Geek Girls and Geek Girl Con

There are some things that just go together perfectly for us geeky girls. Geek tees and converse. Feminism and cosplay. Superheroes and villains. Geek love/adoration and cons.

This past weekend in Seattle, city of major tech giants and über geeks galore, Geek Girl Con was born. This was the first ever Con devoted to us geek girls. I know what you’re thinking. Don’t scores of girls show up to cons all across the nation each year? Of course we do. And you know what? We still get asked to defend our right to call ourselves geeks. Or we get harassed for daring to dress as slave Leia because no way can we be true geeks and hot at the same time.

Yes, we brave the masses of men each year to show our love and appreciation for our geek icons – Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, MST3K, Marvel, DC, Dark Horse – longing for a safe shared space to be the true fangirls that we are. Sometimes we get lucky. Sometimes we walk away scarred like the Batgirl from San Diego Comic Con. And so, it was with great pleasure and excitement that I hopped the no.16 bus down to the Seattle Center to spend the weekend with my people.

As the first geek girl con I didn’t have super high expectations. I’ve been to more than my fare share of cons, including the mother of all cons in San Diego. But I have to tell you, I was more than surprised with the excellence of this first geek girl con. Things ran smooth, the panelists were for the most part amazing, and attendance was stellar. Women and men showed up with kids in tow to support the vision and mission of geek girl con and that made me proud.

A few highlights for me in no particular order were:

1.  The weather! It’s fall and it’s Seattle and I fully expected a craptastic day. Instead we got sunshine and warmth as if the gods themselves were smiling down on us geek girl con-goers with approval.
2. The attendance! There was a great turnout for the first geek girl con! Not sure what the official numbers were but the panels were full, some to overflowing, and there were people everywhere.
3. The cosplay. No con is complete without cosplay. I usually cosplay myself but I lacked the energy to do it this weekend. So I was pleased to see the many geeky girls and guys who pulled it off.
4. The panels. In the spirit of full disclosure I have to admit that I was late getting there Saturday. It was a slow morning with an even slower start. But once I arrived I tackled the program book with fervor and attended some great panels. By far, my favorite of which was the culture studies panel that looked at geek girls in pop culture. Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Stephanie Thorpe, Amy Berg, Jessica Mills and Sarah Kuhn. Hope I didn’t miss anyone. Anyway, that panel was awesomesauce times three. I’d love to see them all back here for Emerald City Con!

Overall, I had a great time at geek girl con. I will definitely be back next year. I hope it grows bigger because my one complaint with the con was the extra cost for somethings. If it’s bigger, I wouldn’t have to pay extra for things like the burlesque show, or some of the talks. I understand why they did it, I just didn’t like it! Great job ladies.

If you want to learn more about Geek Girl Con, check out there website at www.geekgirlcon.com. See you next year!