[quote=HeySeuss]How do you separate the people with legit interests from the people you consider 'fakers' and how do you feel about sexism within communities like this one and similar, that cater to geek interests, and what has your personal experience of some of this been? How much of this 'fake geek' ranting is legitimate and how much of it is sexism? And, not that I need to say this, feel free to interject anything else you feel about the topic (while staying Fonz cool. :hehe )[/quote]

Separating those with actual interest in a subject from fakers is rather easily done by having even a brief conversation about whatever the thing is they're espousing interest in. If they actually know things about it, cool, they truly do like the thing, good for them. If they only know shit from what they saw in a trailer or read in a summary of a plot, odds are fair that they're bullshitting and just claiming to like some popular thing to fit in, which is pretty common in a lot of subcultures. Some person may want to fit in with some group who likes 70s and 80s rock, so they might claim to be way into it even if they only have a passing acquaintance with it. Happens all the time. It's silly, but it's also part of human nature: you try to imitate those who you want to become closer to. This is true even of mannerisms, where if you're talking to someone you like you'll subconsciously imitate their speech patterns and movements. It's just one of those weird things wired into the human brain, and it's no surprise that it gets applied to hobbies and interests.

I've noticed a moderate amount of sexism in various geek communities, and it's generally a bad thing, but I don't find it to be shocking in any way. Geek subcultures have long been ostracized and mocked, and even now there's plenty of bias against gamers and other groups (like how sensationalist news reporter assholes will always make a big deal out of it if some guy who killed someone with a gun played Call of Duty or any of the various other shooter games, or if they listened to a lot of metal), though it seems to be dwindling due to the rise of casual gaming. For instance, two people in this thread so far (IRLGoat and Magic Magnum) have said things to the effect of gamers rarely interacting with girls. The general prevailing sentiment is that nerds of all kinds are socially awkward people who retreat into video games because they suck at or are afraid of interacting with people, with optional additions of this making them creepy or insinuations that they have some mental illness or are prime candidates to be the next mass murderer. Given that foundation, that geeks of all stripes have been shoved into this little undesirable corner, is it really surprising that there'd be some backlash from them when the mainstream folks want to break down the walls that previously penned them in and then act like everything is totally cool and they should just be accepted into the nerd corner? I, for one, am not surprised in the slightest.

Oh, and there's also something of a clash of cultures going on, which compounds the issues further. Geeks tend to be pretty passionate about whatever they're into (which some would say is a core defining characteristic of, if not the very definition of, being a geek), highly invested in video games or card games of sci-fi or whatever, which leads to a rather vitriolic community. Arguments are frequent and heated, insults flung just as often as greetings, and yet this doesn't really tend to cause major divides or drama, it's just a regular thing. Ever seen two Trekkies arguing about which series was the best, or which captain? That shit can get brutal, but then far more often than not those two people will still be totally cool with one another afterward. So you have some resentment and feelings of invasion, plus a vitriolic community, and what you get is tons and tons of this vitriol flung at those viewed as interlopers. This isn't just against women, but they're a really obvious target for the more simple minded fellows of geekdom because the prevailing view of geek subcultures is still that they're male-only realms, both inside and outside of those actual communities; society at large sees them as guy things, and since the various communities are still very much male dominated they are seen as guy things. Is it sexist? Absolutely. Is that bad? Sure. No equivocation is possible there. Yeah, similar stuff happens to guys, and yeah, geeks challenge each other to geek e-peen contests all the time, but it's an undeniable fact that females are more frequently targeted by this kind of thing. I simply feel that there are very obvious and understandable reasons for why things are the way they are now, as I explained above. Time and further exposure of female geeks being a thing is really the only way to make it go away, and since that's already happening I'm not overly worried about the future of sexism in geek subcultures.

