The Bird and The Bat

carnivaloftherandom:

It’s bound to buy them controversy, but The Mary Sue has been establishing itself as more than a hotspot for geeky women to get their daily dose of squee. Addressing issues of media misogyny, education, and now: choice. Geeks are not a politically homogenous bunch, no matter what gender they are, we’re a microcosm of a larger society. Taking on an issue as volatile as choice is risky, for a relatively young site. It is, however: the right risk. Although the article remains objective in reporting the facts without espousing a particular view on choice itself, it does take on the misogyny of legislators to their peers and highlights the fact that the vast majority of people trying to dictate what anyone with a uterus or vagina does with their bodies, are people who don’t share the anatomy they’re trying to control.

Women are geeks, and we aren’t wilting flowers. Much the way Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Bill Maher have become sources for actual news for a generation tired of the networks, geek media is poised to do the same for not only entertainment, but hard news: especially for young women. Being a geeky woman is itself, still a point of controversy. As DC’s Catwoman #0 cover and.the sexual violence-as-character development in the new Tomb Raider prove, we are often overlooked, dismissed or abused as an audience. And that’s not even counting the vitriol in comments. In the 21st century. Forget the flying cars, where is gender parity and equality? Reality, much as we’d like to ignore it, means that if you’re a geek with a vagina, we are a long way off from it being a non-issue. The fundamental right to bodily autonomy, self-determination, and sexual agency is one that politicians still feel they can ignore, as long as the people they are trying to strip those rights from, have vaginas. We have forced internal ultrasounds in Texas, rape jokes abound, and anyone who thinks being a geek site makes those things irrelevant probably also thinks that the gendering of toys is okay, too.
I applaud themarysue.com for not taking the easy path, but genuinely addressing issues that affect (geeky) women. Now, if they start dealing with other intersections like PoC as geeks: I will die of squee. This is what my news needs are, and having them met, is a joy.