Gender in Geekdom

How the Girls and Theys are Grabbing the Spotlight in Nerd Culture 

Since she was about four years old, Persephone Valentine has been playing video games. Her mother allowed her to play so early because it kept the ADHD-riddled child occupied and entertained. In high school, Persephone was able to learn about Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), the popular fantasy tabletop role-playing game. 

Now, Persephone Valentine is a renowned D&D player and a Twitch streamer. She has been featured on Dimension 20, a popular D&D actual play show on Dropout.TV. She has also been featured on the Dungeon Run and has hosted her campaign. Her Twitch Channel, persephiroth, where she teams gaming and chatting content, has 10k followers. 

Non-men are an essential demographic in geeky and nerdy spaces. They are creators, influencers, players and fans. However, women and non-binary people are not given the attention and spotlight they deserve. Many times, they are pushed out and gatekept from these spaces. Campaigns like GamerGate, a fight against feminism and progress in video game culture, are evidence of this. Despite the adversaries, non-men do a lot for the foundations and continuation of nerdy content.  

Persephone is a mixed Black trans woman, making the pressure she experiences even more difficult. She states that, as a Black woman, she faces tokenization in nerdy spaces. She also cannot be too “loud,” or she may be hated. She says as a trans woman, the challenges she faces “cross over with the ones I[she has] for being a Black woman. Intersectionality doesn’t always work in a positive direction–and the intersection of those two kinda blows.” 

However, Persephone has found community in the people around her. The players of The Seven, the D&D campaign she played on Dimension 20, are supporters of her. Two popular D&D players and improv comedians, Rekha Shankar and Aabria Iyengar, had especially helped her through tough times, including supporting her through transphobic backlash and housing her, respectively. 

Some of her costars in the show like Aabria Iyengar, a Black woman, or Erika Ishii, an Asian non-binary person, are important figures in the nerd world themselves. 

In general, Persephone says being a professional nerd has offered her catharsis and a form of escapism. Playing characters like Sam Nightingale in The Seven allowed her to explore her teen years the way she wanted. In her opinion, being a Dungeon Master is even better, allowing her to plan and flip through characters. 

In a different place and time, a young girl takes her mom’s VHS camcorder. She begins to record herself doing a sketch. She watches it back, laughing at her own jokes. The girl grows up and starts watching comedic Youtubers, finding inspiration. When the girl starts her own channel, she uses one of her old clips from her mom’s camcorder to introduce her videos. 

This girl is Athena P, a comedic YouTuber with 220k subscribers, who does videos on the lore of on-screen media. She will do in-depth research into shows and movies, and make an hour-long video, creating a cohesive storyline for this media. 

Although Athena’s videos are comedy-based, the backlash she receives does not match the content. She says, “I’m just trying to make people laugh and all of a sudden I’m getting comments about my skin and my weight.”  Many watchers will also write harsh comments in defense of a character that Athena speaks about in any type of negative light. 

Athena finds support in other non-men YouTubers who can understand the effort and negativity they may receive. 

Her favorite part of the job is being able to be herself in her work. Who she is in videos is her true self. She is glad this also helps others, and she can bring smiles to peoples’ faces. 

There are non-men all over the geek world. Megan the Stallion is an anime fan and includes her love of it in her music. Sana Amanat is a female comic writer who writes for Ms. Marvel. Grant Morrison is a prominent nonbinary DC comic writer. Naoko Takeuchi is the creator of Sailor Moon. Kim Swift is a game designer who designed titles like Portal and Left 4 Dead. They all have been essential parts of the continuation of nerd culture. 

At St. John’s University, we have many students who express their love for nerd culture through extracurriculars and in their organizations. 

Sabrina Sarwar began the Girls Who Code chapter of St. John’s University this semester. She says her goal is to establish a supportive community for women across all academic fields looking to learn coding. She wants to empower women and provide them with these technological tools. 

Sabrina explains, “In high school, I did enjoy creating games using Python, which is like a simple coding language, and Scratch, a website made by MIT. I was introduced to these during my sophomore year of high school for my AP computer science principal class.” 

She was initially deterred from this because the coding and gaming industry was male-dominated. 

Amanda Gopie is an anime lover, a former E-Board member of WRED-TV at St. John’s, and was part of their Anime Corner show.

Amanda says, “I never really think too much about gender in the space that I’m in, whether it’s TV club or not.” She does not let gender define her, and it has not really gotten in her way. She is not deterred by stigma, not letting it change her experience as both her TV & Film major and anime.

She further explains, “I wouldn’t feel like I’ll step away from nerd culture just because of men. It’s something that I enjoy and just because stigma says something or makes me feel bad doesn’t mean I’m going to stop liking it.” Amanda says that she will instead stay with those who respect her and want her in the culture. 

The culture has begun to shift to include these more progressive voices. Persephone Valentine says it was, “forced to, kicking and screaming the entire damn way.” Marginalized people were loud enough and pushed hard enough to begin to change the culture. 

All of the people spoken about have ignored stereotypes and put themselves in the spotlight of nerd culture. Locally, nationally, or even globally. 

Against all discrimination and stereotypes, it is essential for non-men not to let it hurt them and continue to make their mark in the geek world, a sentiment shared by both Athena and Persephone. 

• Dungeons and Dragons
• entertainment
• gaming