Sexy Nerd Girl Fanaticism

Sorted under media on July 5, 2008

Nerd Girls The fanaticism surrounding “sexy nerds” is not new, however, it is more publicized and when I really got down to thinking about it, what exactly does it take to be a “sexy” nerd? And why are all of videos, blog posts and news stories I’m finding on the subject all making sure that you know that they’re talking about girls when they’re talking about intelligent people? And, as an obvious sidenote, why are they always referring to intelligent females as “girls?”

Wikipedia defines nerd girls as women who often wear eyeglasses with large lenses and thick frames, dresses unfashionably, wears her hair in unfashionable styles, is not popular, is not considered conventionally attractive, is shy and may be somewhat socially inept in groups and may be slightly overweight or notably thin.

The new sex appeal of nerdy women raises a few red flags for me. When the media refers to intelligent women as girls, I simply think that they are making light of the progress women have had over the years when it comes to earning degrees in fields most dominated by men. I say earning degrees in these fields instead of working in these fields because a recent Center for Work-Life Policy found that 52% of women who hold jobs in science and engineering fields, fields most dominated by men, leave their jobs after experiencing harassment on the job and more than half believing they needed to “act like a man” in order to succeed.

The Wikipedia definition, as it may have been true years ago and in the world of comic book and graphic novel cliches, such as Ghost World which was also turned into a movie starring Thora Birch, stereotypes in television and mostly reality television shows are alive and well, such as the nerd guy stereotypes and dumb blond, “bimbo” stereotypes in Beauty and the Geek. Now, television reality shows are taking another turn–In the direction of nerd girls who have brains and are hot; imagine that.

There are a group of girls at Tufts University who are called The Nerd Girls and are also the subject of a new, reality television show. The girls of The Nerd Girls are engineer students who are changing the stereotype of what “nerds” of the female variety should look like. The Nerd Girls, as seen in a video done on who they are, what they do and how cool it is when they talk to men and receive an array of different responses, typically enjoy the fact that they are seen as hot chicks but know themselves that there is a lot more to them than just that and indeed, they have the intellect. But are they simply reveling in the fact that while they are attractive and while they are intelligent, are they feeding into society’s stereotypes and sexism of women? Are they contributing to this toxic way of thinking by being part of a reality television show that says “Look at these hot babes and you’re never going to guess what makes them so special!” By being surprised that women have looks and brains and making a reality show about how surprising it is that women have looks and brains, it makes me quite sad. I’m also quite glad that The Nerd Girls are engineers and not say, web designers because their website is quite hideous.

When it comes to “sexy nerd girls,” do men really find that, and everything about having a “sexy nerd” girlfriend attractive? You cannot simply put some thick, black rimmed glasses on an attractive woman and call her a “nerd.” Taking some anecdotes from my own life, how hot is it when your girlfriend wastes more time than you playing video games? How hot is it when the happiest day in a month in your girlfriend’s life is not when you made her a romantic dinner or when the two of you cuddled on the couch watching movies for hours, but when the new FireFox came out? How hot is it when you’re talking for literally 5 minutes or even more and your girlfriend looks up from her computer, the screen nothing but text documents of hundreds of lines of code and asks “Were you saying something?”

With the majority of the blogosphere and social networking sites being dominated by women, “nerd girls” are not hard to come by in the least and quite a few of them are indeed attractive; however, we have hit a road block when being tech and gadget savvy and being sexy at the same time is considered shocking. Intelligent women are attractive, so why make such a big deal about it?



