Fanboys are from Endor, geek girls are from Alderaan

Princess Leia as slave girl never did it for me.

Part of it was that I don’t think she was supposed to do it for me or anybody.  Being added to the harem of a giant slobbering slug was not sexy and having to wear that outfit was a humiliation, and that’s how Carrie Fisher played it, with the sullen bravado of a proud heroine determined not to show the extent of how deeply humiliated she felt.

And it’s important that none of our three heroes notices what she’s wearing or not wearing.  Han, of course, can’t.  He’s blind.  Lando is too busy maintaining his disguise and trying not to be noticed himself.  And Luke, besides having that whole Jedi self-discipline thing going on, has instinctively limited himself to purely brotherly feelings towards Leia since the opening scenes of The Empire Strikes Back.  If we notice her or let our notice linger we put ourselves on the side of Jabba and his grotesque retainers.  Better to think chaste thoughts of muffin hairdos.

But another part of it is that Carrie Fisher just wasn’t the type.  She looked like everybody’s kid sister dressed up for Halloween…throughout all three movies, no matter what she was wearing.  Fisher was always standing in for a better and sexier actress of a type that hadn’t been invented yet and wouldn’t be until she was needed when Indy turned up in that mountaintop bar in the Himalayas and Marion hauled off and socked him.

But still, Fisher looked pretty good in the outfit and she showed that a relatively cute girl with a good figure, a bit of a tan, and some professional waxing can rock the harem girl look and surprise friends and relations and special others by being a bit of a knock-out.  So I understand why the harem girl look would appeal to some geek girls in the mood to play sexy dress-up for Halloween, costume parties, or comic book conventions.

Anybody can pull off a sexy witch or pirate maid, but it takes real panache to make a convincing Princess Leia.

There’s possibly also the added thrill of living out a boyfriend or girlfriend’s secret fantasies and, since humiliation doesn’t have to be part of the act, some showing off is allowed with the result a much sexier Princess Leia than the actual Princess Leia.

I do understand Courtney Stoker’s frustration though.  The fanboys on the panels at these conventions don’t have to look like Han Solo or even Luke Skywalker to get themselves taken seriously by the geek girls in the crowd…although, part of the problem is how seriously they take themselves, which is so seriously that they apparently don’t need to be taken seriously by anybody else, especially the geek girls, bare-bellied or not.

The comic book world and the sci-fi and sword and sorcery and gaming moons that have come to orbit it have been boys clubs for a long, long time.  Engineering has been less exclusively phallocentric.  And---time for gross generalizations.  Keep in mind that I’m the father of two teenage sons for whom the high-point of a recent trip to New York City was a visit to Forbidden Planet---we’re talking about a class of men who typically are not only hopeless around women but suspect themselves of being repulsive to most members of the opposite persuasion.  And it’s not just because of their minimal fashion sense, less than attentive grooming, uncertain hygiene, low muscle tone, general lack of manual dexterity except when manipulating pencils or joysticks, and the perhaps unfair reputation for being sticky from things besides Cheese Doodle dust and Mountain Dew.  There’s their idea that flirting is a matter of talking long and loud about the kill power of imaginary weaponry carried by fictitious characters and ranting obsessively about continuity errors in the sixth issue of a comic book series that was discontinued three years ago.

It doesn’t help, as Sady writing at Tiger Beatdown points out, that these are

…dudes whose expectations of women were primarily informed by ever-more-anatomically-impossible video game heroines, the flying thongs of superhero justice to be found in comic books, and cooing, squealing, saucer-eyed anime girl… 

But there’s also the fact that the central myth of their lives---retold and retold in their comic books, favorite novels and movies, and even in their video games---is that soon something will happen that will allow them to reveal their so far well-hidden awesomeness and when they do the whole world will be sore amazed and shower them with adulation and riches and, at least that part of the world that is young, female, nubile, cooing, saucer-eyed, and stacked, undying and unquestioning love, along with lots of sex.  Almost certainly a great many of these guys have allowed themselves to slip into thinking that if the world had any sense it would recognize their inner awesomeness without their having to leave their keyboards and reward them commensurately, particularly that part of the world that is young, female, nubile, cooing, saucer-eyed, and stacked.  The fact that world refuses to do this is a source of frustration and anger, not to mention self-doubt, and probably causes them to deal with live women with an attractive mix of aggrieved entitlement, resentment, defensive hostility, and projected self-loathing.  If you know in advance that an encounter with a live human female is going have the same result as an encounter with a fantasy female in a comic book, movie, or video game---that is, you’re going home alone---you might as well, um, content yourself, with the fantasy.  She’s not going to smirk, sneer, or make an Ewww face.

It hasn’t sunk in that there’s now a cohort of smart, feisty, enthusiastic fangirls for whom the coming DC reboot is a matter of earth(s)-shaking importance, who can talk long and loud about the inner lives of all five Robins, let their tempers flare at the continuity errors in the Star Wars prequels, and are willing to stay up all night debating what makes VII the best of all the Final Fantasies.

