she’s such a geek

You will be wanting to read my excellent essay, ‘Suzy the Computer’ vs. ‘Dr. Sexy’: What’s a Geek Girl to Do When She Wants to Get Laid? in She’s Such a Geek: Women Write About Science, Technology, and Other Nerdy Stuff.

It was this charming announcement on Zuska’s blog that prompted me to get hold of the said book. And what a book it is!

Personally, I don’t like the word ‘geek’ at all. Not everybody who is learning (works in, used to work in) science/technology is a geek. The truth is, however, that if you are a woman, you’ll be seen as a geek if you are interested in science, or maths, or technology, or computer games, or whatever else that happens to be a male-dominated field. Which is more or less everything except raising the children. Even in most egalitarian societies — and America, the home of this book’s authos, is hardly the one. OK, women may be allowed to be geeks, but even there their geekdom is considered largely incompatible with femininity, or sexual desirability. Boys don’t want to date smart girls. Mums want their daughters to behave like ‘normal’ girls (e.g. to join the cheerleading team rather than a math class). And so on.

I’d love to put a couple of quotes here — alas, there are 24 essays by very different authors, each one worth a quote or three, and I don’t have all night. Don’t be put off by the cover art. Get the book and enjoy.

P.S. There is an interesting blog by the same name and with contribution of some authors of the book; alas, it was not updated for more than a year.