Photo of me at Anime USA by the Patches.
I’m back from Anime USA and I’ve officially recovered enough energy to start blogging about it. The highlight of my weekend was definitely when the Patches and I gave our Sexism in Anime Fandom panel for the second time. We made a lot of changes to update it and improve flow, and combined with the more active audience participation that comes with a smaller con, I think it turned out completely different than our Otakon presentation. Thanks to everyone who showed up!
Each time we’ve given the panel, we’ve premised with an explanation of “Why are we still talking about sexism in 2012?” (Right now, the corresponding slide title is “LOL Sexism.”) But after work today, during which I assisted my talented coworker Aja Romano in a report about sexist rants against “fake geek girls,” it’s pretty apparent to me why panels like mine are still worth talking about.
I was impressed by how quickly geeks started to decry this latest example of sexism. It’s clear that our community has gotten very good at identifying injustice. The question we need to face now, however, is how to respond.
During the panel, I gave the first half of my story about receiving the “geek test” from a group of fellow Gundam fans (here’s the blog post about it for a refresher), and concluded that it was “uncomfortable.” Somebody in the audience raised their hand and asked me a very valid question.
“What did you do to those guys after they gave you the geek test?”
I’m sure he was expecting that I schooled them in Gundam knowledge or totally told them off. After all, I’m the one at the front of the room instructing people on what to do when you see sexism. But my blog readers know the real story—I just froze up.
We went around the room and audience members suggested lots of fantastic comebacks I could have used. Questions I could have shot back at them. One even suggested that maybe the guy who talked to me was just awkward and trying to start a conversation with a fellow fan. But I feel like everybody thinks that when this happens to them, they’ll be stronger. That’s why so many well-meaning people condemn passive victims of sexual discrimination—they think if they were in her place, they’d do more to defend themselves.
It is really easy for me to speak out against Tony Effing Harris‘s crazed rant about cosplayers who only “pretend” to like comics, but what if I were a cosplayer? It’s easy to identify and shut down geek culture gatekeepers—until their target is you.
You’re probably wondering what we told attendees at our panel to do when they see people getting shut out of geek culture. The answer? Always, always say something to let them know it’s not okay. I couldn’t say something then, so I’m trying to make up for it by doing the next best thing: telling my story to lots of people now.
6 Comments.
I’ve gotten more cynical about geek culture over time, and one of the major themes in that is how some people feel the need to pronounce judgment over others’ authenticity, as though there being people new to a hobby who don’t yet know much is somehow a bad thing. I don’t doubt that there are some blatant attention-seekers among cosplayers, but if anyone really has that much of a problem with attention-seekers they should never even consider going to a con in the first place. Pandering cosplayers are at worst one entry in a long list in that respect.
The more stories I hear about sexism and harassment at cons the more flabbergasted I get. A lot of that I think comes from the fact that we’re not yet very good at talking about that kind of thing. Every time it comes up on tabletop RPG forums (for example) there is the inevitable chorus of guys looking to minimize, criticize, and loudly ignore every complaint anyone might have, as though having the conversation would somehow be worse than the actual glaring problem. Given all of that, I can’t blame you for freezing up at the geek test; it’s one of the many things that you just don’t expect people to be doing because it’s so out there.
Hearing that your panels on sexism have gone well is really heartening though. I’m very glad that some forum somewhere is in fact having productive and civil discussions about it, because RPG.net (to name one) certainly isn’t.
@Ewen, thanks for commenting. If you ask me, this entire “fake cosplayer” assertion is a red herring. Cosplay takes a lot of time and dedication and it’s crazy that some people think we need to police cosplayers to make sure they like the fandom “enough.” I’ve never seen this, and I don’t know why somebody would go to this effort, but if there WERE a cosplayer dressed as somebody they didn’t know that well, who cares? It’s cool that he or she is that dedicated to our subculture that they’d make a costume to join in.
I give the geek test to almost everyone, male or female. I do it because I can moderate and adjust my power level to the person I’m talking to. I care about first impressions, and this is something I just do. If I sense a person will be able to appreciate my level of passion, I let loose or adjust accordingly.
If a girl would ever feel threatened by this, I’d slap her down with a bitch please immediately. I’m trying to get to know you and make a good first impression. Though my geek test isn’t really of the hardcore variant.
If that is indeed the are then maybe a good way to start is to preface the geek test by saying that you are just trying to get a sense at what they know or don’t know so that you can properly communicate with them about the fandom as to not overwhelm or underwhelm them.
I say this simply because many people may not be able to distinguish between your honest inquiries and others who simply want to stomp them down.
I’m really sad you froze up of that geek interrogation, but I know what you’re talking about. :(
I made the mistake of going to a GameStop to pick up Xenoblade. The guy at the register started grilling me for recent games I’ve played, even going so far as to as if I was REALLY a gamer or not. Sadly, I’m fairly awkward socially and I froze up. I was so humiliated, angry, and embarrassed because the other employees and customers were watching with intense interest.
Guess why I preorder from Amazon now? :/
Thanks for raising an important issue and discussing it intelligently. I consider myself a “softcore” nerd but there are numerous aspects of the culture I find just ridiculous. Good representing!