Funding Friday: Adorned By Chi
Jacqueline got me about five seconds into the video with this line “a lifestyle brand for nerds that is dipped in super girly magical girl aesthetics.”
Anything that breaks down the societal norms that girls can’t be nerds is right in my wheelhouse and I backed this project with excitement.
Comments (Archived):
“Now, because we’re super extra…” Jacqueline is indeed super extra, and Daisy Thrash will absolutely be backing this.I really love mixing a lifestyle brand with full-fledged narrative story — truly magical and something I’m working on, myself.Great share today!
She looks like she’s well on her way — as of right now already more than halfway there. Great project.
Love this! Thank you for sharing and for backing a unique project! I heard the quote at the beginning as “a lifestyle brand for nerds that is dipped in super girly magical girl aesthetics.” I bring this up only to ensure her words are represented accurately.
i fixed my post. you are 100% correct. thanks
Thanks Fred. You are a class act. Big fan of your blog.
I find the current meme “girls can be nerds” insulting. Anyone who went to the the Colorado School of Mines and studied engineeering knows that yes girls have been nerds throughout American history. We boys would all pray for more women in Calc 3. They have always been welcome. What Americans need more than anything today is an education in its history.
i find it a great complimenti went to MIT and had the same experience as you did and of course they have always been welcomebut society doesn’t know thatwhen i started the first computer high school in NYC, i was actively involved in recruiting students for our first 9th grade class. there were a bunch of young women who expressed interest in the school and i thought they would be great students there. but their guidance counselor convinced them and their parents that “CS is not for girls”i have seen that sort of thing countless timeso we need to change the narrative around this. not in engineering schools. everywhere.
What you may not know is the resistance girl nerds run up against from male nerds all the time. Even now. I know *so many* female developers who use pseudonyms and gender neutral avatars on Github just so they won’t have to put up with being targeted for obnoxious comments by rando dude devs. It’s that bad.Also, there’s the stereotype that girl nerds aren’t “girly” or shouldn’t like “girly” things, or that “nerdy” and “girly” are incompatible identities. This isn’t just in engineering. It’s in video games and comics (among other male-dominated spaces) — most nerd-identifying spaces.So, in that context, the reminder that “girls can be nerds” (or maybe even better, “girls ARE nerds”) is indeed needed.
Yes, I have seen the “brotastic” behavior. I would say it very much is in the minority. BUT….nobody wants to get harassed.
Who really wants to be thought of as a nerd? I see it as a negative term. Mark Zuckerberg is no poster boy. Girl, go get yourself a new name.
Yup, you are correct: Zuck is an example of what I wrote: Good with computers but — uh, …, from his hoodie and T-shirts to his Congress testimony, with people and socially, awkward, oblivious, immature! And the young woman in the video, however good she is with computers, socially she’s fine, skilled, effective, communicative, animated, etc.And maybe Zuck’s COO Sheryl Sandberg is less strong as a socialization coach, mother hen, good aunt, babysitter, etc. than Zuck needs!Look, socially, a normal first grade girl is already about five years ahead of Zuck, and even if he lives to be 100 he may still never catch up!
Good message, story, and video production.A “nerd”? Not even a tinny, tiny, itty, bitty meager drop of a chance!!!Uh, as we know well, boys and girls are, in a word, different. E.g., already in the crib boys are paying attention to things and girls, to people.E.g., some boy is trying to hack the latch on his playpen and install a Raspberry Pi with WiFI in the toy firetruck on the floor while the girl next door is smiling at her uncle so she can get money and a shopping trip for a pretty, new dress for Easter and, then, more smiles!Net, the girls grow up really good at pleasing people, and the boys grow up really good working with things.Then, as in the movies, etc., nerds are really good with technical things, especially computers, but way behind, even for boys, in working with people, socialization, perceiving, understanding, and manipulating the emotions of others.By high school, a lot of the girls can, if they wish, get really good with computers, and some do. My wife got really good with computers right away.But, then, such girls still totally fail at being nerds!!! Why? The girls are still far too good with people!!!!! So they smile, toss their head, modulate their voice, are animated, …, and a long list of things I’ll never understand to be liked, endearing, even cared for, cared about, taken care of, cherished, treasured, protected, …. Then they fail at being nerds!!!E.g., well socialized females can read E. Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, and find it all obvious and what they have been doing since they were in grade school!!!The girl in the video, nope, definitely NOT a nerd! She’s a female, good as a female, very well socialized as a female, socially polished, really good with people, …, and, no matter how good she is with computing, net, not a nerd!!!
Cannot comment as the target girls from Venus so good on your girl/s test the water I wish you well, Will take Kirsten Lambertsen lead on this
Love this share – backed it as well – thank you Fred!
Such gorgeous work! And how on-topic is it that the villain her heroes are fighting is called the Nothing?<3
I love the “Nothing.”
The “nothing”????? Yup, once again pretty girls lost me!!!To a genuine nerd challenged by metaphors, similes, analogies, allegories, allusions, intimations, etc. and otherwise verbally challenged, please explain!!! Low level, now, like you would have in, say, the second grade?Will begging, “pretty please” work??
Ah, just like grade school!!! :-)!!!! The girls had their little secrets that they communicated to each other and not to any of the boys!!!!Yup, to borrow, the girl is the mother of the woman; a woman is a larger version of a girl; a girl is the same as a woman but smaller and cuter!!!! :-)!!!! Some things the females can’t hide forever!!!! :-)!!! Belongs in Girls 101 for Dummies — Boys. Or the second edition, Secrets of the Universe Explained — Girls!!!!Like’m? Yes!! Understand them? Not a chance! :-)!Ah, for the boys, it may be a case of receding goalposts: Maybe if the boys ever caught up, the chase and much more would be over, forever, and can’t have that! So, net, go ahead, girls/women, have your secrets!Ah, I had some of the lessons early on but didn’t take them seriously: (A) Once Mom had her two sisters visit for a few days. Well, they got nearly no sleep and talked, laughed, and giggled nearly 24 hours a day. Dad, my brother and I had no idea what the heck those three women were doing. No doubt lots of secrets! (B) Once a woman/cousin of Mom’s visited, and again, they were talking nearly 24 hours a day, for hours in the master bathroom, in front of the big mirror Dad had installed, working on goofy cases of makeup. No big harm done since eventually the makeup washed off and the hair grew back out!
Awesome find – super easy to back!