The 7 Most Ridiculous Things About Calling Out Fake Fangirls

Fake Geek Girls

There have always been attacks on "fake geek girls," but recently some comics professionals have joined the battle. Which makes sense, because fights with imaginary women who don't wear many clothes is a big part of that industry. Although that doesn't explain artist Tony Harris (Starman, Ex Machina) waking up and thinking "I make my living drawing comics, so I'd better call the guys pathetic losers and the girls whores. That way I can concentrate on my true fan base: the invisible Zorblaxians, aliens free from gender who talk through the fillings in my teeth!" Harris posted a long Facebook rant decrying the cosplayers and the pathetic men they prey on, and used a detailed number scale to explain exactly how "hot" these women really were.

Here's a few choice quotes (but you should read the whole thing, one outpouring of blue balls crushed by their own overloaded pressure to create a pure diamond of misogyny):

"... according to a LOT of average Comic Book Fans who either RARELY speak to, or NEVER speak to girls. Some Virgins, ALL unconfident when it comes to girls ..."

His rant contains more sexual frustration than a monastery opposite a coed trampoline-testing park, and is less logical. You can actually see his intelligence decreasing as the rage burns out his remaining neurons, ending with that Algernonian flashback to the kindergarten where he developed his attitude toward women.

"... if ANY of these guys that you hang on tried to talk to you out of that Con? You wouldnt give them the fucking time of day. Shut up you damned liar, no you would not. Lying, Liar Face."

The Evil of Costumes

Harris' argument is that these fake geeks are psychic vampires, sucking up the attention of nerds.

"... the thought of guys pleasuring themselves to the memory of you hanging on them with your glossy open lips, promising them the Moon and the Stars of pleasure, just makes your head vibrate."

Harvesting the imagination of other people masturbating in order to power a psychic vibrator has to be the worst supervillain plan ever. He assumes that someone painstakingly crafting a character costume can only be doing it for men who like that character. He directly states that wearing a costume that a man might like implies the offer of sex. If he ever discovers swimwear, he'll have to be banned from beaches. The idea that a woman might like the costume, or anything, simply doesn't occur to him.

"And here it is, THE REASON WHY ALL THAT, sickens us: BECAUSE YOU DONT KNOW SHIT ABOUT COMICS, BEYOND WHATEVER GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCH YOU DID TO GET REF ON THE MOST MAINSTREAM CHARACTER WITH THE MOST REVEALING COSTUME EVER."

He complains that some of them looked up the costume instead of memorizing all the stories. It's almost like comics have a visual component! As an artist, you'd think he'd know that. But after that rant, I'm not convinced that he remembers to breathe without a writer reminding him to.

Judging the Fake

The idea of standing in judgment over other fans is insane. You can't own geekdom. You enjoy it. That's what it's for. The only arena where your enjoyment can triumph over someone else's is martial arts, and comics trivia knowledge is the exact opposite skill set. The only comics person who gets to judge everyone in revealing clothing is Dredd.

If you're calling someone out as a fake fan, what's your victory condition? Preventing someone else from liking things you like? When your plan is "prevent people from enjoying Superman," you're a Hostess snack cake villain, and even more irrelevant to the modern world. When someone appoints himself the World's Greatest Thor Fan, he needs to understand that Asgardians don't require defense against cooties. Those new fans aren't Skrulls. For a superhero, battling imposters isn't a problem, it's a Tuesday. And if you think the greatest Thor fan in the world is male, wow, you've been using a different Internet from me.

There Is No Such Thing as a "Real" Geek

The Internet is stuffed with idiots decrying fake geek girls. Fighting against fake geeks is like fighting against unicorns: You're an asshole, and even if they were real, your stated goal is trying to kill something wonderful. More people liking things you like is a good thing. If you're actively trying to keep people out of your hobby, you don't have one -- you have an excuse. You're not celibate because of your chaste devotion to Green Lantern. Using Iron Man's armor as an excuse to avoid people is the most tragic thing I've ever heard, and it was designed to be a defense mechanism.

If you want to be in charge of other geeks, great -- become a dungeon master. Set up an adventure, invite some players and realize that the whole point of liking things is to enjoy them together. Of course, every rant against fakes points out that they're not talking about the "real" geek girls. Which is weird, because I get paid to talk about why Iron Man can beat Batman, and I never sat for any official geek certification exam.

Let's Talk About Whores

According to its advocates, "whore" is a great word. And they're right because it's useful. It's like a hazard sign for other people: you instantly know to avoid the person using that word without exposing yourself to too much of their poison. Comics writer and commentator Dirk Manning reposted this meme ...

... then carefully mansplained that "whore" isn't sexist. It's true that "whore" is a powerfully charged word with many layers of socio-economic meaning, and can be distracting, so I've prepared a quick flowchart to simplify it:

You don't call someone a whore for wearing revealing clothes. You don't call him or her a whore for enjoying attention. (Both arguments apply to me, by the way -- I'm writing this in my boxers.) You don't even call her a whore if she's a woman you're paying for sex, because that's just good sense. You're polite to taxi drivers, and you're only getting inside their car. Because you know that they can make the ride more expensive and less pleasant for you. And if you think your partner's mood doesn't affect things once you're having sex anyway, well, now we know why you have to pay for it.

It's also applied to the booth babes, the models hired to wear costumes at events. Some people complain that they're not real geeks. I assume that they also hunt down the workers who put up Assassin's Creed posters and demand that they detail Desmond's insane plot or be branded as hypocrites.

"Whore" is used throughout comics and gaming fandom, but even to the most sexist mind it's a backfiring insult. Because the guy is admitting that she has something valuable while he can't even give his away. And if women are whores for dressing up as female comics characters, what would that make the people who created those costumes and sent them out to make money?

Geeks Aren't a Minority

Many man-child warriors take a defensive tone about these "invaders," but you don't get to claim that you're a minority when The Avengers made more money than a dozen countries this year. Video games have midnight launches reported in the news. There was a struggle against geekery, and the geeks won. We won so hard that our only complaints are about Hollywood making billion-dollar movies of our stuff too fast.

Bringing up gender in comics fandom should be like mentioning your favorite ice cream flavor during a football conversation: irrelevant, and revealing you to be a child. Except children can still like comics without being assholes about it.

The Tragedy

The tragedy of territorial geeks is that they found the wonderful world of fantasy, then missed its point. Some people really are the stereotypical geeks, escaping socially awkward childhoods by finding funner things to do. I was the last picked for football, was occasionally thumped because people found it funny and can talk for a full hour about my favorite Doctor Who original novels. Only that last part still affects my life, and it's awesome. But some people escaped into a world without bullying, and instead of thinking "Great," they thought, "My turn."

You can't be a better fan than anyone else anymore. Memorizing issue numbers was always useless, but in a world with Wikipedia, it's outright embarrassing. The whole point of liking things is to enjoy them. More people means more fun. Even if you're a total sociopath, more people in your hobby means more products for you to enjoy. And if you want to turn it into a fight, someone who likes a character and creates a costume is actually closer to the comics creators than someone who just likes the character.

If you base your self-esteem on how much of a fan you are, neither of those words really apply to you.

Luke also studies Sexual Martial Arts and mocks The 6 Worst Motivational Posters Every Made By Man. He has a website, tumbles and responds to every single tweet.