumed to be, and treated as, non-technical. (See Sarah Lamb talking about why she started Girl Geek Dinners)

Women trying to acquire professional credentials face a double bind: - In universities, computer science majors' social groups are often hostile to women (see Reagle, "On being a geek" in "Free as in sexist?"), and social isolation is detrimental to success in any academia area. - It's hard for women to be taken seriously if they choose to be self-taught instead of obtaining a degree in a STEM field. By contrast, male autodidacts can often achieve professional success (at least in software).

Thank you to the geekfeminism.wikia.com community for creating this page!