NerdGirl Rage and the Fangirl Invasion

I’ve been mulling this one for a while. It’s one of those things that bugs me, nibbles at the back of my brain, on a background processing because I can’t get a handle on just what’s bugging me or what I want to try and say.

It’s no secret that I’ve had my GeekGirl rants when it comes to those “OMG, look, girls are into GEEKY things!” posts (case in point, my response to the L.A. Times Girls Guide to Comic Con). It’s also no secret that I am more than happy to jump on “the Twitter” and snark about articles that seem to have that same tone.

But this time, I’m not sure what I think or what my stance is.

There was an article over on Newsarama a few days back titled “FANGIRL INVASION p1 - The Changing Face (and Sex) of Fandom”. It was written by a woman and I’d say she definitely intended it to be positive. Personally, I thought it was well written and thoughtful.

It also bugged me.

As the day went on and the article got retweeted, I noticed a bit of Nerdgirl Rage in my Twitter feed. Other gals were bugged as well. But their reasons didn’t fit for me. Or it wasn’t quite why I wasn’t thrilled by it. It wasn’t the idea that Twilight fans are making Hollywood take notice of female fans. It wasn’t that people seem to be utterly shocked that girls like comics. (Now, we know that both of those things bug me, but that wasn’t what was sticking in my craw this time.)

I thought, for a few minutes, that it was because a woman wrote the article. I know it was one of the things that peeved the snot out of me about the L.A. Times article slideshow. The fact that a woman decided to condescend to other female fans by thinking we'd spend hard earned money to “do laundry on Jake Gyllenhaal’s abs” – well, we all know what I thought of that…

But Vaneta Rogers didn’t condescend in the article, so there went that idea.

And into background processing it went again.

Until this morning, when the caboose of my thought train hit me smack in the back of the noggin and the reason became clear.

I don’t like the use of the word “invasion”.

Invasion.

As if fandom was a male domain and we’re trying to take it by force.

If you look at the definition at FreeDictionary.com:

1. The act of invading, especially the entrance of an armed force into a territory to conquer.
2. A large-scale onset of something injurious or harmful, such as a disease.
3. An intrusion or encroachment.

Are fangirls a disease? Are we encroaching? Is this a war and I missed it?

And, let me be fair here. I’m not slamming Ms. Rogers. I think she wrote a really good article.

But the fact that she sees it as an invasion, or that the media seems to be utterly surprised by the “Geek Girl phenomenon” (really, we’re a phenomenon?), or that it’s just occurred to them to market to the female demographic when it comes to something other than romantic comedies and chick flicks – well, that just shocks me.

After all, we’re not invading anything.

We’ve been here all along.

We’re everywhere.

Maybe we should just call it a coup?