“Geek Girls” and the Problem of Self-Objectification Article

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People are always going to play to their strengths - so pretty girls/women will play up the sexy angle and intelligent/geeky ones will play up their intelligence/knowledge/personality. I think it all evens out in the long run as in later life intelligence/a good personality will stand a woman in good stead whereas those women who rely on their looks will become very insecure and try and cling to their youth as their identity is more invested in being pretty/sexy.

I hate people who judge me on how sexy or not I am as it's an unfair game when others are more so. I judge people for being unintelligent though so I have my own prejudice. I prefer not to be put in competition against women I'm never going to win against lol but if it's a general knowledge test I'm always up for that! The type of men overtly sexy women attract are often nasty controlling types anyway so being plainer can be an advantage. In my opinion you're more likely to get murdered if you're pretty.

I tend to like geeky looking men as opposed to standardly good looking ones as they are too bland for my liking and you just know they will be boring and rarely witty.

I think this is quite true

I agree. It is especially sort of annoying when a costume is not supposed to be "sexy" yet they find a way to sexualize it.

It just seems like this individual is trying to stigmatize "sexiness" in geeky women. I mean, how does a women self objectify? Objects are not active participants in being objects. If you choose to be sexualized in a certain way, that's not being an object and that's not society "pressuring" you into becoming an object. This idea of "self objectification" is an oxymoron and it makes no sense on a logical level.

What is this notion that women (or anybody, regardless of gender identity) can't commercialize their sexuality in some form or another? Or rather, what is this assertion that commodifying your sexuality is a form of oppression? If scantily clad booth babes are a thing, it's because they chose to do the job. Nobody is forcing anybody to be a booth babe or a sexy geek. And I know the anti-porn rhetoric already: "But Mindblind, these girls would not be booth babes if men didn't feel entitled to women's bodies". Any arguments along those lines, I believe, completely undermines the agency of women and treats us like we are infants. In any case, so called male "entitlement" does not prove that this is objectification anymore than Japanese host clubs are objectifying the male waiting staff.

People who cosplay in sexy outfits are not necessarily trying to perform as sexually submissive objects who are the victims of the male gaze. Plenty of my friends are cosplayers. They don't cosplay to get male attention and they don't act sexy to feel like they fit into geek culture. They aren't these delicate little flowers desperately needing guidance from those who wish to tell them that they are oppressed because they are choosing, of their own volition, to flat out defy society's repressive views on sexuality and how women choose to own their sexualities on their own terms. There is nothing degrading about consentual sexuality, even when the individual chooses to act out a male fantasy.

Believe it or not, a lot of ladies like to f**k men. I know - shocking! And some of those ladies genuinely enjoy being sexy for men that they genuinely want to f**k because, believe it or not,this is what our species has been doing for millions of years. We all perform our sexuality to a degree, so what difference does it make if you're dressed up like Bayonetta or in a lion cloth? We shouldn't be so prudish and tell women that they are victims of the patriarchy by psychologically projecting our own feelings of sexual insecurity and a desire for male attention onto women that DGAF about society's standards of sexuality and simply love dressing up, whether this is "objectification" or not. I do agree that there can be a lot of pressure for girls and women to adhere to certain socially constructed ideals of beauty, but we ought to be careful not to cast aspersions towards all women that like to dress in skimpy outfits. And we need to draw the line between unsolicited male entitlement, i.e touching somebody without their permission, sexist comments, etc. and a woman deciding to perform in a sexual manner for the pleasure of men (if not for themselves).

I'm an unsexy geek and nothing has ever prevented me from participating in geek culture (however, personally I find the whole concept of geek culture to be dumb anyway because geekiness is only relative to how obsessed you are with something, which anyone can do). I think that, indeed, sexism does exist within "geek culture", but no more than anywhere else in the population. In fact, "geek culture" is extremely mainstream now, so all walks of life are going to be involved. I do see the value in looking at how sexism differs in the community to other communities, but otherwise, the community is the same as anywhere else.

Honestly I couldn't care about either gender, as long as you're not pretending to like something just so you can earn merit points as a "geek" or some such thing as that then fine, and if you like the same tasteless junk as I'm addicted to, then great! we'll get along just fine, as for "self-objectification" I honestly think it's a lot of horse**** if an adult male or female wishes to express their sexuality (legally) through dressing up as their favourite characters and so on, who is to say, No you can't do that, it's wrong to try and treat adults as children, then again I never held much stock in Feminism & such, more of an egalitarian myself.

Rant over, hope I stayed on topic.

Oh god forbid 'geek girls' wear sexy cosplay costumes to cosplay conventions....oh the humanity!

I suppose I figure whoever wrote the article should get a life or something. I wish people would get off the nerds/geeks are would be rapists and haters of women bandwagon.

I think any male group largely unable to get dates, romantic relationships or sex is automatically suspicious of that. After all, we have bad genes on the way to being weeded out. It's natural to feel contempt for us. It's also natural for some young women to make fun of us by showing their beautiful bodies in a way that reminds both us and the public how completely beyond our reach they are.

Somehow I doubt the reason girls usually show off their bodies is to make fun of you.....And automatically suspected by that by who? The same people who think geek/nerd girls have to have a modest non-sexy appearance at all times and never show of their body?....Also not having gotten a date or relationship is not a sure sign of 'bad genes' there are a number of reasons that can occur, not to mention from what I have seen it does not seem that over all nerds/geeks are unable to have dates or relationships....that seems like more of a stereotype.