Since starting the Sydney thread of Girl Geek Dinners, the most common question I get is: Am I a geek girl?
The short answer is that if you think you are and you are willing to ask me then you probably are. The longer version is not so easy. Google’s define: geek girl function gives no definitions. Wikipdeia links to music, bad reality TV shows and of course the all encompassing definition of a geek. Some even say that a geek girl is a girl who belongs to a geek. That one would have to be the least accurate so far.
What qualifies you to make the claim of Geek Girl?
My favourite description would be a woman who is fascinated by knowledge and imagination. This can covers technology, books, the arts or any area of knowledge that you can invest yourself in.
Jane – that’s a great idea for a GGD. I might have to steal that one from you.
Matt – It’s hard enough to define geek and geek girl is just an extension of that complexity. It’s something we could think about and define in time
It’s a girl who’s a geek, surely? Assuming the definition of girl in the looser sense (i.e. the set of all female humans, as opposed to the set of immature female humans), next we have to define “geek”. I’d go for the last definition – one whose devotion to a subject places them outside the mainstream, so you don’t have to be (but could be) a tech geek – you might be an arts geek just as easily.
Last year one of the Brighton Girl Geek Dinners was a discussion of “What is a girl geek?”. We didn’t really get an answer but touched on many of the points you mention.