[Air-L] nerd culture and new media

[Tuszynski, Stephanie]

I had a feeling that godawful Newsweek article was going to come up. Because it's only okay for women to be geeks/nerds/"fill in intellectual stereotype here" as long as they "sex it up" enough? grr.

Broadsheet wrote about that article last week as well:
http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/06/12/nerd_girls/index.html

There's a big difference between being able to be yourself without suffering the repercussions and *having* to perform (or overperform) your gender role in order to validate or offset your non-conformist tendencies.

Rar.


Stephanie Tuszynski
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Theatre and Film
University of Toledo



Message: 7
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:26:56 -0400
From: Steve Cavrak <Steve.Cavrak at Uvm.Edu>
Subject: Re: [Air-L] nerd culture and new media
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
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A post on the Chronicle of Higher Education Wired Campus points to a  
Newsweek story on "nerdchic," the follow up comments provide  
interesting reflections on the value of nerds and role models, etc.


'Nerd Girl' Group at Tufts U. Seeks to Challenge Stereotypes of  
Engineering
June 16, 2008 | 4 comments
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3092/nerd-girl-group-at- 
tufts-u-seeks-to-challenge-stereotypes-of-engineering

The latest issue of Newsweek features an article about?and plenty of  
glossy pictures of??Nerd Girls,? a student group at Tufts University.  
They group is working on building a solar car that they plan to drive  
around the country visiting schools and encouraging girls to pursue  
engineering?and making a documentary about their adventures. ?They?re  
?Beauty and the Geek? all in one package!? says their Web site. ? 
Jeffrey R. Young
Posted on Mon Jun 16, 03:25 PM | Permalink | Comment [4]

[1] Revenge of the Nerdette, http://www.newsweek.com/id/140457
"As geeks become chic in all levels of society, an unlikely subset is  
starting to roar. Meet the Nerd Girls: they're smart, they're techie  
and they're hot."

[2] NerdGirls.org, http://www.nerdgirls.org/