Miscellaneous Geeky Girl Stuff

By now, you've almost certainly heard/seen "Nothing to Prove" by The Doubleclicks. (You can buy it from iTunes or Bandcamp, and read the lyrics here.) It's an awesome and poignant Geek Girl anthem, but it's the signs that choked me up. Many people (famous and otherwise) submitted signs for the video; they estimate that they received between 150 and 250 signs, but the song just isn't long enough to include them all. Here are the ones they were able to use (I tried so hard to get all of them, but I know I missed a few):

• Hi there! We are geek girls.
• I started playing D&D in 6th grade. I never stopped.
• I learned to read with comic books.
• I've been a Gamer since before I can remember.
• I grew my hair out / so I could dress up as Princess Leia.
• I played Myst when it was released. I was 11. It was the GREATEST DAY OF MY LIFE!
• My Transformers played with my Cabbage Patch Kids.
• I received my first console when I was nine years old.
• My regular Saturday night "date" was with the 5th Doctor.
• Comics taught me women can be beautiful & powerful!
• [arrow pointing at face] Founder and president of my high school Star Trek fan club.
• I spend hundreds of hours working on cosplay.
• [hugging toddler daughter] I'm raising The Next Generation of Geek Girls!
• Accounting associate by day, Elf ranger by night.
• I was obsessed with Star Trek: The Next Generation and had a super huge crush on Jonathan Frakes. / Now we're friends. It's weird.
• I write code for particle accelerators.
• im in ur HOUSE OF IDEAS writin ur COMICS
• Being a geek girl is really awesome / ...except when it isn't.
• I LOVE video games but BOYS tell me I'm not a "REAL" GAMER
• That look of surprise when I talk about Star Trek? It gets old.
• Why are you surprised I want to be an ASTRONAUT when I grow up?
• I'm a SCIENTIST not a secretary.
• I own a comic + game shop, but people just assume I 'm humoring my geeky husband!
• People say I only play video games because of my boyfriend but I owned over 200 games before I even met him!
• I work at a comicbook store. Male customers tend to ignore me completely or as if there is a man around to help them.
• Being Asian & a GEEK doesn't mean I have to like ANIME.
• I was told I traded my cleavage for free comics.
• I have to have a gender-neutral pen-name just to be Respected.
• I was told I "sound smart for a girl in a pink skirt."
• I con vendor told me that the smaller dice sets were for women to wear and show off (accessories). The regular ones were for me to, you know, play games with.
• Here's a message for the haters, elitists and bullies / from us, the geek girls, and our friends.
• No one gets to tell you how to be a geek.
• If someone has to pass a test to hang out with you... / YOU'RE the problem.
• You think I do this for your approval??? / mwa ha ha ha! / Get over yourself.
• There are no fake geeks... / ...only real jerks.
• Who died and made you Batman?! Wait. Was it your parents? In that case, I'm very sorry. Nevermind.
• I don't need you to tell me how much I like anything.
• We've both been ridiculed for our hobbies... Be supportive. We're on the same side!
• I don't need to go to a con to be a geek. I am & I haven't.
• Please don't let my gender turn you into an elitist. *We love the same things for the same reasons.*
• Don't tell my daughters that Lego, Robots and Superheroes are for boys.
• "Geek" + "Equality" equals GEEKAUALITY now!
• I was a Geek before I saw a cult film or played a game. I don't need your approval in the end.
• Be RESPECTFUL and I won't EAT you.
• Staring =/= Respecting / Men are women, too!
• I'm a geek and I'm awesome / and I don't need your permission.
• DON'T PANIC
• DON'T BE A DICK
• I'm older than "your mom" and I still love MMORPG's!
• I am a geek. Search your heart. You know it to be true.
• I founded a camp to teach girls how to program.
• I am a cardboard-flipping card gamer.
• You can't take the geek from me.
• [stick insect on girl's face] Buuugs!
• I'm a geek!
• I am a geek! (and I'm good at sports!)
• I'm a geek!
• I'm a geek.
• I'M A GEEK!
• I am a RPG Nerd!
• I am a geek!
• I'm a Geek <3
• I'm a geek.
• I will do anything for $5 [I'm a little confused with this one]

[the images come really fast right here, and I can't quite catch all the signs] 

