Geek Chic: Smart Women in Popular Culture [Paperback]

Sherrie A. Inness (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1403979030 | ISBN-13: 978-1403979032 | Publication Date: May 29, 2007 | Edition: 1st

Using popular culture as a fertile environment for challenging the stereotype that the most brilliant geeks or nerds must be men, the essays in this book demonstrate how the popular media repeatedly affirms stereotypes of femininity while paradoxically challenging the stigmatization of smart women. Contributors salute a wide range of popular characters and real female role models, from Daria to Hillary Rodham Clinton, weaving in references to television shows like Gilmore Girls and analyses of classic icons like Sabrina.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A fun read, and a thought-provoking one at that."--Curled Up With a Good Book

"[Inness] does an excellent job of showing how long girls’ culture has been shaping the gender of American women and how pervasively it does so."--The Lion and the Unicorn

"A significant contribution to girls’ studies."--Signs

 

"Recommended." --CHOICE

About the Author

Sherrie A. Inness is Professor of English, Miami University. She is the author and editor of over a dozen books including Action Chicks (Palgrave 2004) and Secret Ingredients (Palgrave 2005).

Product Details

• Paperback: 202 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1st edition (May 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403979030
• ISBN-13: 978-1403979032
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #917,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pop culture with glasses and a ponytail, June 11, 2008

By 

Kaeli Vandertulip (Irving, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Geek Chic: Smart Women in Popular Culture (Paperback)

I am a nerd. Anyone who has met me or anyone with whom I share more than 5% of my DNA is not surprised by this statement. I am a nerd. I don't apologize for it or make excuses for it. Growing up, I had very few fellow nerd role models. Sure, there was Jessie from "Saved by the Bell," but she was just a smart girl, not a full blown nerd. But times are changing. Ads, articles, and buzz abound about the rise of the female nerd. Sci-fi and animation were huge driving forces in the presentation of the smart woman on screen. Is this a reflection of more nerd women, an acceptance of female intelligence, a recognition of women's buying power and consumerism? And should we expect a backlash for it in the form of bitch jokes and increasing visibility of the "dumb blonde"?

Geek Chic examines both the pop culture images seen on the screen and how it reflects the real world of smart women, women in glasses, and all-around geekiness. Each essay is an in-depth analysis of various portrayals of the smart woman, ranging from the physics nerd Fred in the TV show "Angel" to the adorable butt-kicking "Powerpuff Girls," and the real-life issues that relate to smart women.

In "You can see things that other people can't," odd phenomenon of the glasses makeover is dissected (this is best satirized, in my opinion, in the movie Not Another Teen Movie). Take a frumpy girl, remove her glasses, and all the sudden she's hot-and must get her comeuppance. If she keeps her glasses, she is forever to remain an outcast (Daria).

It also examines the problems that face smart women, or at least the problems networks think ought to be suffered by smart women, including relationship issues, parenting issues, a general lack of domestic bliss, and sexual harassment. It is interesting note is that the smart girl must also be nice if she is to be a protagonist, or at least not the antihero. If she is sarcastic, mean, self-serving, or anything other than self-depricatingly sweet, she cannot be the lead character and something must be done to shut her up.

Many articles also delve into whether networks think women ought to value intelligence at all, as evinced in "Beauty and the Geek,"in which the men are always the geeks and it's the women who realize how much they are getting in a geek-it is never reversed. Hunky guys never get to realize how much they can get from a geeky gal. It might also be suggestive of the culture that smart women must be somehow supernatural-witches (Bewitched, Charmed, Willow from Buffy) or vampire hunters-because a smart woman just couldn't exist in the real world.

For the most part, however, the essays do not consider the portrayal of men in these same situations, though. It's difficult to know how shabbily smart women are treated unless it's also clear that smart men are treated better. In fact, they ignore the fact that often times, when a woman is being shown as being smart, a man is shown as being dumb and weak, suggesting that the two cannot ever both be smart. One of my favorite articles examines this in-depth. In "Heckling Hillary," jokes about the erstwhile presidential nominee are compared to George W. Bush jokes. While both are told to discredit the subjects, jokes about Clinton are often just blonde or Polish jokes with the names changed, while jokes about Dubya are actually related to his policies and his history. The author clearly makes her point about the differences between how we discuss women in politics and men, however, it's unclear how this fits in with the idea of a female geek and the author gets bogged down in discussing the use of Clinton's maiden name.

Overall, this is a well-researched and organized collection of essays. It's useful when examining the portrayal of women in popular culture, especially educated and smart women. Most of the articles are strong, though some fall short of their mark. There are some glaring omissions (to my mind), including Dr. Brennan from "Bones" and Herminone Granger from Harry Potter.

Interesting and leaves plenty of room for book club or classroom discussion.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Collection of essays about brainy female characters in pop culture, March 30, 2010

By 

Bird That Flew (US) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Geek Chic: Smart Women in Popular Culture (Paperback)

This book is a collection of essays by different authors about brainy (and/or bespectacled) female characters in pop culture. If that is your thing, then you will probably be amused and possibly enlightened by this book. I found it neither earth-shattering nor particularly deep, but it does not misrepresent itself and could probe valuable or interesting to a student of women's studies or a fan of female pop culture.