Still on blog break, but since the others are busy I may as well do some more link blogging. Here’s a post I came across today that deals with misogyny in geeky fandoms.

Here are some exerpts:

And that ironic, self-aware misogyny is still misogyny. You have to make a point of actually criticising it before “it’s ironic” is a servicable defence.

But this “geek space” we’re in… It isn’t taken seriously by the mainstream, which gives us a certain amount of free agency to do whatever, because standard reaction is “Oh, those crazy undersexed geeks and their weird fantasy women!”. In response, we have created a psychological space in which it’s not just OK to treat women like shit, it’s awesome. We have then endlessly justified it using every lame excuse in The Big Lame Book Of Big Lame Excuses. Handily, this means we don’t even need make apologies, because blah blah ironic blah blah parody blah blah she shoots the guy after he rapes her so she’s the real winner! You just can’t take a joke!

All “irony” and “parody” are doing, in this context, is creating a safe space for misogyny. They aren’t real irony or parody, because they never challenge the stuff they’re supposedly mocking.