• I am a Costume Geek!
• I cosplay for attention. LOL NOT
• I'm Me NERD
• I'm a Geek!
• I'm a NERD.
• I'm a fraking NERD!
• I'm a cosplayer.
• I'm a NERD
• I am a Geek Grrl!
• I'm a GEEK!
• I am a GEEK!
• I am a tabletop geek girl!
• Browncoat Comic Book Collector Convention Panelist I'm a GEEK. Tabletop Gamer Fanfic Writer
• I solved the cube in 36 seconds on TV 30 years ago... now I publish the card game FLUXX.
• I just knew that one day STAR TREK could be cool. Take that EVERYONE from junior high!
• I turned nerd watching the 90s XMen with my dad.
• [daughter and mom, can't make out the signs completely] I am a geek girl in training. / aka a general all-purpose geek girl!
• Trek-obsessed cosplaying grammarian librarian.
• I got my husband into gaming.
• I am a geek!
• It's not easy but I'm a geek.
• I crochet my own Elder Gods!
• I have been playing video games for almost 28 years!
• [can't read it]
• When I ran a two-week line up for the first Star Wars prequel, my homeroom teacher called me an EMBARRASSMENT and said I was ruining my school's reputation.
• My mom let me read her copy of The Jedi Academy trilogy when I was 10!
• I was born making Vulcan hands.
• I often contemplate the merits of a Hogwarts education.
• I got my PhD in Electrical Engineering with a research focus in Computational Neuroscience.
• I am a Wizard, Jedi, [?], XMan, Baker Street Irregular, Companion, Browncoat, Starfleet Officer, Dread Pirate, Walker, Wizard, GEEK.
• Ich bin ein aussenseiter :) ["geek" in German]
• I'm geeky enough for me.
• I teach robotics to kids, make my own cosplays, and I work as a professional NPC at my local comic book store. (And I watch lots of geek TV shows.)
• I was born pulling things apart & putting them back together. Now I do science on a boat. #geekforlife
• Write fanfiction. Do cute and sexy cosplay... BE YOURSELF. Do what you want.
• I can be a ballerina AND kill cylons!
• When I was six my family brought me to PAX. I loved it!
• Chem teacher told me I would never make a good SCIENTIST. I start my PhD in Biology in September.
• I said I liked Illusion of Gaia. He asked me how many red jewels the game contained.
• Don't worry of you haven't read, watched and played everything. With [?] time you will explore!
• In high school and university, guys were shocked that I played video games and read sci fi/fantasy books.
• I am a geek! YAY!
• Geek girls are awesome and we are not going away. / Deal with it.

[roll credits]

GEEK GIRL CON III

So not only are the lyrics awesome, but those signs are fantastic. This song will definitely be going into the iPod playlist I will make for the upcoming GEEK GIRL CON coming up in October. Because I am so going this year, and OMG am I excited about it. The schedule is going to be posted (IIRC) on the 15th. Christina Blanch, who taught the amazing MOOC Gender Through Comic Books is presenting there, so I'm super-stoked for that and looking forward to meeting her. I'm a little sad that it's only a 2-day convention, because I have way more geeky clothing than I can wear in just a couple of days. :/ (On Twitter, I'd think that has to be tagged with #geekgirlproblems, dont you?) The Skirt of Awesome for sure, but how will I narrow it down? *dramatic hand to forehead*

Another guest I know will be there, for the second consecutive year, is Mike Madrid, author of The Supergirls: Fashion, feminism, fantasy and the history of comic book heroines, and the forthcoming title Divas, Dames and Daredevils: Lost heroines of Golden Age comics. I'll definitely have to take my copy of The Supergirls for him to sign.

KICKSTARTER PROJECTS

And one more thing (actually 2) before I go play with my action figures. Jill Thompson is about to finish up her Kickstarter to make a Scary Godmother doll. It's gorgeous, and I want one desperately, and there's only a few days left, so go pledge! The other Kickstarter that I want to urge your backing of is for Charles Dowd's Lilith Dark graphic novel. He wrote Lilith Dark for his daughter, when he saw the serious dearth of comics for kids and for girls especially. This is a heroine our girls (and boys, too!) need to read about! Check out his project and see if you don't agree that it's pretty fantastic.