She's Such a Geek: Women Write about Science, Technology, and Other Nerdy Stuff

admin — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 12:40:00 +0000

Edited by Annalee Newitz, Charlie Anders

A collection of essays by women geeks? What can self-professed geeks share with the rest of women about what it means to be female? A heck of a lot, whether you measure it in decimal or binary.

She's Such a Geek is a wonderful affirmation of what it means to be a geek and to be a woman (sometimes even feminine!) without falling into the trap of sounding bitter or obnoxiously over-assertive. I loved it. From essays like Kory Well’s “Really Good for a Girl” to Violet Blue’s “The Hacker’s Guide to What’s in Her Own Panties,” these essays explore the beginnings of geek culture with hard drives that had less memory capacity that floppy disks to the growing field of teledildonics – with musings on how cool it would be to have a vibrator that plugs into your USB port for cybersex.

These women think about logic and intuition and how male/female stereotypes apply to the worlds of geekiness. But geeks, of course, aren’t defined by computers. “To me, a geek is someone who is passionate about something,” Jessica Dickenson Goodman says. These geeks are obsessed with computers, chemistry, astronomy, history and (I would add) life. There are worse ways to live than being passionate about learning. Let these women introduce you to obsession, or validate your insecurities about your own passions.

Written by: Janine Peterson Wonnacott, March 9th 2007