Given the community, I thought this might be of interest

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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

[aeka]

"See that guy there? That's Superman, he comes from another planet and he has all these powers...."

Ugh! Seriously? I wish I knew a better way to articulate my feelings on this in a way that doesn't actually violate the comm's rules and ethos. But I will say this dude needs to get out more if he seriously thinks there are people out there who don't know who Superman is.

Sorry to hear you've had such shitty experiences visiting an LCS. Guys who follow you anywhere are creepy enough as it is, but to have someone "greet your breasts"...yeah I can't blame you for not wanting to go back there.

[junipepper]

That might not be an exact quote, but yeah, he wanted to explain all about obscure heroes like Superman, Batman, Spiderman.... I think maybe his brain just shorted out when a female of the species got to close to him.

Just looking right at them. Eyes never rose higher than breast level, even as he started walking towards me, and just ICK. It's hard to describe exactly, but there are some times when you just know how you're being looked at...

My father was a very first generation Superman and Batman fan, from all the way back in the beginning. And he always assumed I'd think they were cool, which I did -- he'd get me comic books sometimes, watch the silly TV shows with me, and we went together to see the first Chris Reeve Superman film, whenever that was (1978? '80?) I hadn't realized that there were any gender behavior assumptions in the fan world until I was pretty much grown up. So this whole thing really shocked me, which is probably why I remember it so clearly.

BUT it was twenty years ago. That shop is still run by the same guy, and he may very well still be a jerk or he may have evolved. Who knows? I myself am pretty much past the point in life where I have to worry about lustful strangers, of course. :-) And to be fair, my 16 year old daughter was telling me that she recently bought some manga in a comics shop near her school, and she didn't even understand what I might be talking about when I tried to find out if there had been any issues. So -- maybe things have been changing. We can but hope.