I have a question, Comic Book Guy...

Hi, Comic Book Guy. Nice to meet you. Long-time comic book fan, once lapsed, now returned. For purposes of context, I feel obligated to point out that I have to sit down to pee. I hope you are well, particularly after the uproar and indignity you've experienced lately. Anyway, I have a question. Actually, many.


You've essentially made a point between distinguishing women who are 'real nerds' vs. women who for whatever personal reasons are immersing themselves into a subculture they know little or nothing about for attention. Now, let's say for the sake of argument, you're absolutely correct. That there are some women who dress up in (sometimes overtly-sexual) costumes in a public arena where it's acceptable (it's like Vegas for dorks), and, for either cold, hard, corporate cash or the gratification through inflated self-esteem, ply for the attention of geeks, most of them male.

How does it work when you meet someone female who is cosplaying? I have to think that you've met quite a few. It's clear that some sort of personal decision is made as to the cosplayer's 'validity' (let's assume such a thing exists) as a member of the geek community. 

How is that internal process carried out? Is it a snap decision based on how much skin is showing? What about the accuracy of the costume? Do you suspend judgement until speaking with the cosplayer / female geek / potential outsider / possible 'predator' (Imagine those options given in Terminator-Vision while scanning a con crowd) to critique their knowledge? Is judgement as a 'whore who found glasses' contingent on a certain level of knowledge? Is judgement based on a minimum level of sincere love for a genre? Perhaps it rests on whether or not the female geek's enthusiasm is properly-channeled into the same interests as yours? Does a willingness or refusal to go out for drinks after the convention play a part in the attention-whore judgement?

Now, it's reasonable to presume that at least one of these plays a part in your judgement, and at some point, you met a significantly-large number of women which you judged 'attention-whores' to believe it's a pervasive problem. We have to presume that. Otherwise you would be making a groundless, generalized claim based entirely on a frothy mixture of some skimpy-costumed 'booth-babes', front-and-center Power Girl outfits, a declined offer for a date, and a lot of internal sexual frustration turned to anger. And that can't be it.

Let's say that I cosplayed as Betty Ross, with a black halter top, pants and boots, red skin, and Big Ass Sword in hand (I totally have never done this though, as far as you know). You see me across the room. How does your thought process play out? Are an exposed belly and arms too much skin? Is only vaguely approximating her clothes enough? I have an encyclopedic knowledge of some characters I would never cosplay, but know virtually nothing of a few I've fallen in love with since coming back to comics, Betty included. Does that invalidate me? Can I only dress as those I can recite the history of? I love sci-fi, have a moderate interest in fantasy, and can't stand any Anime I've been exposed to. Is there a point-based system? Am I automatically judged an attention whore if you love Anime?

Has delving into semantics revealed just how absurd 'judging' people is? Hopefully it has. 

Because then I wouldn't have to explain what it feels like to be a partitioned, largely-unwelcome minority in a typically-hostile environment. You know, the type of environment where posting *any* pictures is giving the go ahead to have unwanted sexual fantasies emailed to you, or where guys in pod-casts talk about a female character *wanting* to be raped, or endless male-gaze books on the rack (it might seem strange, but all sorts of little things can add up to a feeling of exclusion...weird, huh?). Now added to that is an expectation to pass some mysterious geek test, like being pressed through a fine mesh screen so that what's left can be certified 'gatekeeper approved'. 

But your eyes already glazed over and you checked out a couple of paragraphs back, didn't you? For the record, I wouldn't go out for drinks, either. I don't date elitist tools.