AMC recently launched their newest late night talk show Geeking Out, which sees director Kevin Smith and actor Greg Grunberg discuss current events in the nerd realm with each other and people involved in the industry, sometimes even taking field trips to studios or cons to meet up with fellow fans. This is a pretty solid move for the network considering that geek subculture continues to be on the rise, and also considering that this isn't Smith's first effort for AMC--Smith's other reality tv show, Comic Book Men, functions pretty much like a nerdy version of Pawn Stars and has successfully lasted for several seasons. Four middle-aged men (three-fourths of whom are also white) own a comic book store and barter with average day to day customers as well as celebs like Stan Lee, Adam West, or Billy Dee Williams; often interspersed between these encounters will be moments where the guys sit around and answer questions like which Star Trek character is the hottest or whether they would rather go a year without sex or without comic books. Both these shows are clearly skewed to the older male geek demographic (who are also usually presumed to be straight, white, and socially inept)--the type you see in everything from The Big Bang Theory to Fanboys-- and Smith's various other fanboy podcasts tend to fall into this mold as well.

Now, I don't bring Smith and his friends up to make any particular point about them personally--nerdy men are well within their rights to make shows for other nerdy men. Rather, I'm trying to use them as an example to point out what seems to me to be an pretty obvious imbalance in who geek media is marketed towards. It's very hard to imagine any of these shows being produced if women were at the helm. I mean I get excited any time a girl so much as makes a guest appearance on a Star Wars podcast; imagining a television show based around a group of adult women being professional nerds is almost unfathomable. There's very little content being made specifically for geek girls, and even less that's geared towards grown-up lady nerds in the vein of a Comic Book Men or Geeking Out.

And, yes, for any nay-sayers, there is an audience out there waiting to be catered to. One has only to glance over a crowd of cosplayers or scroll the fanfiction archives to see there are women both young and old passionate about fandom; the whole "fake geek girl" phenomena is reflective of the fact that there are many young ladies who'd like to get more involved in nerd culture, but are constantly shamed for not immediately knowing everything the moment they express a hint of interest. There's very few spaces for them to safely enter fandom without fear of judgment or harassment. And the overall invisibility of older female fans means that young girls feel fandom is something they have to give up eventually, and I've seen many girls become more embarrassed by their nerdy interests the older they get--as if it's something they should have grown out of by now.

All of this only further highlights how important it is for female fans to see themselves represented and to be treated like the essential part of nerd culture that they are. Geek Media like television shows and podcasts are often stepping stones for new fans, so that they can be exposed to different titles and sides of fandom, and they also validate existing fans who have dedicated blood, sweat, and tears to their passion. It creates a sense of community, and that's something geek girls are in desperate need of. And quite apart from reasons of equality and fairness, it just doesn't make sense to completely ignore this untapped and potentially lucrative market.

Geek girls deserve more than scraps and afterthoughts. They deserve representation. And they deserve to have a space to call their own.