Wish I could be (part of that world): Geek culture, femmephobia and the experiences of geek women

Even though geeks existed well before the age of social media, little attention was given to them. The term geek is used to describe individuals who are passionately interested in a particular topic. Geeks created a sub-culture with its own rules and hazing process. This hazing process can be strict for some, including geek women. This thesis aims to understand what geek women deem as a geek, their experiences in geek spaces, and their struggles of existing in this male-dominated subculture as a woman using femme theory as a theoretical perspective. For this purpose, I conducted semi-structured interviews with twenty self-identified geek women and qualitatively analyzed the contents of these interviews. According to the results of the thematic analysis, various themes emerged in what it means to be a geek, who are considered geeks, multiple forms of femmephobia geek women were subjected to in the geek spaces, and the adverse effects these femmephobic incidents and gender-based discrimination have on geek women. I then discussed the possible implications of these results based on femmephobia literature. Keywords: geeks, nerds, femme theory, femmephobia, thematic analysis