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Women’s History Month: Women in Video Games

Written by GeekGirlCon Manager of Editorial Services Winter Downs.

Women in video games may seem like a relatively new phenomenon, given the coverage in recent years about girl gamers, “fake geek girls”, female representation in games and game development, and debates over what proportion of gamers are actually women. (According to some studies, as many as 52%.)

In fact, although it’s true that the industry has traditionally been dominated by men, women have always been involved, creating and co-creating some of the most influential games, game companies, and genres in the medium.

Winter Downs
“Rock On!”

Dead Scare: Interview with Game Writer Elsa S. Henry

Written by GeekGirlCon Manager of Editorial Services Winter Downs.

Dead Scare, which at the time of writing has hit 86% of its Kickstarter goal, is “a tabletop RPG where you play the women and children fending for themselves against zombies and the McCarthy regime in 1950s America.”

It’s written by women and non-binary game designers, about women, children, and other marginalized people fending off zombies in McCarthy-era America. Russian spies unleash a bio-weapon in an attempt to assassinate President Truman, turning everyone who was out in the streets and other public places into flesh-eating zombies. As a result, the only human survivors are people who were excluded from the public sphere–women, children, and people with disabilities.

The game is based on Apocalypse World by Vincent Baker, a versatile system that’s been adapted for many genres and settings.

GeekGirlCon had the opportunity to talk to Elsa S. Henry, the writer of Dead Scare, and ask her a few questions.

Winter Downs
“Rock On!”

Grammar Ain’t All That

Written by GeekGirlCon Manager of Editorial Services Winter Downs.

Language is a fundamental part of being human; in fact linguist Steven Pinker argued in his book The Language Instinct that it’s an evolutionary instinct hard-wired into the brain, and that every three-year-old is a “grammatical genius.” People develop languages even when not taught to speak, which is how a group of Deaf children spontaneously invented Nicaraguan Sign Language in the 1970s and 80s. It’s not surprising that people get very invested in the language that they speak.

Like a lot of bookwormish people, I went through a phase–in my case, in my late teens–when I became preoccupied with “correct” language. As a writer, I thought that having impeccable spelling, grammar, punctuation, and syntax would make my prose better. Of course, getting hung up on all of that only made my writing stilted, painful both to read and to write.

Worse, I realized, by valuing “correctness” above all else I was doing my part to uphold a structure of oppression. The more I learned about the history of language, about who gets to define what is correct, and about whose speech is labeled incorrect, the more I wanted to wash my hands of that whole business.

Winter Downs
“Rock On!”

Afrofuturism: Black History, Black Futures

Written by GeekGirlCon Manager of Editorial Services Winter Downs.

“It is about elevation. It’s taking what you are and becoming something else. It’s being a butterfly.”

David Brothers of 4thletter.net, on Afrofuturism

It might seem odd at first to use Black History Month to highlight something called Afrofuturism–I mean, future is right there in the name–but sci-fi and fantasy have long been a way of exploring historical and current social dynamics, and Afrofuturism is no exception. Many people writing on the subject have observed that the movement is at least in part a response by a people who have had vast swaths of their history stripped from them–which is certainly the case for African Americans who are descended from slaves, though Afrofuturism as a movement encompasses much more of the African diaspora than just African Americans.

Afrofuturism spans many genres and media. It’s better described as a cultural aesthetic than as a specific genre, in which an Afrocentric vision is applied to works of science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, and magical realism. In addition to Afrofuturist novels and art, there is a long tradition of Afrofuturism in music. Best of all, many of its most noted pioneers are women.

Winter Downs
“Rock On!”

Double Others: GeekGirlCon ’14 panel recap

Written by GeekGirlCon Manager of Editorial Services Winter Downs.

The “Double Others” panel was one of the highlights of my weekend at GeekGirlCon ‘14. In case you couldn’t make it, here’s a recap of its exploration of the depiction of non-humans in genre fiction.

Our panelists defined the “double other” as a character in genre fiction who is both a person of color and non-human–alien, vampire, werewolf, mutant, etc. They called on the audience to list some examples and got a variety of replies: Worf and Tuvok from Star Trek; Gamora, Drax, and Blade from the Marvel comics and movies; Lister and Cat from Red Dwarf; Tara from True Blood; the entire werewolf clan from Twilight.

Winter Downs
“Rock On!”

Join Our Staff

If you’ve ever wondered what makes GeekGirlCon such an exciting, vibrant, and welcoming place, a big part of that is the dedication of our all-volunteer staff, working year-round to make sure the Con reflects the best of inclusive geekiness.

