Fake Girl Geeks
I have a theory about "fake geek girls."
The very idea that girls would pretend to be interested in nerdy things is patently ridiculous, yet people pull it out all of the time. The first time someone brought up the idea in a comment on this blog, I was floored. Did I not exist? Was I not an adequate nerd? Did the person think I was a guy, or that I was only watching Game of Thrones and Doctor Who for attention? I was incredibly confused. But people continue to genuinely believe this, even finding excuses to dispute plain facts and statistics, like the fact that the majority of PC gamers are now women. Girls don't like real games. They only play Candy Crush. They're not real gamers.
But I think this goes far beyond the idea that girls only like lame things. I think it's that things that girls like become lame in people's eyes, simply because they're liked by girls.
Consider the not-so-humble Starbucks. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone in the Western world who hasn't had a Starbucks at least once. It's literally just expensive coffee in various flavors. Except now "liking Starbucks" is something that girls are genuinely mocked for. Oh, those shallow girls, those "basic bitches," thinking that pumpkin spice latte tastes good. Ladies are so dumb.And if women's amazing power to make something terrible and ridiculous, simply by liking it, extends to a world-dominating coffee chain, what havoc could that power wreak on comic books, sci-fi and genre TV? Once those things are infected with girls-like-this cooties, they'll no longer be good. Because girls only like stupid things.
This is a more harmless version of a problem with really serious implications. Not only can "female" hobbies become mockable, but any career path that is considered female-dominated is viewed as easier and less valuable, even if it was seen as difficult before. Take, for example, biology, which is now seen as the "soft science," and which is the only area of science where the majority of scientists are women.
The very association of women with a job or a hobby or a flavored caffeine drink makes that think seem less worthwhile, less serious, and less acceptable for any non-silly individual.And so girls aren't allowed to be real nerds. Nerd things are interesting, therefore girls can't really like them. And if they did really like them, their very presence would put the whole sub-culture at risk of becoming even more laughable. Better to be seen as the all-boys' club of people who never see sunlight, than to be seen as a shallow, superficial girls' club. The entire reputation of nerd culture relies on the belief that girl geeks can only ever be fake.