NERD/GEEK MASCULINITY: TECHNOCRACY, RATIONALITY, AND GENDER IN NERD CULTURE’S COUNTERMASCULINE HEGEMONY A Dissertation by ELEANOR AMARANTH LOCKHART Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, Kristan Poirot Committee Members, Tasha Dubriwny Jennifer Mercieca Claire Katz Head of Department, J. Kevin Barge August 2015 Major Subject: Communication Copyright 2015 Eleanor Amaranth Lockhart ABSTRACT Nerd and geek culture have become subjects of increasing public concern in recent years, with growing visibility and power for technical professions and increasing relevance of video games, science fiction, and fantasy in popular culture. As a subculture, nerd/geek culture tends to be described in terms of the experiences of men and boys who are unpopular because of their niche interests or lack of social skills. This dissertation proposes the concept of nerd/geek masculinity to understand discourses of hegemonic masculinity in nerd/geek culture. Examining three case studies, the novel Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, the neoreactionary political ideology, and the #GamerGate controversy, the dissertation suggests that nerd/geek masculinity responds to a perceived emasculation of men who identify as nerds or geeks by constructing the interests, skills, and behaviors of nerd/geek culture as inherently male traits. In this way, nerd/geek masculinity turns the very traits nerds and geeks are often mocked for into evidence of manhood – as the cost of excluding women and queer people from nerd and geek culture. ii DEDICATION To my friends and family who have supported me through this process of scholarship and survival, especially Aeva Palecek and Emily O’Leary… you are my dearest friends. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to thank everyone in the Texas A&M academic community who has helped and guided me through the process of my doctorate, particularly my committee, Tasha Dubriwny, Jennifer Mercieca, and Claire Katz, and my chair and adviser, Kristan Poirot. Additionally, Cara Wallis provided extensive support during my job search as well as with my understanding of the media studies related components of my research. My first adviser, James Aune, is of course dearly remembered and provided invaluable support through my first three years of my doctoral studies. My colleagues Brad Serber, Sara Rowe, Isaac Clarke Holyoak, and Lucy Joanna Miller are just a few of the many others who have provided invaluable support during this process. I also am indebted to numerous others who have supported my academic development, from many different institutions. Nicholas Pagnucco has provided guidance and advice that has helped me understand the role of scholarship in a well- balanced life. My undergraduate mentors, Jody Roy and Steve Martin of Ripon College, have continued to support me during my graduate studies. My mother, Margaret Armstrong, has provided guidance and reassurance from her own career as a scholar, and I doubt I would ever have pursued a PhD to begin with if I had not had the admirable example of a mother who was also a professor and a mentor to so many. My father, Jeffrey Lockhart, has offered strength and wisdom, as has my brother, Christopher Deyo. As someone whose life experience has taken many unforeseen paths, who began her PhD studies under a different name than she would finish them with, I have received amazing strength from sources that all too often go unremarked and unrewarded, or are iv dismissed as distractions. With so many close friends leaving the area or finding different paths, the Internet has provided an important way for me to stay in touch with those who have traveled far away, and to find support from those who I may never meet in person. Twitter, in particular, has provided extensive emotional support and active assistance in my research. In particular, I need to acknowledge Arthur Chu as a Twitter contact who has been enormously helpful in researching both #GamerGate and neoreaction. In general, I want to praise social media not merely as a way to escape from academic work, but also to supplement and enhance it. The work of crafting a dissertation requires support for the soul and the heart, not just the mind. I’ve often felt that academic work is a poor substitute for “true” art, but at the same time, the art and especially the music that have comforted me through this process have in a very real sense become part of the product. I want to acknowledge the comfort I’ve received from artists like Laura Jane Grace, Amy Lee, and Tuomas Holopainen during this process. I am a mere scholar, not a poet, but “without you, the poetry within me is dead.” Finally, I want to thank all of those who form the bedrock of the topic I’m studying: the people of nerd and geek culture who have struggled with the hegemonically masculine forces that I define and critique in this dissertation. Zoe Quinn, Brianna Wu, Katherine Cross, Anita Sarkeesian, and countless others who go by countless names, online handles, and pseudonyms have fought and suffered for a fight they did not choose. I only hope that my words here can somehow honor their struggle. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION .................................................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................. vi I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 Hegemonic Masculinity ................................................................................................. 6 Geek Identity & Culture ................................................................................................. 9 Geek as an Identity Constituted by Oppression ......................................................... 9 Nerds as Excluders ................................................................................................... 12 Nerds as Technocrats ............................................................................................... 14 Theorizing Nerd/Geek Masculinity .............................................................................. 18 A Note on Identity and Positionality ........................................................................ 22 Dissertation Structure ................................................................................................... 23 The Nerd’s War: Ender’s Game and the Politics of Smart Children ....................... 23 The Marginalized Kings of Silicon Valley: Platonic Themes in Neoreaction ......... 24 <Women> and <Games>: Hegemonic Regulation of Ideographs in Online Culture ...................................................................................................................... 26 Nerd/Geek Masculinity’s Danger ................................................................................. 27 II. THE NERD’S WAR: ENDER’S GAME AND THE POLITICS OF SMART CHILDREN ...................................................................................................................... 32 The Legacy of Ender’s Game ....................................................................................... 34 Abjection and Rhetoric: A Framework for Analysis ................................................... 37 Ender’s Game as Rhetorical Text: Creating a Symbol for the Abject Nerd ................ 40 Consubstantiality with Ender ................................................................................... 42 Moral Framing of Ender ........................................................................................... 45 Implications .................................................................................................................. 50 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 54 III. THE MARGINALIZED KINGS OF SILICON VALLEY: PLATONIC THEMES IN NEOREACTION ............................................................................................................. 58 vi Classifying Neoreaction ............................................................................................... 61 Neoreaction & Platonism ............................................................................................. 67 The Ideal ................................................................................................................... 68 Gendering the Ideal .................................................................................................. 69 The Marginalized King ................................................................................................ 80 Neoreaction and Nerd/Geek Masculinity ..................................................................... 88 IV. <WOMEN> AND <GAMES>: HEGEMONIC REGULATION OF IDEOGRAPHS IN ONLINE CULTURE .................................................................................................. 97 Ideograph Theory ....................................................................................................... 101 Indie Games & Women’s