Origins

Hello all,

My name is Jane and yes, I am a geek otherwise I wouldn't have started this blog.  Like most geeks I'm a big fan of all sorts of geeky things, including Star Wars, Doctor Who, Harry Potter,  Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Supernatural.....you name it I've probably heard of it, like it or am just getting to know it.

I figure that I'd start blogging about being a geek in a male geek world although that stigma is changing with the advance of many women entering what was once a predominantly male geek world.  Or at the time, it was considered "taboo" for girls to like things such as Star Wars, Masters of the Universe, Power Rangers or anything that was considered geek like.  However, I've been a geek since as far back as I can remember.  My earliest memories of geekdom stem from when HBO used to show Return of the Jedi and Temple of Doom back to back in the late 80's and since I was born in the early 80's, I was there at the advent of Cable Television.

My parents made it a point to spend as much time as they could with my older siblings and I as much as possible so we would take camping trips all the time.  At four and five years old I imagined that when we went into the woods we would be on Endor and I would see Biker Scouts, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia in my imagination riding on their speeder bikes.  This continued on even as we moved onto a twenty acre farm in 1988 with 16 of those acres being nothing but complete woods and yes I played outside as much as I could when I was growing up.  During the winter, I re-enacted the Battle of Hoth in the snow after I saw my first viewing of Empire on that same farm.

I fell in love with Star Wars and when we moved out to the farm, we didn't have cable so my parents bought the VHS tapes from the CBS Fox club and I watched the trilogy so many times that I burned out my tapes and at least two VCR's.  I didn't care, I loved the adventures of the classic trilogy characters.

However, as much as I loved Star Wars I was considered to be an outcast at school since I didn't like the girly things too much.  Disney Movies though I liked them, I didn't watch them as much as I did my Star Wars trilogy and when the boys would go and play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Wars or Power Rangers I wanted to play too.  However, I couldn't play because "I was a girl." So there I went over to the set of swings that were designated for the Kindergarten Students and sat by lonesome talking to my imaginary friend Luke from ROTJ (yes, I'll save that for another blog).  I also was outcasted because I love to read...in fact if there was a book and it was nearby I would grab it and read it.  Everything from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Superfudge, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Wayside School, nothing was off limits.  Also, being at the farm I was only a half mile from the library so I rode my bike down to the library to check out books once and sometimes twice a week.  I was a book geek and proud of it!!!

Over the years, I developed a love for other geeky things, one of them being Marvel.  During the early 90's X-Men the Animated Series came out and I fell in love with it.  I would eagerly await each Saturday morning with anticipation of seeing the X-Men in Action, along with other cartoons such as Captain Planet, The Real Ghostbusters, TMNT, and the Addams Family.  I didn't care, I loved it and yes growing up when I was really young I watched He-Man and She-Ra and I didn't care.  I particularly loved watching X-Men and grew attached originally to Storm and Rogue, before going full out Jean Grey in Middle School during the Phoenix Saga/Dark Phoenix saga.  Though comics were taboo I would often write short stories based on X-Men and even Batman the Animated Series which I sometimes still catch on the HUB and I would try to get in touch with the boys that liked that sort of thing but again I was not allowed to play with the boys because being a female geek was weird.

At the start of middle school, we moved again to another house surrounded by woods and again I would let my imagination fly.  When we had the chance we would drive to the county library in downtown Port Huron, Michigan and I would check out the Star Trek novels as well as the Star Wars novels, which by that time Shadows of the Empire, and the Timothy Zahn and Jedi Academy trilogies had been released.

In 1997, when the Star Wars Special Editions came out I went crazy over some of the new things that were added that still cause controversy today and still remain big debates among Star Wars enthusiasts today.  It was also during this time Albin Johnson, who I didn't know about until I joined the 501st in 2003, started one of the best costuming groups out there.  Also, when ROTJ SE came out, my dad and I went to go see it in the theater, making it my first Star Wars movie that I had ever seen in the theater and I treasured that outing even though dad fell asleep in the middle of it.  I enjoyed it because it brought back happy memories.

In 1999, when TPM came out (The Phantom Menace for those of you who aren't big Star Wars fans) I went and saw the movie 6 times with a friend, despite Jar Jar Binks being in there.  I didn't care it was Star Wars and I started to add onto my Star Wars collection.  2002 came along with AOTC and sure enough I went to my first midnight showing and enjoyed it.  I had also heard about the 501st by this time and was looking to join but with my social awkwardness I didn't know who or what to join as.  Not to mention, I was 300 pounds and no one wanted to see a fat Stormtrooper so I eventually purchased my first Royal Guard and then the rest is history as they say.

Now as I look back on my ten year anniversary in the 501st Legion, I have come along way in terms of where I was and where I'm going.  I am a fan of many geekdoms including Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek, Matrix, and Stargate and now that I've trooped and gone to some cons, I've noticed that the fandoms are shifting to include more women.  Women, like me, who have been sheltered or afraid to come out and say "I'm a geek" are now coming out in droves.  Some costume as comic characters (DC, Dark Horse, Marvel) and others Star Wars, anime, Matrix, Stargate and people are becoming more accepting of our presence.  There are others out there that say women still have no place in the fandom and I'm against that.  I'm learning it's ok to be a woman, and it's ok to be a geek.

In the future, I hope to elaborate more on the female role in the different fandoms as well as share more of my Geek thoughts and review some of the things that I like.  In addition, I want to hear more from the females out there that are geeks, that costume, roleplay, like different fandoms and aren't afraid to show it.

So as I close this out I want to take a quote from Star Trek:  "....to boldy go where no female geek has gone before."