Disturbing the Peace: The Importance of Geekery

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So there have been a ton of kerfluffles recently concerning women's place in geek culture. Now that we've gotten not one but TWO female leads in Star Wars (Rey in The Force Awakens and Jyn Erso in Rogue One), geekdom has nearly collapsed on itself. And by that I mean about .01% of a very vocal population decided that it was bad enough to have Rey, but Jyn was just too much.

Somehow, over the course of...pretty much forever...men have found ways to exclude women from pretty much everything. Treating us as chattel, property, second-class citizens, using feminine traits as a way to demean and emasculate other men, using female sex organs as insults....Betty White has an amazing quote regarding that, btw. Until 1833, there weren't co-ed universities. Until 1835, women couldn't own property anywhere in the US (thanks, Arkansas!), and even that came with restrictions.

We've made it to 2016. In the last 181 years, since women could own, but not control, property in Arkansas if their husbands were incapacitated, we've made significant strides. We can vote, we can drive, we can own and control property with or without a husband. We've gone to space, we serve in the military, we hold down jobs traditionally left to men. Hey, there's even 20 women CEOs in Fortune 500 companies! Wait...that...that's 4%. Which means 96% of CEOs are men.

This statistic seems to fit in with geekdom, too. There's 8 billion blogs in the world that cover the ratio of female superheroes to male superheros in terms of comic book sales, and others like Feminist Frequency (one of my favorites) that discuss the amount of female and minority video game protagonists versus straight white male, which is sometimes referred to as the status quo or the Easy setting. I've discussed these things before here, here, and here as well, so I won't bore you with details.

Again? ...Always. This pic is always applicable.

What disturbs me more often than not is this concept of the "Fake ____ Girl." Fake geek girl. Fake football girl. Fake car girl. Fake fake fake. As though women need to fake anything up to fit in anywhere. We're women. We have boobs. Everything's fine. But no, when women take up an interest in ANYTHING perceived as male-oriented or dominated, then suddenly that Fake tag gets added on.

Let me tell y'all a little story. My dad grew up with three brothers. Most of his cousins are male, too. As it stands right now, there's only 4 girls on his side of the family--my sister, me, my cousin, and my uncle's stepdaughter. When my mom got pregnant with my sister, and then with me, he had zero idea what to do with girls because he had little experience with raising them. Sure, my cousin was with them a lot, but that's watching, not rearing. So my mom, in her eternal and infinite wisdom, told him, "Just do what you'd do with boys." I imagine her saying that with a nonchalant shrug and a half smile, looking at him lovingly and thinking, Duh.

In essence, that's what happened. Dad took us fishing. A lot. Taught us to bait our own hooks, taught me to clean our catches, to do a proper fish fry. With my sister, he built things for the house and taught her to build her own things. With me, he caught an inkling of my interest in speculative fiction, and he fostered the crap out of it through movies. Star Wars. Horror movies. Last Star Fighter. If it had even a hint of science fiction or fantasy involved, we watched it. Sci-Fi Saturdays were our thing, to the mutual chagrin of my mother and sister, and it was through these glimpses into What if? that my career actually began, though I wouldn't be published until much later.

I often took refuge in science fiction and fantasy, especially superhero tales. I didn't have a collection of comic books because A) I lived in a small mountain town where they weren't readily available and B) I was too busy reading novels and playing video games. I was sickly as a kid, so I retreated to these worlds where awesome people were doing awesome things. I watched the 90s animated shows religiously. X-Men, Spiderman, Batman the Animated Series, & Superman were my absolute favorites. I also obsessively watched the Justice League. I ate up the movies and sought out everything I could. But there was always a disconnect. X-Men gave me the awesomeness of Storm. My love, my life, my inspiration. But the main focus was Wolverine. Spiderman gave me Mary Jane and Black Cat, but again, they were side characters. Batman gave me a PLETHORA of amazing ladies, from Catwoman to Harley to Ivy to FREAKING BARBARA GORDON OMG BARB YAAAAAAAAAAS. But there was still a problem: they were still side characters, and we won't even discuss the abusive relationship between Joker and Harley or the sexualization of literally everyone. My point is that women so infrequently get to take center stage that these moments when we get our Reys and our Jyns, it's a BFD.