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  • Andy
    It's objectification of women if they still have to be sexy to be accepted. Women (or girls) are marketed to (nerd) men because they are assumed to be share the same traits as the men and as such require little or no social skills on the males part to impress them. It's the same as marketing attractive female athletes to male athletes, as far as similar values are concerned. The objectification enters the equation when the woman has to be sexy as well as smart to appear appealing. If the nerd factor was enough to be considered attractive then the sex appeal wouldn't matter. The nerd angle is simply a justification to market more T and A, but this time to a different segment of the market. Cheerleaders in labcoats, that's all they are.
  • Elijah
    guys are attracted to girls that need them. the social ineptness of nerds makes them more attractive to men. young girls are more attractive to men. if men can't objectify you into a classification of dependent upon them, than they probably aren't attracted to you. as you struggle harder and harder to be just like a guy, you will eventually succeed, and find yourself just like a guy, with only feminine men being attracted to you. this dire need of women to not be objectified only ends up hurting young teenage girls. i am 32 years old, who do you think i am more attracted too, a 14 year old girl who needs my protection or a 30 year old woman who can do anything i can do?
    you are removing the ability for men to be men, and that only focuses them towards other women. if they can't find the qualities they are looking for in women their own age, than they simply objectify younger women.
    please stop placing your own desires to be just like a man in front of the needs of young girls. you know damn well that you can't succeed in a typical "man's job" without displaying masculine characteristics. i am not saying that you can't succeed in one of these jobs, i am not saying that you can't do these jobs just as good as any man. i AM saying that if you do these jobs just like any man than you are effectively removing a woman from the world, and a teenage girl is going to be used to replace you for that.
  • NerdstheWord
    Aren't you stereo typing what nerds are? A nerdy boy wouldn't ignore his girl friend for text documents, and he wouldn't put "Firefox" above his girlfriend, so why would a girl nerd? And I think the stereo type of dumb beautiful women and not so hot nerds is kind of (not I use the words "kind of") true. If a woman is born with beauty, chances are, she'll learn she gets what she wants from boys and won't see the necessity of being smart. If she comes out not as beautiful, I'm sure she'll have less of a boy distraction in her life and get into her studies.
  • me7777
    I love video games and nerdy shows as much as my husband does, and i use the computer wayyy more than he does! Fact is, what most women think is 'nerdy' guys find cute or normal! Im a 20 year old that's still obsessed with cartoons, and my husband coudnt be happier, becuase men are happier when they have more in common with us. They'd rather play video games with us or watch pokemon than be forced to watch chick flicks and get yelled at for playing games.
    Usually he gets out of being a 'nerd' becuase he he's asian and he says the anime, video games and lots of other stuff he likes is asian anyways so hes entitled to it. hehe
    I watch so much korean and japanese dramas these days that the typical nerdy, unpopular boy portrayed in asian media seems really hot to me. I love thier dorky hair, big glasses, skinny bodies and shy demenor. nerdy asian boys are sexxxyyy
  • sextoys1
    Yeah, the sexy nerd girl thing is in as you can see in the American pie moves with the whole band camp thing. Even in adult movies they are trying to work this angle.
  • Xguy
    To the point, the author hit this one head on. nice job.
    I agree in the point that I consider myself a sexy nerdy type of GUY. YES, that's rite. Y it gotta be females in order to be considered sexy nerdy? I also agree that people downgrade women when they call them girls, that sexuality and harassment is all too often seen in the workplace by BOTH sexes, that stereotypes can sometimes be fun but for the most part anything portrayed in the media is 90%- false according to US demographics because almost all the people portraying the stereotypes of a certain group are of a certain ethnicity that reinforces the inaccurate portrayal of 100% of people who qualify to be in that group. IE., for example, you can't say all african-americans are dark skinned and look african. Similarly, you can't say all sexy nerdy women are caucasion and wear thick black glasses. Or is that the definition of sexy nerdy? Does the media define what sexy nerdy is or is it based on what we perceive in our own heads? There's something to think about.
  • thx for the great post keep posting nice stuff
  • Wikiwha
    I dunno, I think the "Did you say something?" line would make me pop a boner in a half-second.
  • max
    Being a nerd is fun most of the times
  • This is one of the best posts I have seen in a long time on the net, will be visiting again in the near future
  • I think this not only applies to girls, but guys as well. Alot of the older nerds from more than about 10 years ago might follow wikipedia's stereotypical description of the nerd However, nowadays in some cases to be nerd is to be cool as well, especially in internet chat rooms like Yahoo chat.

    Many families teach us to eat properly and exercise and are brought up in good families. This creates the new type of nerds that are actually hot girls and guys as well. Just something to think about.

    Kim
  • I artlessly anticipate that they are authoritative ablaze of the advance women accept had over the years back it comes to earning degrees in fields best bedeviled by men.

  • I saw that Nerd Girls article in Time. It really says something about our society when the fact that there exist women who are both smart AND good looking is deemed worthy of an article in a national magazine.
  • Being a nerd is not that discriminating at this age. Whether fashionable or not, it still shows if you are sexy underneath. So being nerdy and being sexy at the same time is possible.
  • I fall under the dork category too and don't need glasses. My experience is that some guys claim to have a fetish for "nerdy girls" but it's usually just as superficial as any other type of fetish. They don't actually want to hear one of us go off on a rant about something that fascinates us, they just think we look hot "dressed all nerdy and stuff." Then again, I'm not sure what "dressing nerdy" entails for women? Unfashionable clothing? That could mean anything really. Valuing comfort over fashion hasn't seemed to turn many heads my way, I'll tell you that. lol

    Maybe this is just a spin off of the "hot for teacher" fetish born out of the 80s.
  • It's just like when Blonde women were hot in early 70's but not anymore. Men want more than sex, even when they're having one. They tend to be dependent upon able women if they can, as more women are going up in the management and beat them in $$ in their pocket. Who wouldn't want to lay down on the bed and cook for dinner while watching TV all day long?
  • Well, There was a time when sexy and sizzling girls who show some skin were hot favorite but not now. Preferences have been changes and sex means something more than a sex only.
  • I feel like nerd is a badge of honor now, people like to self identify. Geek, nerd, dork people only like those labels if they feel like they own it.
  • Why can't men just be attracted to a woman for exactly who she is? If I knew the answer to that I'd be making tons of money and have an endless string of dates. She should be sexy for being who she is, whether it's a nerd or just intelligent & successful. As for the term girl, it doesn't bother me at all. I use the term boy in my writing as well and have already prefaced it's not meant to be disrespectful. I call women girls and men boys.
  • keeperofdakeys
    please that one is easy (maybe because I am a male), the answer is a male's instinct
    I am a male nerd and personally I resent the male sex instinct, it makes me utterly ashamed to be alive

    as for calling them 'girls', to me that and 'boys' points to the fact that they are not grown up, as in inexperienced and not very wise.
  • Well, I never watch TV at all so I won't be watching Nerd Girls.

    I happen to be a nerd in many ways (D&D nerd, anime nerd, linux nerd). I think the appeal in having a nerd girlfriend is that we understand a nerd's interests more. That understanding and commiseration is a blessing and a curse for several reasons in a relationship.
  • I don't know about being a nerd. I'm more of a dork. But I have the glasses to carry off the nerd girl thing. Just don't ask me to talk all intelligent and such. :)

    My sister once insisted, and I increasingly agree, women do more damage to themselves (as a sex) because we, in general permit objectification. And, it sounds like this Nerd Girls show is doing just that... but I would have to watch it to gain a better perspective. I don't want to pass judgement, by any means.
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