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Serena Kutchinsky

Is this feminism?

The battle for geek culture

Why is this flourishing sub-culture tearing itself apart?

by Serena Kutchinsky / October 19, 2015 / Leave a comment
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Comic book creators are introducing more female-led title ©AP Photo/Steve Luciano)

Comic book creators are introducing more female-led title ©AP Photo/Steve Luciano

What is geek culture and why is it increasingly the subject of cultural scrutiny and fierce hashtag wars? This weekend I took part in a debate around these issues at the Battle of Ideas festival at London’s Barbican Centre, where I strove to stand up for female geeks everywhere. And yes, we did talk about Gamergate.

I was fortunate, or unfortunate depending on your view, to share a platform with the scene’s provocateur-in-chief, Milo Yiannopoulos the technology editor of the right-wing politics and culture website Breitbart, who proved a good sparring partner despite the odd queeny remark. Joining us were Milo’s somewhat geekier sidekick—Allum Bokhari a columnist at Breitbart, Dr Maren Thom—a researcher in film who likes to spend her evenings “shooting people’s heads off” (virtually, that is), and Jason Walsh—a nattily attired foreign correspondent with interesting ideas on cultural identity. You can read my opening remarks below.

When I was growing up, being a geek or a nerd was the opposite of cool. Geeks were bespectacled people with pimples who hung out in science labs and wore bad glasses held together with plasters. They were everything you aspired not to be. You might have respect, or even affection, for the likes of Albert Einstein and Adrian Mole but you didn’t want to grow up to be them.

But these days, I’ve had to readjust my cultural s…

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Comments

  1. Chris
    November 2, 2015 at 12:20
    I listened to the debate, and this piece is just a transcript of your contribution to it. ie you have taken nothing in which was said in criticism of what you said. Those criticisms, ffrom the queeny yiannopolous, were sharp, and to the effect that your perception of gamers etc were uninformed, second hand etc. a debate is supposed to bring about advances in understanding, to correct misperceptions and so on., or what are they for?
  2. ItalyGG
    November 4, 2015 at 20:47
    "I’m not going to sit here and conform to the stereotype of the moaning feminist" "It’s important we understand that sudden explosions of sexism like Gamergate" Yup, stereotype of the moaning feminist calling sexist anyone with different opinions confirmed.
  3. jujujuju
    November 5, 2015 at 02:37
    i like how you talk about geek culture being on the spotlight and it is full of "kings" you are so full of your self i cant even begin to debunk every claim you say first off you are being sexist thinking that guys are the only ones that are "kings" in geek culture, there is no "kings" and every one in geek culture welcomes any one, regardess of their gender, you saying they dont is a big LIE, you are LYING to your readers by repeating what you are told without making sure it is even true girls and women were ALWAYS in geek culture, if there was something keeping them out was people telling them that being a geek was a BAD THING not geek culture it self then again you talk about spider woman's ass like if the only time females appear on a cover they get sexualized when spiderman is constantly draw naked and painted blue and red and his crotch exposed most times, where are you basing on? do you even research before you start writing and throwing accusations and assertions without any fact backing them up, it is insulting that you think writing stuff like this is copletely ok when you try to pretend you are taking the high ground while poiting at problems that dont exist and encourage people to pick up picks and fork and walk down the street to lynch some one stop trying to paint geek culture as sexist and something that hates women because it doesnt and right now, YOU are the one thats keeping them out, stringing fear and baseless accusations also if were to actually read up on gamergate or even talk with any one that claims to be part of gamergate on twitter or whatever you'll realize how wrong you are with those accusations of gamergate is sexist, or maybe you actually did read about it and realized you were wrong and keep the narrative up to push up your agenda of everything is sexist? DONT BE DISHONEST WITH YOUR AUDIENCE they are the ones that pay your bills for christ sake how does the editor in chief at prospect magazine, looks at this and is like "oh yea this seems like a clearly good quality article?" yea you might get some click by click baiting people but your credibility is gonna shatter even more than that it already is to the point where people wont even want to even come to this site the legit way and use something like archive.is to avoid giving you any revenue, because you clearly dont deserve it if this is the kind of articles you publish also i like to point out that this says no where that it is an opinion piece or an editorial so you expect me or any one else that has a brain to think this is proper journalistic work?

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About this author

Serena Kutchinsky
Serena Kutchinsky is Digital Editor of Newsweek Europe, and former Digital Editor of Prospect. She tweets @SKutchinsky
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