Since the beginning of fandoms and nerd culture it has been a widely held belief that the term “being a nerd” came from a masculine point of view. I don’t know how many times I’ve been told “you can’t like this” or “you can’t like that”, or worse I’ve been marginalized and led to believe that I should only like princesses and makeup.
Back in 2013 when I started The Game Of Nerds I was told, “You can’t start a nerd blog, you’re a girl, no one will care.” I was told girls can’t like Star Wars, Star Trek and video games because they’re for guys only, I was even told once, “superheroes aren’t for you”. Now imagine that if you can for one second?
Well guess what. Not only do I like Star Wars, Star Trek and video games but so do an awful lot of other girls. And news flash, here I am now four years and 8,000 plus fans later and TGON is not only going strong but growing leaps and bounds thank you very much!
Since her inception in 1941, Wonder Woman has been an idol for girls all over the world. She’s not just some “hot chick” in minimumal clothing and a lasso, she is a bad ass amazon warrior who fights for truth and justice. In the beginning, she may have just been the Justice League’s secretary, but she’s made huge leaps during her 75 years. She is hands down one of the most famous female heroines of all time behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lara Croft.
For years, we’ve been dealt female superheroes who languished on the sidelines with movies like Fantastic Four and Avengers. Fangirls have begged Marvel for a Black Widow solo movie to no avail, so when Wonder Woman was announced we praised Hera! We finally got a female solo superhero movie and none other than our idol. None of us cared how good Batman v Superman was, we were there to see Wonder Woman and maybe Ben Affleck’s abs. We were all dying to catch a glimpse of her and know if she was everything we wanted her to be. Turns out she was that and more. In my opinion, Wonder Woman was the best part of Batman v Superman.
Now, DC REALLY dropped the ball on the promotion for this movie. I expected a lot more, because I’ve maybe seen two or three commercials for it in the past few months and I’ve encountered only one giant promo poster. Honestly, I’ve seen more promotion from the fans on social media then Warner Bros. Now that’s pretty sad, especially when Justice League is coming in November. It will be interesting to see the level of promotion compared to this film. Of course that’s not the only issue, there is high drama going around about men being mad over “Women’s Only” screenings of Wonder Woman and accusations of misandry ringing aloud. Yes, you read that correctly. Boys are mad because we want to see the movie with our girlfriends. If this was some RomCom it wouldn’t be an issue!
But before you bring up the “well we want Star Wars all to ourselves” argument, let me remind you that you already essentially do! How many episodes of The Big Bang Theory or other television series are there where the “boys” go see the movie without the girls? Did anyone ask Amy or Bernadette if they wanted to see the new Star Wars? Because I sure as hell made my husband drag me to his company event when they got to see it early. I also remember an episode where Amy schooled everyone in Raiders of the Lost Ark and the boys spent the rest of the episode fumbling and stammering at her revelation, accusing her of “not getting it”. Fandoms and movies shouldn’t be about this kind of drama. We should be coming together to celebrate how amazing this is in general.
With Wonder Woman being released, I do hope there is a change in the movie industry to more female driven movies. Little girls need more heroes! When I was growing up Princess Leia was and still is my ultimate idol. Nobody can beat her smarts, sass, and fearlessness. Years later when I found out Rey was a Jedi, I bawled and called my brother, “GIRLS CAN BE JEDIS TOO!!! I CAN PLAY NOW!!”. I may have been a nearly thirty year old hysterical fan girl, but he got the memo and sent me his green lightsaber from our childhood with the note, “The Force Was Always Strongest in You.” When Rogue One came out, I had to see it multiple times to really grasp that Star Wars was giving me my first Disney Princess all wrapped up in black. How can you argue that a female isn’t important to an entire series, when she saved the whole galaxy?
The moral of my story is stop claiming something is for one gender or another. Can’t we all just be excited that we have an AWESOME and POSTIVE female role model for our young girls? In a world that’s tied up in Kardashian looks and high fashion, why can’t we love a bad ass girl with a whip that isn’t involved in a Fifty Shades of Grey plot? Diana doesn’t belong to you or me or anyone, she fights for all of us, she fights for truth. Why does Diana have to specifically belong to someone at all?
The world is forever changing and fandom and nerd culture along with it, words are gaining new meaning. Nerd doesn’t just mean one thing anymore, it means A LOT of things. It means you’re passionate, you love without bounds, and you care about something other than yourself.
Because guys, this image below is the reason why we need this, we need it for them.
Pic Source: Geoff Johns Twitter Account
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