Grab your wordy t-shirts and hide your fanfiction the Feminist Collective is talking about comic books and geek culture! Between all the comic book movies coming out every summer, the inaccurate but popular Big Bang Theory, and a surge of popular fantastical novels, it’s never been more hip to be square. However this new wave of mainstream geekery has shed light on Fandom and its misogyny.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the industry of superhero comic books where even the creators will get in on the act. One of the more recent infamous rants against women was made by Starman creator and five time Eisner award nominee, Tony Harris, whose basic ignorance of human nature reflects that of superhero Fandom as a whole.

The speech, which was read at last Monday’s Feminist Collective meeting, noted Harris’s anger at “Fake Cosplay Chicks” who go to conventions despite knowing very little about comic books and attend just for the attention of the nerdy men. I will note that the post received 79 pages of comments, mostly of encouragement. One user, Dirk Manning was so inspired that he posted his own micro in response to all those “Fake Geek Girls” out there: “Dear girls who take pictures in slutty clothing & glasses & label the caption ‘nerd lol’ You’re not a nerd; you’re a whore who found glasses.” Yikes.

This speech has already been talked to death in the Fandom but for those new to the community it can be a shocking dismissal. Fandom veterans such as myself explained how a man can be accepted into Fandom with a fedora alone but any woman trying to get her feet wet will often find herself grilled for information instead of guided. The idea that geek girls are a new development is also proof that these so called “true nerds” have reached critical research failure. Geeky women have always been part of the community. The first Star Trek convention was organized by the late great Joan Winston, Tolkien was the father of modern fantasy but it was women like Ursula K. Le Guin who standardized speculative fiction, and 50% of tumblr is all women “squeeing” about their favorite characters to thousands of likes. So why have comic books stayed so toxic?

Many in the collective’s discussion compared comic book culture to that of video games— both have over a long period of time accumulated a built in male gaze. Characters will be hyper sexualized to appeal to the main demographic of twenty-something young men. DC Comics, so repeated an offender that several people at the meeting instinctively rolled their eyes, has responded to a decline in sales by doubling down on this market instead of diversifying. No one over 35, no one married, just all angry young men. A Batwoman here and a Wonder Woman there for variety and because they’re more difficult to get rid of. It has been theorized that the reasoning for this may connect back to its fandom in interesting ways. Comic books have been around for so long that the fans are now running the asylum. Fans who felt entitled to women in real life now get to write the stories in which women are objectified, and thus, inspire another generation to write and draw the same way, and then to claim this is how its always been done so there’s no reason to change.

Similar to mainstream culture, it’s important to find a safe space to express your creativity. As geek culture grows, women are stepping up to support one another in the community instead of hiding in the corners insisting ‘they’re not like those other girls’ in self-preservation. The discussion only briefly touched on the racism, the internalized misogyny, and the complicated relationships with sexuality that can be found without fandom. But then “I love all the fictional women you hate!” has turned into a rallying cry for many geek girls trying to enjoy their happy fun times in peace. In this way the Feminist Collective is the perfect place to talk about Fandom because both should make a person feel better. Someone else noticed this little detail in the story. Someone else wants to do something about it.