(You tell ’em, Scalzi!)
Can we please put a stake through the heart of the fake-geek-girl meme now? Or, if not, can we allow this amazing video to do it for us? The Doubleclicks, a pair of sisters “who sing about Dungeons & Dragons, dinosaurs, and Mr. Darcy,” got so tired of their geekiness being challenged that they wrote a song called “Nothing to Prove”—straightforward enough. But apparently not awesome enough for the duo, who worked with screenwriter Josh A. Cagan to put a video together. They invited other female geeks (along with some supporters of the male persuasion like John Scalzi, Adam Savage, and Wil Wheaton) to write their own tales of geekiness on cards and hold them up for the camera. The result is sweet and funny, but also confronts a real problem in the larger geek world.
The cards, written by scientists, gamers, readers, comics writers, and fans of all ages, tell a frustrating story of women who aren’t allowed to fully participate in the world they love. Who are told that they only play games because of their boyfriends, or have their intelligence questioned because they choose to wear pink, or…well…this:
Or this? Come on, it’s 2013, can’t we be past this now?
Or this? What the hell is this?
Being a nerd has arguably gotten a little easier lately, thanks to the success of things like the Star Trek reboot, the Lord of the Rings films, Mythbusters, Neil DeGrasse Tyson being hilarious on The Daily Show...now can’t we all just heed Wil Wheaton’s timeless advice (whatever gender we happen to be) and enjoy all the stuff we love together?