The girls are trying to force their way into the club and the strategy is, whether they’re dressed like Princess Leia, Princess Zelda, Princess Peach, Lara Croft, or Batgirl, to reject them before they reject you.

This is a fear that’s not just keeping women out of the discussion.  It keeps them out of an industry.

On the other hand, we’re talking about what costumes that grown-ups should wear to a comic book convention.

_______________________

Photo via geek feminism.org.

Here’s the link to Courtney Stoker’s post, Geek girls and the problem of self-objectification.

Sady’s post at Tiger Beatdown, besides making its other points, compares Olivia Munn, now of The Daily Show, late of Attack of the Show, to Megan Fox and comes down solidly on the side of Fox.

And here’s a report on “Batgirl’s” appearance at Comic-Con.

Related but on another level and another platform: What it’s like to play online games as a grown-up.

Comments

[Kaleberg]

The thing is that most of the geeks I have known, and I count myself as one of them, have found love and happiness with a good looking sexually attractive partner. Some of them have taken longer than others, and I've been surprised at the number of successful pairings. Did you know that female librarians can swoop down and carry men off to their lairs? I didn't, but a guy I knew found out.

I agree that a lot of the sex object stuff in fandom is a bit one sided, but I've noticed a lot more guys making an effort at the various anime conferences that spill out onto the streets here and there. The look for men is obviously not quite the same as for women. It usually involves leather vests, stylized pants, weird looking hair and sometimes a sword. Not being a cosplay female, I can't evaluate the effect, but it definitely shows effort, and a lot of them were talking amiably with anime dressed women.

You should at least be thankful the guys don't go all out for the Jabba the Hut look alike competition.

[Booba Fett]

I am a female cosplayer. I must say there is something so amazingly fun and liberating dressing up as a character I have cherished since childhood and watching other little kids look up at me with awe. It is, however, annoying when people (usually guys) only recognize my costumes when they are the "sexy" characters. I dressed up as three characters this year at San Diego Comic Con: Celes from Final Fantasy VI (which by the way is > than VII), Harley Quinn, and Andrea from The Walking Dead (comic... not TV show). I was occasionally recognized as Celes (mostly by people working at SquareEnix) and other people dressed as Final Fantasy characters. The majority of people who liked my costume had NO idea who I was and just thought I looked "pretty." I was DEFINITELY recognized as Harley and got hounded by everyone from G4 to the creepy mouth breathing mid-40's dude with a camera. And then there's my Andrea costume. I was so damned proud of it. Not a single person recognized it... not even when I was standing right next to The Walking Dead booth. T_T

The reason for my frustration: I not only seriously considered cosplaying as Andrea because a) she's a strong and beautiful woman, b) she's intelligent and is a surgeon with a rifle, and c) she's badass... simple as that... and NO ONE bothered to look at me twice because I had a giant scar on my face, wore a tank top and jeans, and had a rifle over my shoulder. You know who one person thought I was: Claire from Lost. /facepalm

Anyway, my point is this: Yes, I enjoy looking pretty or sexy in a costume every now and then... but when I (and many other cosplayers) don a costume of someone who doesn't have those attributes, we're basically chopped liver. Come on guys! Show the REAL geek girls some love!

[grendelkhan]

This bit really resonated:

the central myth of their lives---retold and retold in their comic books, favorite novels and movies, and even in their video games---is that soon something will happen that will allow them to reveal their so far well-hidden awesomeness

It's like the bit from "On the Rainy River" in The Things They Carried, which struck me as painfully true.

If the stakes ever became high enough--if the evil were evil enough, if the good were good enough--I would simply tap a secret reservoir of courage that had been accumulating inside me over the years. Courage, I seemed to think, comes to us in finite quantities, like an inheritance, and by being frugal and stashing it away and letting it earn interest, we steadily increase our moral capital in preparation for that day when the account must be drawn down. It was a comforting theory. It dispensed with all those bothersome little acts of daily courage; it offered hope and grace to the repetitive coward; it justified the past while amortizing the future.

I think this is why I liked Captain America so much. Steve Rogers doesn't get superpowers and then turn into a hero. He was already a courageous hero when he was just a stunted kid; all the superpowers did was allow his body to finally cash the checks his courage kept writing. Now that's what a hero should be.

[Pat Powers]

Bah. There's something vaguely jerkish about your rant. The girls who are dressing as Slave Leia are not all as pretty as the ones in your picture, many are ordinary looking women. They are enjoying the fantasy of being Slave Leia. The guys who admire them are enjoying the fantasy of having Slave Leia around. Jeebus, fella, let them have their fantasy lives instead of trying to draw the Real World into it.

If guys are not working, dating, etc., those are real world issues that have to be dealt with in real world terms. Slave Leia and the rest of it is just for fun. Why do some people -- points at Mannion -- have to drag the real world into fantasy? There are some places where compartmentalizing is appropriate, this is one of them.