Monday, September 16, 2013

Defining Down "Geek"

or

It Can't Be Serious If Gurrrrls Are Doing It

     The headline looked kewl, "Women embrace 'geekdom' as gender roles shift."

     The story was anything but.  I clicked over, thinking I'd be reading about engineers, computer programmers, a team building Rube Goldberg machines--  What I got was a puff piece about women admitting to playing D&D or WoW.

     Um, "Hooray?"   Also, "This is new?"  --I'm no fan of such games but I got that way the same way some B_____-R______ employees dislike ice cream: I wasted much of my time in college at a crummy terminal, playing "Star Trek" or the various online offerings of the PLATO system instead of in class.

     That was in the Dark Ages, before there was 3-D television or even Amazon, and while geeky wimmin were a distinct minority, we did exist.

     Back then, real geeks did real things in the real world; an awful lot of 'em were gamers too, but for many, the real game was hacking code or designing and building wild and far-out things (and./or model railroad layouts).  I guess that kind of thing is simply not on the mental map of TV newsies; they never ran with the geeks and all they remember is the eruption of multi-sided dice when the jocks knocked over their table in the high school cafeteria.

5 comments:

  1. I think this is spot-on, Bobbi. Personally I'm not a gamer at all, but I've been working with computers and hacking physical infrastructure for years :)

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  2. Real geeks still do real things in the real world. Limor Fried for example. MIT EE grad, founder, owner, and chief design engineer for Adafruit Industries (the nearest thing to Heathkit you're going to find in today's world), she's active in the maker movement and in encouraging youngsters of all sexes to take up science and engineering.

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  3. JohninMd.(too late?!??)September 16, 2013 at 2:39 PM

    Don't worry, Bobbi, I count you right there with Sam in the "Day by Day" strip...electronics, auto mechanic, etc....

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  4. Related somewhat - Not sure if you saw this or not, I thought it's kinda cool they finally got some recognition http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_24091709/ghostbusters-like-crew-amateur-radio-operators-help-emergencies

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  5. I wasted much of my time in college at a crummy terminal, playing "Star Trek" or the various online offerings of the PLATO system instead of in class.

    Zork on Kansas State's mainframe. Whee!

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