I read this a while back. The essay, which looks at how geek/nerd culture may discourage women from studying computer science troubled me. It troubled me because much of geek/nerd culture is precisely what is produced by engineers that go into game development. So are these researchers telling me that because games are rooted in this particular culture that inevitably it will drive away women? I don’t know if I can really let it go at that.
There seems to be a deeper socio-cultural question that simply isn’t being asked. Why is science fiction “stereotypical” of men? I’m also troubled by the assertion that, “stereotype of computer scientists as nerds who stay up all night coding and have no social life may be driving women away from the field.” I don’t doubt it, but I wonder why we don’t examine the stereotype rather than try to drive off the cultural roots of computing, which does come out of a geek culture. Why can’t we celebrate other kinds of geeks or make geekery socially acceptable for women?
The reason I ask the inverse question is because it is impossible for this to not be the case for many game companies. They work on the very things women would be “put off by.” It almost creates an excuse for why women aren’t there. I simply don’t buy it. Look at the demographics of watchers of certain geek TV shows or book series that derive from or are very much part of geek culture. Did they try an office with Harry Potter posters rather than Star Trek? What about WoW posters or The SIMs.
The trouble is that the findings are based on flawed assumptions about geek/nerd culture that point toward strange conclusions that I suspect only exacerbate the problem. I’ve written before that there is a simultaneous problem dealing with the social construction of femininity in the United States and play spaces particularly coded as male. Perhaps some clues about rethinking femininity outlined in this document is a better place to start.