Geek women don't exist is a thought lying behind a number of excuses for sexism and for catering exclusively for a (hetero- and cisnormative) male audience in geek communities and media. It is rarely used as an argument as itself, but can be found behind arguments as an underlying basis.

If any, the rationale behind this thought usually is:

  • Women are inherently too nurturing/vulnerable/sensible to enjoy geeky things such as games/comics/technology, and also
  • Geekdom simply is Not for women and thus women cannot possibly find any true value in it.

Wherefrom follow these assumptions to explain the perceived existence of female persons within geekdom:

Self-perpetuation

That a given male has not met or talked with any "true geek" woman cannot and should not be used as a logical basis for the conclusion that "true geek" women are either exceedingly rare or nonexistent. Assuming such feeds a witch circle where:

  • women do not feel welcome in geekdom due to rampant sexism and Boy's club mentality, so:
  • geek women stay closeted, preferring to (for instance):
  • employ non-feminine handles, avatars, UIDs, game characters
  • not use facecams, live audio, or other ways of sharing their face and voice
  • keep their online/gamer persona non-feminine, censoring their lists of interests
  • keep quiet about sexist issues, possibly even avoiding reporting incidents due to chance of being outed, and especially
  • not attend live meetings or events, so
  • geek women stay invisible (outside of those who like the attention, actively exploiting it or not), so
  • an assumption about the incredible rarity of female geeks is made, so
  • the status of geekdom as a Boy's club is confirmed and the pressure to alleviate sexism evaporates.
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.