Resistance of Girl Nerdom is FUTILE!

Resistance of Girl Nerdom is FUTILE!

(Indeed it was futile, and indeed I could not resist. Resistance is Buddhaful :)

A story on how I thought this all came to be.

To follow-up my retro blog entry about video games and their evolution since the 80's, I thought I would talk about the evolution of the “Nerdy Girl”.

Now, I am just talking from my OWN take/my OWN personal experience. Perhaps I was ignorant at that time in my life, but...as far as I know, there were no nerdy women. At least, as far as I knew. Correct me if I am wrong, but did they keep on the down low?

AS FAR AS I KNEW.....women didn't really read comic books, women didn't read/watched Sci-Fi, and women never played Pac-Man. (Perhaps they played Ms. Pac-man? Who knows). If they had been entertain themselves the way nerdy men did, they probably did it hiding or in secret. The women I knew of were mostly into girly-girl things like “My Little Pony”, "Punky Brewster" and “Care Bears”.

The stigma of “The Nerd” stuck with mostly men. Men with lack of social skills and probably didn't get out much. You had “The Nerd” and you had “The Jock". Well, this is probably how HOLLYWOOD portrayed us.

As displayed in such movies such as "Revenge of the Nerds" and "Can't Buy Me Love" (the latter which made a more significant impact on me revealing bologna of the system of classes and labels), nerds were also portrayed as the brainiacs of these flicks, solving problems, and possibly impressing the blonde ditzy girly-girl with his brains and perhaps thinking twice about the advantage of even dating a nerd. It's nice to have someone that can help you out academically.

Often times, the women in these movies are portrayed at the cheerleader type who dates the members of the football team. How cliche'd, right?

The beautiful people vs. the nerdy people. Define "nerdy" and "beautiful" after all , it's in the eye of the beholder.

Fast forward to the present. I'm not sure how this whole nerd thing with women caught on, but I think it actually evolved along with the rest of society's appreciation for diversity, so now it's cool for women to be nerdy, too.

Now we see women dressed in gorgeous costumes and looking very similar to their comic book counterparts. You have a potpourri of nerds of ALL types and sub-cultures actually. It's a big melting pot of nerdom! I love it!

To NOTE though, one thing I have noticed in the year 2009 at recent conventions. The age groups of nerds.

Female nerds, teen aged to college aged make-up the majority of female nerdom, fewer women in their mid to late 20's, and 30's and beyond...it's like finding the Loch Ness Monster,

Though, while men continue to age into their golden years as they always have in their love for their hobbies, women who reach a certain age seem to, stop? I could be wrong on this though, but this is my own personal demographic that I had come across. But that's just a small amount. Perhaps their priorities change? It's a big mystery.

The younger group seem more focused on the Anime' related niche' (there is an accent mark in niche' right?)

Anyhow....wait...this just in! Apparently, Screamer, a mid-to-late 30's woman has been sighted! Hold on a second...lemme bring 'er up .....

Yowsa! Watch we're you're pointin' Megatron!

Apparently she has been to BotCon and looks like she had made a recent blog that she'll be on mynerdgirl.com

She's armed with a mic and a cobra cape Looks like we'll see some footage there. Man, this nerd girl thing is getting me excited! It's nice to have common interests with such ladies. ;-)

Well, I think I'll endt his for this evening, had enough excitement for ONE night. From here on out, ladies keep doin' what you're doing, it is indeed appreciated. And Screamer, I hope those toys don't fall on you during the night. :-)

I have a feeling I'll be posting some more retro stuff, tid-bits and other follow-ups to my previous posts.


- E.T.

Movie Quote of the Post! (Take a Wild Guess!): "I'd buy THAT for a dollar!"

The Tale of Two Jokers Part II - Interview with Safire (Flames of Blue)

I talked with this cutie in blue with the same lines of questions about The Joker Comparisons. She goes by the name of Safire.
She's able to shoot blue flames (natural gas?), fly and heal quickly.

www.myspace.com/safiremodel

E.T. How do you feel about Heath Ledger now being dead and not being able to play the joker anymore?

