Girl geeks did not exist before Twilight! If they did, it was only because of Buffy!

[meganbmoore]

So, Newarama has a post about the scary scary women invading comicdom and geekdom and SFF and attributing most of it to Twilight. Actually, the post itself is ok, mostly saying "Hey! Girls are starting to like this stuff!" and theorizing on why while being completely ignorant to the fact that, uhm, it's really nothing new. But then, of course, there are the comments.

Like this one:

When a girl tells me she's a "fan" but is obviously just a fan of Twilight, I usually attempt to save her soul by recommending some of Whedon's stuff or Gaiman's Sandman. If she goes for it, then I've done my duty and fandom really will have another member of the fairer sex. If she doesn't, well then there was just no helping her anyway!

By the way, am I the only one who's asking himself where all these hot girls were at the comicons back when I was young and single? *sigh*

If you are a woman who likes Twilight (and most of you know my thoughts on that one, I think) YOUR SOUL MUST BE SAVED BY WHAT A FANBOY DEEMS WORTHY! No really.

More:

I think there is a VERY LARGE distinction between a Twilight fan and a girl geek. Myself being the latter, of course. It's almost like the girl geek culture didn't exist before Twilight, but we have been here for YEARS.

It is almost offensive to have myself lumped in with a flash-in-the-pan fandom.

Get off "my team"! Shoo! Out! You almost make me want to like Twilight just to show you can like it and Domino/Black Widow/Manhunter/real!Storm/Wonder Woman/Jubilee/Kitty Pryde/Oracle/Big Barda/Sara Pezzini/etc.

When females start reading (mostly) the superhero genre stuff like guys do, THEN they'll get fandom's full respect. Until then they're just poseurs...

Oh yes. Heaven forbid women look at ALL the comics out there and choose the ones they like. Let me guess, the final exam is a 20 page paper about how awesome Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man are, right?

Isnt it obvious? Most of these girls are either wives daughters or somehow else related to a fanboy who got his g/f and/or daughter or neice or whatever into comics!

I truly, truly want to believe this is sarcasm. Experience (and years of it being assumed that I had no choice but to go to the comic book shop with my father and brother) make me think it's otherwise.

I should mention that there are also plenty of people going "uhm, no," but the general thought process seems to be that if it's not Twilight, then it's because a guy kept foisting things on them until they saw the light or something.

Comments

[wilhelminabenedict]

I'm just...shaking my head. Speechless in a bad, bad way.

[torachan]

I am not much into superhero comics now, but I did read a ton of them as a little kid because they were around the house. My mom had a huge collection of old Superman comics from when she was a kid/teenager (and this was only the remnants after my grandma had thrown out a bunch when my mom was away at college, so her collection had been even bigger before). She did have a brother, but considering he was ten years younger than her, I don't think he was the one influencing her. She just collected them because she liked Superman and it's the main thing she spent her allowance on. I'm sure that would make many of these guys' heads explode.

[meganbmoore]

Their heads would probably explode if they knew that I was the one who all but made my father and brother go to the comic book store , and that my brother is the one who decided they weren't for him.

[lea_hazel]

They make me want to like Twilight and that makes me hate them. I do like My Little Pony and Jem and I do prefer fantasy to sci-fi so I suppose that shall have to suffice.

PINK SPARKLES OF DOOOOOM!

[meganbmoore]

I had the same reaction, re: it made me want to like Twilight. Or at least not think it sounded horribly wretched.

I prefer fantasy to scifi myself.

[lea_hazel]

What really bothers me is that most of the menfolk (hee!) criticism of Twilight fails to zero in on the troubling aspects, both literary and psychological. I mean, I really don't think there's anything wrong with vampires who aren't scary, or vampires that sparkle even. Stalking-as-love, on the other hand...

[meganbmoore]

Yeah. Men seem to rag on Twilight for being dumb adolescent female fantasies. Women on both sides of love/hate for it tend to agree that it's a dumb adolescent fantasy, but their concern is more about its portrayal of relationships and heroines and what it tells young girls.

[elena]

I'm always amazed by people treating sexy vampires and fangirls who fangirl them like it was a new thing. It's not like Interview with the Vampire, Forever Knight or freaking *Dark Shadows* didn't have giant Estrogen Brigades back in the day =__=

Then again, most of my Spanish fandom friends are superhero comic fans, and they won't stop trying to foist them on me, so yeah, I know.

[meganbmoore]

Not to mention the legions of Angel and Spike fans...

(More recent, but but still predating Twilight and the more recent vampire shows by years.)