Posts Tagged 'Star Trek'

The (Fake) Geek Girl Project / 2: Fight the Attention Seekers!
(Fake) Geek Girls, Anthropology, Definitions of Geek, Gender, Study of geek culture

The (Fake) Geek Girl Project / 2: Fight the Attention Seekers!

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You may read the foreword to this series, As Always, it Started With Star Trek: A Study On Geek Girls and the first part which offers an overview of this series and of the methodology used in this project.

In my quest to better understand the fake geek girl debate, I selected 6 rants and over 40 responses to analyse. The first of the six rants I analysed, the Idiot Nerd Girl meme, was created in 2010. Originally used to mock girls self-identifying as nerds but considered as ignorant and idiotic, it exists in hundreds of variations, which generally draw a comparison between a girl’s claim to be a geek or nerd and her alleged lack of knowledge on a specific topic, her lack of involvement in geek spaces and activities, or her physical appearance.

As Always, it Started With Star Trek: A Study On Geek Girls
(Fake) Geek Girls, Anthropology, Definitions of Geek, Geek Girl Survey, Gender, Science-fiction, Study of geek culture

As Always, it Started With Star Trek: A Study On Geek Girls

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For many years, whenever people would tell me that girls are rare in geek culture, my instant reaction would always be: well, no.

I would be surprised and a little puzzled at their assumption and would instantly think of all the women who were fans or contributors to the Star Trek fanchise.

What I wish I could unlearn from Star Trek TNG / 3: humans, humans everywhere
Anthropology, Science-fiction

What I wish I could unlearn from Star Trek TNG / 3: humans, humans everywhere

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The TV shows we watch contribute to the shaping of our ideas and notions about the world we live in. On one hand, they can reinforce what we think we know, and the things we don’t realize shape us and our social relations.

In the first post of this series of three, I briefly explored how TNG authors reinforced, most likely unknowingly and unwillingly, certain notions about gender. The representations they gave of many female characters seem to suggest that women are second to men in terms of potential, and that their role is to assist their male boss, husband or father in their endeavors.

What I wish I could unlearn from Star Trek TNG / 1: Women are equal to men. In theory.
Anthropology, Gender, Science-fiction

What I wish I could unlearn from Star Trek TNG / 1: Women are equal to men. In theory.

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Since my blog’s creation last September, I have written about my (anthropological) perceptions of science-fiction on a few occasions.

In From Science-Fiction to Anthropology: there and back again, I described in detail the curiosity Star Trek and other sci-fi franchises have sparked in me for otherness and extreme alterity. This, I believe, is one of various elements that led me study anthropology, which in turn, brought me to be much more critical of the themes science-fiction explores.