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

[red_cyclone]

I used to work in a comic shop, and the gender split there was nearly 50/50, which was amazing, especially good were the couple of times a customer had a question about Vertigo and were referred to me by a male colleague because I knew the answer. Only a few times did I get people not wanting to ask me a question, I can only assume because I'm a girl.
I only tend to shop in that store, because I know it's friendly, and therefore 'safe', and one other where I know one of the girl's who works there, so same thing. I'd be hesitant about going into new shops because I wouldn't know what to expect, I totally self-censor to find the nice ones, but that does mean I haven'thad too many bad receptions.