Article Review : Geek Policing : Fake Geek Girls And Contested Attention

In the opening to Paul Fussell’s essay “A Touchy Subject”, he observes that no one really quite understands how class works, and each class theorizes the deciding factors between them, through the colored lenses of station. Of interest though, is the description he gives of the Upper Class, who “perceive that taste, values, ideas, style, and behavior are indispensable criteria of class, regardless of money or occupation or education” (McQuade) If that criteria is taken and applied to society, other social classes are revealed that lie hidden within the umbrella of Low, Middle and Upper. There is a group of people that embodies their own values, who celebrate their ideas, flaunt their style and act with a certain behaviors, and they have formed a class of their own; Geekdom.

Many of the women (96%) in this population avoided STEM fields, which, while being an extreme case statistically, does echo the general problem of women being underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math. (70) Related to this is that being a nerd appeared to these women as a hugely different career and self path. Paying for the Party portrays nerds in a very positive way, and yet it’s scarcely available to any of these young women. We don’t read of much anti-nerd or anti-geek hostility; this is just an inaccessible avenue that’s not really present. I wish we’d heard more about why not. (149-152)

Armstrong, E., Hamilton, L., Armstrong, E., & Seeley, J. (2014). "Good Girls": Gender, Social Class, and Slut Discourse on Campus. Social Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 77(2), 100-122. doi: 10.1177/0190272514521220

This paper will provide a sociological analysis of Mean Girls broken down into two sections. Section one will explain why a sociologist would find the movie interesting, examining the movie from a functionalist perspective, providing an example of private troubles and public issues, and comparing the movie to North American culture. Section two will discuss the themes of socialization and culture by explaining terms related to each section and applying them to the movie.

Based on the story,” Revenge of the Geeks?” by Alexandra Robbins, the author feels about people needing to belong. Use evidence from the text to support your respone.

Leonid Fridman, author of "America Needs Its Nerds" wrote about how people who want to pursue their knowledge should be not be ashamed of that. Fridman develops his argument by talking about how other countries go about learning compared to the U.S, asking rhetorical questions, finding similarities between the different school/ education levels when it comes to the terms "nerd" and "geek".

You are a normal person. You have a job and a house and friends. However, you truly love to play video games and you are a huge “nerd” in general. However, you do not ever think about telling your friends and coworkers that because you already know how people react to “gamers” or “nerds” or “geeks”. You are terrified that people will insult you and call you childish, idiotic or even stupid. You know this since you were stereotyped before of being a childish/idiotic “nerd” or “geek” or “gamer”, and know you are left with the memory of being generalized for what you like your entire life. In reality though, these stereotypes are all just false information made fact.

Adolescents can be awfully cruel to one another. Consequently, many who have passed through this phase can vividly recall moments of social ostracism, where one was made fun of for their clothing choice, pushed around by high school seniors or excluded from friend groups. The filmmaker, Judd Apatow, undoubtedly kept this in mind while producing the pilot of, Freaks and Geeks, as media techniques such as camera shots, conflict and editing are expertly employed in order to help the audience relive these dreadful high school experiences, thus creating pathos as audience members empathize and become emotionally attached to the outcast characters. Firstly, Apatow skillfully employs various camera angles in order to portray the relationship between

One thing that was unique about Geeks was that Jesse wrote letters to John Katz, the author of the book, and John Katz responded to Jesse about his opinions. John Katz told Jesse about his opinion of the decisions Jesse made throughout the book, and Jesse benefits from his tips. John Katz asks Jesse, “ Jess, do I get the sense you’re thinking about the University of Chicago?”(102 Katz). Jesse responds by writing, “you might say you at the fantasy stage . That's all. You think there's anyway?”(102 Katz). John gets a feeling that Jesse was trying to get into the University of Chicago. Jesse then asks him if that was going too far. When we get both Jesse and the author's opinion in the story, it is very unique because the readers can get both

1. Armstrong, Elizabeth A. et al. (2014). “Good Girls”: Gender, Social Class, and Slut Discourse on Campus. Social Psychology Quarterly, 77(100), 100-122. Doi: 10.1177/0190272514521220.

Anyone can love anything. But how you love them does not make you a “nerd”. In Wil Wheaton’s Why It’s Great to Be a Nerd, he states that “being a nerd is not about what you love but about how you love”(Wheaton 2.4). With this being said, I strongly disagree.

There’s a peculiar trend that is beginning to appear in recent popular culture, and it has to deal with one word: “girl.” Take, for example, this small list of contemporary, popular titles, including Cecily von Ziegesar’s Gossip Girl, Amy Sherman Palladino’s Gilmore Girls, Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train, Lena Dunham’s Girls, Disney Channel’s Girl Meets World, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Fox Network’s New Girl, CBS’s 2 Broke Girls, The CW’s Supergirl, Tina Fey’s Mean Girls… The list goes on. These popular books, television shows, and movies all feature middle to upper class white girls and women in their late teens and early twenties. The “girls” tend to be surrounded by drama

Being the happy medium within the school and still not getting any attention from either side are the Nerds of the school. Brian is classified as the nerdy teenage boy between all of the other students in detention. He demonstrates himself as this happy guy who’s willing to make new friends but also has low self esteem since is he categorized as a nerd. He says “It's like me, you know, with my grades...like, when I, when I step outside myself kinda, and when I, when I look in at myself you know? And I see me and I don't like what I see, I really don't.” Everyone counts on him to get work done quickly and correctly. Near the ending of the movie it is up to brian to complete the essay that was assigned. Being a nerd is quite too much to handle

Connections often exist between fan involvement and gendered expression. My experience is often that fanworks considered feminine creative works like crafts, fanfiction, costumes and fanart are devalued in the face of more masculine acquisition of information and item collection. The results of which are often harsh gatekeeping barring women from being ‘truly’ fans. In my experience the male fan experience is very different from the female fan

Five separate areas of analysis dealing with various facets of the Brony fandom are contained in this chapter. The first three sections explore areas of conflict between Bronies and traditional masculinity. Each segment explores how fans choose to handle situations that are adverse to their fandom. First, an examination of quantitative data relating to the demographics and potential influential factors of self disclosure practices of Bronies will take place. Secondly, issues of harassment towards Bronies as told by the fans will look at the methods society attempts to corral the fandom for their transgressions against gender norms. In response to these attacks of character, some fans will not disclose their fandom to others. The third segment