Thursday, June 18, 2009

My Problem with the Girl's Guide to Comic-Con.

This is posted from my HTC Dream phone, running Android because my lappy is current fighting an epic battle with the internets.

If nothing in that sentence tipped you off, let me lay it out for you, I am a geek. My vacation this year? SDCCI.
You see, I am also Canadian, so this means that Comic-con isn't just a walk down the street, it is a taxi, 2 planes and another taxi away. In another country. I am incredibly excited. Not only for all-that-is Comic-Con itself, but the chance to meet internet friends, fellow geeks and make new friends.

When I see articles like the LA Times Girl's Guide I feel many things, none of them good.

It makes me sad. People actually BELIEVE this crap? SDCC is sold out. in order to go you would have to plan far in advance. Maybe you are going because of a friend or significant other, but that is quite the undertaking if this article was in any way helpful. Multiple days to something you don't want to go to? I mean, if you are there, you IN THE VERY LEAST know someone who is into the culture and can explain better than this article.
Maybe you are a geek boy looking to see what geek girls want to know ab out comic con. in that case, you are SOL with this article, cuz apparently girls are only there to see superhunks (note: article assumes all girls (really, not "women") are straight).

It makes me mad. The LA Times has the opportunity to present REAL interesting information that could be USEFUL to someone who, like me, has never been before. Hell, I have never been to California before. Tell me useful things!! This article was offensive to all and had info for none.
It was a waste of time and space, but sure has united geek girls against a common enemy.
Media, stop being ignorant.
Do some simple research. don't get hits because we HATE YOU SO BAD. It isn't that hard. Rub those tanned, botoxed, Arnold-loving, gay-rights denying braincells together and WRITE (see the assumptions I made about you there? cuz you are from California? -- kind like the ones you made about geek girls, geek boys, all attendees of SDCCI).

[more]
I guess it would have been more difficult to write an article that actually answers questions that women who are attending SDCC might have. Tips from past cons, times for certain events, what is going to be big, what rumors there are... this article could have been many things, but it was a fluffy, inconsequential piece of soft-news... which is a shame.
These stereotypes are dangerous. The perpetuation of them in the media is damaging. Many people can look at this and laugh, but these assumptions are the same reasons that big companies assume that women dont play games, that women dont read comics. After reading this article i felt frustrated, and a part of me didnt want to go to the con anymore. Even though there is no affiliation between the event itself and the paper, i felt unwelcome. I felt strange, i felt othered. Apparently there is no room for the woman that wants to see the creators of her favourite books, sneak a peek at new games, and see the spectacle. Apparently i will be hip deep in women searching to hook up with Brad Pitt instead. That isnt somewhere i want to be. If i believed what was being said in this article, i would assume that Jake Gyllenhall, Brad Pitt and the drunken vagabond looking dude from Twilight would be on pillars, and women would be DOING THEIR LAUNDRY. (WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT, SRSLY, was that being FUNNY??? Cuz you know what? "Make me a sammich" isnt funny. Women do not wander around saying "I sooo want to do his laundry. I mean really. Just for that, fuck you LA Times).
This place that this paper describes is not the SDCC that i am going to.

3 comments:

coconaut said...

From one Canadian geek girl to another, here's some REAL guides.
http://allthingsfangirl.blogspot.com/2009/06/real-girls-guide-to-sdcc.html
http://www.thenerdybird.com/2009/06/when-geek-girls-attack.html
http://shoutingintothewind.com/ Parts One & Two

Go hard. Have fun.

Jennifer Juniper said...

Well, I'm sure glad you still decided you wanted to go!

Great post! Do you have a link to this article?

Robyn said...

the LA Times link: which -- IS A SLIDESHOW OF DUDES. *headdesk*