While I love the geeky spaces I am in, that doesn’t mean they are free of issues that cloud the enjoyment for others. For today’s 30 Day Geek Out Challenge question, I am sharing one of the downsides of geeky communities I want to see improved.
Just as a reminder, the 30 Day Geek Out Challenge is all about what makes you geeky, from fandoms to hobbies, favorite characters and more. I’m going to do this challenge along with my regular schedule of posts, so there will be tons of content from me this month! Thanks to Megan at A Geeky Gal for creating this!
Today’s question is: Something you want to improve about the geek community?
Toxicity is an easy one to say for this because every corner of every geeky community has toxic people ruining the fun for everyone else. But I’m going to go a more specific step forward and say the lack of inclusivity in geeky spaces.
The classic example is “girls can’t play video games”. Other examples I’ve seen are “plus-sized people can’t cosplay”, “women can’t be in [enter any fandom here]”, “people of color can’t cosplay white characters”, etc. Of course, that is all utter nonsense, but people have these philosophies so deeply ingrained that it is the truth to them.
In my opinion, this all comes down to lack of representation and highlighting that these people do exist and in much higher numbers than you think. It’s not about finding the one person, but the many and showcasing all of them. Also including them naturally should be way more common. We should see more women on convention panels that aren’t solely talking about women in [enter industry/fandom here]. Same with people of color, varying body sizes, LGBTQ, etc. And in a world so digitally connected as ours, it isn’t hard. The hardest part is to actually care enough to do it.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxwAllIhSpH/
At the end of the day, we are all just people who enjoy similar interests. So we should all be represented and treated equally.
Make sure you go an check out A Geeky Gal’s post for this question too!
One of my least favorite things about the “geek community” is how you can’t really be “part of fandom” if you don’t know every single last detail about it.
I don’t run into that much anymore, but my primary geeky communities are other bloggers who all share the same mindset that fandoms are for everyone at any knowledge level.
Good to hear!!
I appreciate the gatekeeping comments you made. One reason why I like to cosplay is to see other bodies cosplaying other characters. It helps provide acceptance for me in my own body, but also to see body diversity in other characters. It’s so important that the cosplay community becomes a more open and less fatphobic space.