However, I'm not a geek if I don't know everything. I'm not a fan if I can't name every person who ever worked on the X-Men comics, or if I can't tell you who created Ra's al-Ghul (spoiler alert, it's Neal Adams, whom I've met), or if I don't know every continuation or retcon of a series. For every Olivia Munn who knows her character's history and fights to have her character portrayed accurately, there's a Charlie Cox, who didn't even know Daredevil was blind until he auditioned for the part. But it's cool because he has a penis.

Here's my point, and I want you to underline it, bold it, print it on a flyer and hand it out to everyone you know: Geekdom is not just for boys; it's for everyone. For everyone who's ever needed an escape. For everyone who needs a hero. For everyone who needs to become their own hero. Art does not belong to one person or a certain group. Art is for whomever it speaks to, and it does not, nor has it ever, required a gatekeeper.

And if it ever does, IT WON'T BE YOU.

Being one of the Embassy’s glorified treasure-seekers has its perks… 
Komandan Uriah Jacobs recovers ancient artifacts in exchange for more than just decent pay; he also receives guaranteed protection from his former owners, the nyx…until an emergency landing on a too-familiar colony brings him face-to-face with his past life and something more—a surprisingly priceless treasure in the form of a human woman. 

A slave to the nyx since childhood… 
Shadi spends her waking hours in the forge, dreaming of rescuing her brother with the help of a man she once worshipped like a father. A crashed ship on the colony becomes her only hope to escape. But before she can steal the ship, the pilot abducts her. They may be the same species, but will he help her find her Shilah? 

Their attraction is undeniable… 
Fighting it seems inconsequential as they evade the nyx's bounty hunter and uncover a conspiracy that shines unwanted light on Shadi's past and reveals the corruption in Uri’s beloved Embassy, placing their fledgling love in danger. 

As the universe systematically falls apart, will Shadi and Uri’s newfound passion be enough to keep them alive? 

Being one of the Embassy’s glorified treasure-seekers has its perks… 
Komandan Uriah Jacobs recovers ancient artifacts in exchange for more than just decent pay; he also receives guaranteed protection from his former owners, the nyx…until an emergency landing on a too-familiar colony brings him face-to-face with his past life and something more—a surprisingly priceless treasure in the form of a human woman. 

A slave to the nyx since childhood… 
Shadi spends her waking hours in the forge, dreaming of rescuing her brother with the help of a man she once worshipped like a father. A crashed ship on the colony becomes her only hope to escape. But before she can steal the ship, the pilot abducts her. They may be the same species, but will he help her find her Shilah? 

Their attraction is undeniable… 
Fighting it seems inconsequential as they evade the nyx's bounty hunter and uncover a conspiracy that shines unwanted light on Shadi's past and reveals the corruption in Uri’s beloved Embassy, placing their fledgling love in danger. 

As the universe systematically falls apart, will Shadi and Uri’s newfound passion be enough to keep them alive? 

Being one of the Embassy’s glorified treasure-seekers has its perks… 
Komandan Uriah Jacobs recovers ancient artifacts in exchange for more than just decent pay; he also receives guaranteed protection from his former owners, the nyx…until an emergency landing on a too-familiar colony brings him face-to-face with his past life and something more—a surprisingly priceless treasure in the form of a human woman. 

A slave to the nyx since childhood… 
Shadi spends her waking hours in the forge, dreaming of rescuing her brother with the help of a man she once worshipped like a father. A crashed ship on the colony becomes her only hope to escape. But before she can steal the ship, the pilot abducts her. They may be the same species, but will he help her find her Shilah? 

Their attraction is undeniable… 
Fighting it seems inconsequential as they evade the nyx's bounty hunter and uncover a conspiracy that shines unwanted light on Shadi's past and reveals the corruption in Uri’s beloved Embassy, placing their fledgling love in danger. 

As the universe systematically falls apart, will Shadi and Uri’s newfound passion be enough to keep them alive? 