Oh, and the fake geek thing. Yeah, a lot of it actually is legitimate. Geek stuff is being brought more and more into the mainstream (for instance, The Big Bang Theory is one of the most popular shows right now and it's all about geek shit), to the point where geekiness is even a desirable trait in some circumstances, so of course people will pretend toward it. This goes along with what I was saying about how people will pretend toward something in order to garner positive attention, like saying you're into a certain kind of music so some group will like you. I've seen plenty of instances of fake geek stupidity, such as people wearing glasses with no lenses and then talk about how they're such a geek, or how someone will say they studied for some test and then say something like "I'm such a nerd" in a positive joking manner, or how some will talk about how they played <insert major blockbuster video game here> and that they're a huge geek because of it. It's pretty common on the internet, probably because geek stuff is generally viewed more favorably online than in real life, but it's also a thing in real life. Now, as for how much of it is sexism, I dunno. It does tend to be mostly females who pull the fake geek thing so far as I have seen, so it can get rather muddled. Calling someone on their bullshit isn't sexist if it really is bullshit, regardless of the gender of the bullshitter being called out, so I wouldn't count any of those as being sexist. I'd guess over 75% of the erroneous "you're a fake geek" type claims, maybe even higher than 90%, are levied against women because of stupid partly sexist reasons, so take that baseless estimate for whatever it's worth.

For gamers in particular, there's an additional factor that I think makes for more sexism in general. There are, and have been for a long time, women who go and play games online and make a huge deal out of the fact that they're female in order to get attention. Many of them also use their gender to get special things, like in MMOs they'll convince guys to give them good gear just because they're a girl, or to get into a good guild/clan on various games, and some even go so far as to get guys to send them money or gifts IRL. There is an argument to be made that the guys who go for this are idiots who deserve no sympathy, but that doesn't change the fact that these people are using their gender to get special treatment. Y'know what special treatment based on a particular trait is called? Discrimination, particularly the [url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/discrimination?s=t]second definition listed here[/url]. They're setting themselves aside as a special group that deserves special treatment, which reinforces sexist notions that those of one gender should be treated differently than those of another. This group of attention whoring girl gamers tend to be annoying as all hell, acting like their gender makes them some kind of special snowflake that deserves to be treated like royalty. Someone viewing that happening enough times might make the generalization that those who identify as girl gamers are all like this, which would lead to some rather sexist behavior in all likelihood. Again, this isn't a justification or way of pardoning it, just an explanation of why it's so prevalent. Another issue that furthers these negative generalizations is that many women who play games don't tend to quickly identify themselves as a female, because there's no point to do so unless they're trying to be an attention whore since your gender has nothing to do with the game you're playing, so whenever someone in a game says "I'm a girl" out of nowhere the odds lie heavily in the favor of them being the attention whoring type. It's really awkward and unfortunate.

[quote=IRLGoat]It is the responsibility of other players to make a girl feel comfortable and welcome.[/quote]

Um, what? I'm sure you've seen how guys (and plenty of girls, to be fair) behave toward one another in online games, tons of trash talk, very few comforting welcomes to be had. This varies between game communities, but you play League of Legends so you've definitely been exposed to a high trash talk environment. There are arguments to be made for why this should never be the case, but the fact of the matter is that gaming communities can be pretty toxic to people of all kinds. Why exactly should girls be given special treatment to be made to feel comfortable and welcome rather than getting the same spew of negativity everyone else gets? That would be sexist and discriminatory. Furthermore, it is not anyone's responsibility to make sure other players feel comfortable and welcome, regardless of gender. Some games might have rules against being a dick, but nowhere in the terms of service or so forth will it say "you have a responsibility to make sure other players are having a good time." This responsibility simply does not exist, and I'm confused as to where you could have gotten this notion.

[quote=IRLGoat]I've been pretty fortunate since I surround myself with 90% male friends and they're all A1 people. SO YES. I understand that "not all guys are jerks". We can stop reiterating that. It's the guys who are being condescending and disrespectful without even realizing they're doing it. I think the largest problem in the geek community is the disbelief that sexism is happening.[/quote]

Oh, yeah, there's a huge level of denial going on. It's unlikely for the problem to ever be solved without people acknowledging that it is a problem in the first place, so I agree that this is the largest problem in relation to sexism in geek communities.