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Sat, 21 Jun 2008

Nerd Girl 2.0

...But that's not what nerd girl 2.0 looks like. The new, tech-savvy, sci-fi 
loving nerd looks more like a cheerleader than a mouse: this week's 
Newsweek introduces us to the new nerd girls, "they're smart, they're 
techie and they're hot."

Love your pocket protector!

The Nerd Girl group at Tufts University, for example, "may not look like your 
stereotypical pocket-protector-loving misfits -- [one] has a thing for pink 
heels -- but they're part of a growing breed of young women who are claiming 
the nerd label for themselves. In doing so, they're challenging the notion of 
what a geek should look like, either by intentionally sexing up their tech 
personas, or by simply finding no disconnect between their geeky pursuits and 
more traditionally girly interests such as fashion, makeup and high heels." An 
example of the new prototype is Cristina Sanchez: a master's student in 
biomedical engineering and a former cheerleader who can talk "endlessly" about 
aerospace.

Newsweek goes on to say that they've modeled themselves after Tina Fey, whose 
character on 30 Rock is a "Star Wars-loving, tech-obsessed, glasses-wearing 
geek, but who's garnered mainstream appeal and a few fashion-magazine covers. 
Or on actress Danica McKellar, who coauthored a math theorem, wrote a book for 
girls called "Math Doesn't Suck" and posed in a bikini for Stuff magazine. Or 
even Ellen Spertus, a Mills College professor and research scientist at Google 
-- and the 2001 winner of the Silicon Valley "Sexiest Geek Alive" pageant."


more at alternet

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