Being one of the Embassy’s glorified treasure-seekers has its perks… 
Komandan Uriah Jacobs recovers ancient artifacts in exchange for more than just decent pay; he also receives guaranteed protection from his former owners, the nyx…until an emergency landing on a too-familiar colony brings him face-to-face with his past life and something more—a surprisingly priceless treasure in the form of a human woman. 

A slave to the nyx since childhood… 
Shadi spends her waking hours in the forge, dreaming of rescuing her brother with the help of a man she once worshipped like a father. A crashed ship on the colony becomes her only hope to escape. But before she can steal the ship, the pilot abducts her. They may be the same species, but will he help her find her Shilah? 

Their attraction is undeniable… 
Fighting it seems inconsequential as they evade the nyx's bounty hunter and uncover a conspiracy that shines unwanted light on Shadi's past and reveals the corruption in Uri’s beloved Embassy, placing their fledgling love in danger. 

As the universe systematically falls apart, will Shadi and Uri’s newfound passion be enough to keep them alive? 

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Disturbing the Peace - The Importance of the Everywoman (Not Bella Swan)

***Since Arrow is coming back on, I guess I should finish this, especially since we all know she's okay***


[SPOILERS AHOY]

So by now I'm pretty sure anyone who's an Arrow fan knows of this thing that happened, in which everyone's favorite plucky blonde computer genius got shot and may or may not be dead.

Let me say first that if Felicity dies, I will A) stop watching the show and supporting it in anyway, except for Flash crossover episodes where I have no choice, and B) picket any filming I can get to because it's BS.

However, I truly don't think Felicity is dead for a myriad of reasons. This post sums them up pretty perfectly, so I want to approach this from a little bit of a different viewpoint: that of the romance writer.

I write romance, so I'm pretty sure I have a working knowledge of it, at least. Comic books aren't known for subtlety and nuance most of the time when it comes to characters' relationships with one another, and they certainly don't cast women like Felicity Smoak (which is totally a real last name, something that still weirds me out) as the love interest of the hero unless she is horrifically killed and thus becomes a turning point for the hero.

This is known as putting her "in the refrigerator"--a term coined by comics writer Gail Simone after reading a comic book in which that literally happens (to Alex DeWitt in Green Lantern #54)-- and is used over and over and over again in comics and movies. And TV shows. And video games. And pretty much everything.

STEP AWAY FROM THE LIGHT

However, Felicity has spent four seasons subverting that in a most spectacular way. Most people will see a plucky blonde computer guru and think of Penelope Garcia on Criminal Minds, or at least I do. She and Morgan have one of my favorite friendships on network television, but that's the extent of it, a fact that frustrates the ever-loving hell out of Morcia shippers like myself. Throughout the first couple seasons, Olicity shippers had that same frustration--that our plucky blonde computer guru would remain in that role of "loves from afar." After all, Oliver was well into a relationship with Sara (and later with Laurel, which is just messed up but whatever; Oliver's not exactly in his right mind).

When Olicity went canon, I squalled. Because Felicity is me.

She's our Everywoman. She's the heart and soul of the Arrow team, who uses humor to defuse situations, who adds normalcy to an abnormal situation. She keeps Oliver grounded and acts as the rainbow to his thunderstorm. She brings a sense of color into the group, not just with her outfits, but with her personality, her kindness, and her general love for all of them. Sometimes she has to be mother hen, sometimes she's the concerned best friend, but she's always the glue that keeps the Arrow team together. Those women are typically stuck in those roles, but not our Felicity. And that's incredibly important for the "geeky" girls, the ones who are normally relegated to the background, the stand-ins. The women who think outside the box, the ones who kick ass in their own ways but not necessarily on a physical level, the ones who may not even be "conventionally pretty" like yours truly are normally not seen as worthy of the hero. And the fact that Felicity is, AND WILL CONTINUE TO BE OR SO HELP ME GOD, is representation I feel like is sorely lacking in a world where strong, worthy women are practically dude-light.

So, guys? If for some reason you decide to go down that road with her? YOU WILL HAVE FAILED THIS SHOW AND THIS DEMOGRAPHIC.

/endrant