Given the community, I thought this might be of interest

[icon_uk]

An interesting article about male privilege in nerd-dom on Kotaku.com

I want to tell you a story.

A few years ago, I was dating a girl who was decidedly not nerd curious. She tolerated my geeky interests with a certain bemused air but definitely didn't participate in ‘em… not even setting foot inside a comic store on new comic day. She'd wait outside until I was done… which could be a while, since I was friends with several of the staff.

She came in the store exactly once, after I'd explained that no, it's a pretty friendly place… well lit, spacious, organized and with helpful – and clearly identified – staff members who were willing to bend over backwards to make sure their customers were satisfied.

She was in there for less than 4 minutes before one mouth-breathing troglodyte began alternately staring at her boobs – evidently hoping that x-ray vision could develop spontaneously – and berating her for daring to comment on the skimpy nature of the costumes – in this case, Lady Death and Witchblade. She fled the premises, never to return.

When both the manager and I explained to him in no uncertain terms as to what he did wrong he shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, I was just trying to help you guys! She couldn't understand that chicks can be tough and sexy! Not my fault she's a chauvinist," he said.

And that was when I shot him, your honor.

There's a deal of analysis after that, but I suspect the above might well ring a few bells of experiential recognition.

And for legality, a little objectifying of the sort I enjoy

Comments

[whitesycamore]

I've actually never encountered any bad treatment in any of the comic stores I've been in, and my two local stores both have several female employees.

Online culture and comic books themselves though? Yeah, I've definitely felt alienated there. To tell the truth, there are very few (or no?) big-two titles that I can pick any random issue of and not feel vaguely insulted by on some level.

And at comic book sales, I've encountered some weird treatment - although to be honest most of it was of the "slightly too nice and eager to help" variety.

[darkknightjrk]

Online, a lot of that probably has a lot to do with the anonymous nature of the beast--there are folk in the community who's social skills might not be all up to par, but I would hope that most of them wouldn't say to somebody's face the things they do say to them online.