nerd stereotypes

Something truly rad has happened in Winnipeg, Canada. A group of teenage girls has created their own set of superhero trading cards. The after school group has dreamed up heroines who fight against the everyday evils facing teenage girls. 

Meet The Bookmark. Instead of fighting bank robbers or supervillains, The Bookmark works to "end discrimination against nerds."

Nerds are the kings of our culture these days—but what is a nerd, exactly, and who gets to call themselves one? This show digs into gender, race, and nerdery with an organizer of GeekGirlCon, comedy nerd Phoebe Robinson, music nerd turned Yale lecturer Allyson McCabe, and (of course!) a rigorous discussion of feminism in Star Trek with two hardcore Trekkies. Listen in! 

This episode of Popaganda is sponsored by She Bop!

In addition to thinking of nerds as people who are intellectually focused and slightly obsessive, I’d argue that a lot of us attach a gender (male) and race (white, South Asian, or East Asian) to the stereotype of a nerd. When I asked for suggestions of who pops into mind when you think of the idea of nerdiness, white guys accounted for most of the answers I received. And just do a quick Google image search for "geek"—most of the results you’ll get back will be pictures of skinny, white men in bottle-bottom glasses.

My name’s Jarrah Hodge, creator of the feminist blog Gender Focus. I’ve been calling myself a feminist since I was 15 and I’ve been called a nerd for much longer than that, so I’m really excited to get this opportunity to start this guest blog on feminism and nerd/geek culture for Bitch! Over the next couple of months I’ll be looking at a range of topics in geekdom, including gender and racial dimensions of the nerd/geek stereotype and feminist analysis of different facets of geek culture, from fanfiction to libraries to board gaming.