ATOLL MIRRORED

So, I just saw a webcomic show up on my dashboard talking about women and nerd culture. I’ll link you to it here. Most people who saw this probably chuckled, hit the reblog button and called it a day. After all, this is a male’s exact reaction to nerdy behavior he sees in a female, right?

Let’s take a look at this, because it obviously has sexist implications towards women, and underneath the surface, sexist implications towards men.

First, it perpetuates a stereotypical situation for a laugh, which is common, but problematic in this case. When someone reblogs something like this, they’re inherently endorsing the message, and in a sense, giving reality to it where it may have died off otherwise.

Second, it relies on an underlying assumption that male nerds hold their areas of interest (hereby abbreviated “AOEs”) as sacred. Okay, sure. Many people with nerdy hobbies claim some level of exclusive knowledge or understanding of the material.

But to assume that women aren’t included in this “sacred circle” is an absurd misconception of reality. Humans are social creatures by default. They naturally tend to want to share activities with each other, especially with the opposite sex. So, if someone is behaving counter to their instincts, this indicates a problem unrelated to the topic at hand.

Third, it reduces both genders to equally embarrassing caricatures.

• The female is depicted as hard-working but defenseless in the face of a mean old boy. There is no final panel where she explains what a douchebag the male is being, and he is made to feel shame.
• The male is depicted as a bumbling, hypocritical sexist with no room for the female gender in his AOE. Also, he’s just plain being rude to another human being. Even if he had a legitimate argument, he ruins it by shouting at the top of his lungs and engaging in the same behavior he’s complaining about.