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GeekGirlCon staffers at the con.
All images from GeekGirlCon flickr.

Would you like to be a part of that? Well, great news: we’re hiring!

The staff is already looking forward to GeekGirlCon ‘15, and to make sure our fifth convention exceeds the high bar we’ve set in previous years, we’re looking for passionate, fun, geeky people to add to our team. From Director of Programming, to Marketing Events Coordinator, to Copywriter, and beyond (that’s right, you could be writing blog posts just like this one!), we have many awesome opportunities for you to develop your skills and be part of something great.

Head on over to the Volunteer page and take a look at the open positions. If you don’t see something that fits you right now, check back; we’ll be adding more over the next few weeks.

Written by GeekGirlCon Manager of Editorial Services Winter Downs.

Winter Downs
“Rock On!”

When Did I Realize I Was a Geek?

Written by GeekGirlCon Manager of Editorial Services Winter Downs.

Like a lot of geeks, that self-knowledge crept up on me without my noticing, but looking back, there were many early warning signs.

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The Nazgul: here to teach little hobbitses a valuable lesson about road safety.
Image source: arwen-undomiel

It started with a love of reading, especially sci-fi and fantasy. My bookwormish nature led me quickly to classic British fantasy professors J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. I read The Lord of the Rings over and over. I was never seen without a book in hand–so much so that my Year 3 (2nd Grade) teacher called me “Nose-in-Book” as if it were part of my name. I was just lucky that most of my walk to school took me down pedestrian-only paths, or I’d probably have been run over while Frodo got stabbed by a Nazgûl on Weathertop. I wrote my first novella, a Narnia-inspired fantasy, at age 7. (Mercifully, no copies are still extant!)

Winter Downs
“Rock On!”

Giant Dorks Dork out about Legend of Korra

Written by GeekGirlCon Manager of Editorial Services Winter Downs and Social Media Manager Kristine Hassell. Special guest starring Gaming Event Coordinator Andy Munich.

Avatar: Legend of Korra, the groundbreaking sequel to the animated series Avatar: the Last Airbender, aired its final episode on December 19. Rather than bemoan the show’s ending (Worst. Christmas present. Ever.), GeekGirlCon’s Manager of Editorial Services Winter Downs and Social Media Manager Kristine Hassell got together for a frenzy of overcaffeinated squeeing in celebration of all the ways the show got things oh-so-wonderfully right.

Warning: spoilers for the show, including the finale, to follow!

Winter Downs
“Rock On!”

Mini Slash Track: GeekGirlCon ’14 Panel Recap

Written by GeekGirlCon Copywriter Winter Downs.

One of my favorite things about panels at GeekGirlCon is the way that common threads can emerge from different conversations; it gives me something to think about for months after the convention. If that sounds like the kind of thing that interests you, don’t forget to grab your passes for GeekGirlCon ‘15.

Slash fans were in for a treat on Saturday afternoon, in what panelist Aja Romano jokingly referred to as the “mini slash track”–back-to-back panels on “21st Century Boys: Slash in the Mainstream” and “Queerbaiting in Genre Television: Representation or Exploitation?”

The panels touched on different aspects of the push-pull between fandom and creators over queer characters, relationships, and representation. What happens when fans, desperate to see queerness represented in their beloved films, shows, and comics, co-opt those media to tell their own stories in fanfic, fanart, fan vids, gifsets, and so on–and what happens when creators are aware of those trends?

Winter Downs
“Rock On!”

Higher, Further, Faster, More – GeekGirlCon ‘14 Carol Corps Panel Recap

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Carol Corps-inspired cover art by Joe Quinones.
Image source: Marvel Wiki

Written by GeekGirlCon Copywriter Winter Downs.

If you’re wondering whether to get an early jump on passes for GeekGirlCon ‘15, here’s a sample of the kind of programming you can look forward to!

The Carol Corps has put in a great showing at every GeekGirlCon since 2012, and this year it’s especially excited about the recent announcement of a Captain Marvel movie, set to hit theaters in July 2018.

Why is this a big deal? Well, as Ashley Leckwold of Nerdophiles pointed out, before Kelly Sue DeConnick launched her as Captain Marvel in 2012, Carol Danvers was “a third string Marvel character.” And then came the Carol Corps, a spontaneous upsurge of readers old and new rallying around this inspirational character and bringing her to the forefront of Marvel fandom. I’m not saying it was solely due to the Corps’ efforts that Captain Marvel got her own movie, but it surely is a factor.

All this explains why we were so excited to have a panel about the Carol Corps on the schedule at GeekGirlCon ‘14!

Winter Downs
“Rock On!”

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