Geek Girls Unite

People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.”

“People ask me, ‘How can you be making movies about men? When you’re, you know, a woman.’ I recently read that [director] Mike Leigh gets the same kind of question about making movies about women. He gets really pissy and says, ‘I make movies about people.’ And that’s a perfect answer. There’s this theory of multiple intelligences, and I may not be smart on many of the others, but my emotional intelligence is pretty high up there. I’ve always been a close observer of human beings and what makes them tick, regardless of gender.”

For this reason, film geek girls have a tendency to be hyper self-aware, which can often lead to thoughts like, “Am I normal?” “What is normal?” “Do I even want to be normal?” Not only can such internal dialogues drive a girl into existential overload, but long-winded discussions with oneself can be utterly exhausting. It’s no wonder that, at the end of the day, these she-geeks prefer to silence the voices by escaping into someone else’s world for eighty-eight minutes. Sometimes our armchair artistes feel safer as a visitor in a foreign cinematic land than as an active participant in their own reality. Hell, real life can be scary. When you have something to say, you can’t always find the perfect words, and when you want to take a risk, you can’t always work up the nerve. That’s why watching films can also be cathartic for our she-geeks; they can watch their onscreen counterparts do and say all the things they wish they could in real life.

, moviegoers enjoy watching flicks with their friends, stuffing their faces with handfuls of oversalted popcorn while laughing and crying at all the appropriate parts. But when they walk out of the theater, the movie is all but a distant memory. For movie-lovers, the experience couldn’t be more different. Sure, they recognize that going to the movie theater is often social in nature, but the real fun happens after the film ends. That’s when they can dissect and discuss what they’ve seen, thus infinitely extending the movie-watching experience and allowing them to escape further and deeper in the cinematic abyss.

“You know how you’re always trying to get things to come out perfect in art, because it’s real difficult in life.”
—Alvy Singer, in Annie Hall

which is why many well-read females tend to fall for well-educated men who like to discuss, debate, and spar. Not only do such activities get the brain juices flowing, but they’re also a form of flirty foreplay. Our darling bookworms should be mindful, however, of highly intelligent men who are more interested in hearing themselves talk than listening to what you have to say. Intelligence is sexy—but being an argumentative know-it-all is a major turnoff.

the very least, any guy who’s going to win the heart of a literary geek girl has to be literate. It’s kind of a prerequisite. (Bonus points if he owns a bookshelf. Super extra points if said bookshelf is stacked with actual books.) Literary geek girls possess a thirst for knowledge that can never

other words, our literary she-geeks are looking for someone with a little more intelligence—and a lot more ingenuity.
“There are three things men can do with women: love them, suffer for them, or turn them into literature.”
—singer Stephen Sills

“Our worst frenemy is most definitely someone who loves to read but won’t admit it for fear of being made fun of, or being seen as a ‘nerd.’ Literary geekdom is not a crime, so be proud!”

“Every woman is a rebel, and usually in wild revolt against herself.”
—author Oscar Wilde