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Articles about “fake geek girls” provoke online backlash

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Just a day after noted comics critic Gail Simone blogged her frustration with the misconception that girls don’t read comics, CNN posted a double serving of backlash against girls in geek culture on its GeekOut! blog, drawing perplexed responses from fans across the Internet.

The first article, “Camp Breaking Dawn’ and the ‘Twilight’ of the Boys’ Club,” noted that women had, especially since the ‘90s, become more active in geek culture. “Many of today’s best online comic and fantasy-genre news sites and discussion groups were started by, and remain powered by, women,” wrote author Rob Salkowitz.

Yet, Salkowitz then went on to imply that girls mostly only showed up at Comic-Con because of Twilight. “Girls don’t read comics,” opined one reader on Twitter in response, while other fans scratched their heads.

“Twilight fans were at Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, TheFirefly Reunion, The Walking Dead, True Blood, The Revolution Panel checking out the next project from two people in the Twilight cast, The Hobbit,” commenter Laurareplied to the original post. “There is this misconception thatTwilight fans like only Twilight. For most fans, it’s pure escapist fun, it’s just one aspect of what they enjoy.”

….

“That thing where dudes generously ‘bestow’ male privilege on women who like the right stuff the right way,” raanve added. “No thanks.”

Just a few hours after this article ruffled feathers, writer Joe Peacock sent flames across the Internet with his own GeekOut! article, “Booth Babes Need Not Apply.”

“I hate poachers. Pure and simple,” he said, speaking of the trend of so-called “booth babes” representing companies at cons—according to Peacock, these women are just “pretty girls pretending to be geeks for attention.”

It went downhill from there:

Read more at The Daily Dot!