Safire: It's definitely a shame that Heath Ledger is gone. He was an excellent actor and his portrayal of the Joker was really well done.

E.T. If you thought the Dark Knight Joker was great, do you think anyone could do just as well performance-wise in the next Dark Knight?

Safire: While I'm sure there are other actors who could do a great job as the Joker, I'd prefer if they didn't bring back the character. There are plenty of other enemies that can be used in future Batman movies. Harley Quinn would've been cool to team up with the Joker, but with Ledger gone, I wouldn't do anything with either of those villains.

E.T. How does Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson; please compare and contrast.

Safire: What I liked about Ledger's Joker is that he played it so differently than Nicholson's Joker. Nicholson was really entertaining as the Joker, but was a lot less serious and had some great interactions with his underlings. Ledger seemed to be misunderstood and not diving into another Joker origin story (that would attempt to humanize him) was a great idea. It allowed him to just be a supervillain.

There you have it, straight from Safire! "Extinguishing crime one flame at a time!"

The Marvel Universe Conundrum

I figured I’d just start off 2009 not telling you about myself (in detail) about myself, but how I entered to explore the Marvel Universe and my puzzling experience with it. I’m not criticizing, but it can be an inconvenience if you’re not one to go out and “buy it all”!

Truthfully, I had just gotten back into comic books in the past couple of years. Prior to that it was only Jr. High was when I had an interest in Marvel Comics. The reason I had gotten back into them is that I wanted to expand my current “nerdiness” from just computer and video/computer gaming related activities to other ventures. Comic books had been my next venture along with a short bout with Heroclix and MTG (Magic the Gathering – still a complete newb at that game, lol)

Anyhow, I think the reason I stopped with the whole Marvel Universe world was because I kept getting tired of the variants of different comic book titles of the SAME character, ( I still find them trying to this very day, however had become more tolerant – perhaps the whole Marvel movies actually helped it along as well.).

In case you’re wondering what I mean, for example, titles such as (at least back in the 80’s when I gave up on collecting them) “The Sensational Spiderman”, “The Spectacular Spiderman”, “Peter Parker: Spiderman”, “The Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman”, etc, etc. I think at the time there were 3 running at the same time, and I think I stopped collecting it because it actually turned me off to making purchases of different variants of comics of the same character. It just didn’t make much sense to me. Guess I was too cheap as well. lol

This turned me off for a while, until I was able to tolerate it more in my adult life. I just collected what I thought was interesting to me personally. Whatever other variants I didn’t collect, I just used my imagination as to what is going on in those other variants. Are they just separate variants that are complete different stories kept apart from the other variants of the same character? Do they not follow the same timeline OR run parallel to each other?

For instance, I had been following the “Secret Invasion”, however this “Invasion” has also crept into the separate comics as well,”tie-ins” as you would call them. From what I’m gathering as I am reading them together, it seems you’re watching what’s going on from different perspectives. I read “The Punisher” for a short time during the “Death of Captain America” where the “Big News” on the Jumbo-tron of Cap’s death interrupted the Punisher’s story. I found that pretty interesting. Though you have to admit, there’d be “notes” in little squares at the bottoms of the corners with “*’s” indicating “As seen in Thor #15”, not sure that would have me running out to buy “Thor #15”, but it sheds some light on things.

I had never been that much of a fan to the point of collecting every tie-in, variant, and the like to get a closure of what’s going on with the Marvel Universe, but I do like it and what it has to offer. Plus if need me I can keep up with other dedicated fans should I ever have a question like, “Why did Wolverine kill that guy?” or “Where did Spiderman get his black costume?”.

Anyhow, hope this sheds some light about me in this New Year. Anyhow ttfn!

- Fin (Typical comic book ending)

E.T. – (a.k.a. – Evil Tony)