I have read an article from Newsweek magazine about a group of girls who call themselves "Nerd Girls." I smiled when I read the article and even more when I watched a video about them. They pride themselves in pursuing technological careers while still wearing high heels and walking beautiful.
After a visit to the website, I am quite impressed with the self confidence these women exhibit. Each is a grad student or employee in the tech world- engineering, pharmaceuticals, aerospace etc. They hope they can inspire young women and girls to pride themselves on being smart. They also hope they can disband the stereotype of either "ugly-n-smart" or "sexy-n-stick to girly things." They embrace their femininity and they show the boys up. One girl stated, in the article, that just because she dressed to kill on Saturday didn't mean couldn't ace an engineering test on Monday.
They are comfortable in their skin and thrive on brains.
I would have to say that I take the Nerd Girl another step further. There is a generation of women who run the rough and rugged-earthy lifestyle. They read books, they like history, politics and take interest in social justice and the environment. And, damnit, we're sexy. We are the women that are pursuing business, the arts, the media and political status. These too, are often male-dominated professions. But these nerdy girls are ready to "...do it better and do it in heels."
Ambitious women, across the board, are persistent and strong and very often, not given the credit for their beauty. Conversely, beautiful women can often be mistaken as ditzy or dumb. These are the women that despise pretension and work hard for their rewards. But unfortunately, have often been subject to a stereotype that says it's "stupid" or bad to be a nerd (or geek). The young women that have initiated this movement have decided that they are proud of the title.
I know I am, are you?
While I am obviously not a chic...that is an awesome idea.
ReplyDeleteWhat's cool is the fact that they welcome anyone and everyone who supports their cause. One of the girls noted in the video that when a guy isn't fazed by a girl telling him she's and engineer, then she knows he's able to handle it.
ReplyDeletei've never really seen that stereotype. maybe its just because i tend to stay away from the dumb ones in the first place. that is - the ones who act dumb and perpetuate the stereotype.
ReplyDeleteYou guessed right - I like this post! My favorite part on the Nerd girls website is where it says "...the most damaging thing for women is to compartmentalize and limit themselves..." To that, I say "Amen!"
ReplyDeleteSola, I thought you'd like that. Go Nerds!
ReplyDeleteI read this blog regularly:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.petermanseye.com/interesting-times/politics/229-what-were-they-thinking
That particular article talks about some of the issues facing male dominated leadership. I thought you might appreciate the point they make at the bottom of the article in particular :)
thanks for the link amos. i read it...along with the many responses. it was interesting and certainly makes a point that women have not been in those powerful roles yet...b/c in the responses, some of the mentioned women in scandals were only secondary figures. intriguing thoughts.
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