Engaging, insightful, and nice illustrations. Though it brings up some issues that always baffled me:
Why are some people so down about girl gamers? In 1990s high school I only knew one girl who seemed into video games, but that was one of the things that made her cool in my eyes.
I can see there being a problem with not fitting in with peer interests, but why the rejection from similarly inclined geeks? The only excuse that comes to mind is socially awkward people having trouble admitting their commonalities or admiration for other socially awkward people.
The whole “fake geek girl” thing confounds me too. Can geek poseurs even exist? How can that be a thing? If anything fascinates you enough that you want to emulate it, even part of the time, doesn’t that kinda make you a geek?
So maybe you have more mainstream interests as well: Great, nice to hear you’re balancing different aspects of your life.
Or maybe you aren’t the foremost exponent of (insert geek culture here): No problem, we’re all learning.
Or maybe you dress or act a certain way to get positive attention: Don’t most people do this throughout their lives in various contexts? How is awareness and manipulation of your own social impact a bad thing?
Just thinking about this makes me want to throw up my hands in exasperation.
