An article in SkepChick caught my eye today addressing a topic that I would have assumed would be better covered on topical sites like Japanator, but has so far not been explored.
The article is titled
“Oh, You Sexy Geek!”: “Geek Girls” and the Problem of Self-Objectification and I would believe it to be beneficial for animé and manga fans to read through as well.
What follows is quite a thorough discussion of the reasons geek women objectify themselves, and the social groups that directly promote such objectification which is too greatly simplified in this sentence to lend it any fair representation.
The conclusion, for those not too keen on reading:
"In order to fix the culture of objectification in geek culture, we cannot look to individual women and cosplayers, but rather to those in power, whether they be content creators (like George Lucas, Stan Lee, Felicia Day), influential commentators (like Chris Hardwick, Jerry Holkins, Mike Krahulik), convention organizers, or forum moderators. The problem here is not “self-objectification,” as my essay title suggests, but the pressure to perform sexy (or be ignored, derided, or dismissed). The fact is, “sexy” is not the only way that geek women represent themselves; it is merely the representation recognized and rewarded by geek culture at large. That has to change before the position of women in these culture(s) can change."
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