Campus Dakota

The Union => The Water Cooler => Topic started by: Admiral Ackbar on June 24, 2008, 03:47:20 PM

Title: Always necessary: Nerd Girls
Post by: Admiral Ackbar on June 24, 2008, 03:47:20 PM
No I'm not being a sexist pig.  This is a good article.   :toothy9:

Quote
Revenge of the Nerdette

As geeks become chic in all levels of society, an unlikely subset is starting to roar. Meet the Nerd Girls: they're smart, they're techie and they're hot.
By Jessica Bennett and Jennie Yabroff | NEWSWEEK
Jun 16, 2008 Issue

It's sweltering in Boston, and a dozen Tufts University coeds are out in shorts and tanks, attracting the usual stares. Only today the stares are for a different reason: the girls are huddled around a 750-pound machine that looks like a spaceship, long and wide with a bubble-shaped cockpit open to reveal a mass of pipes and wires. It's actually a solar car—one they've built from the ground up and hope to race next year. Suddenly sparks fly, and the girls jump back. They may be engineering whizzes, but they know a hazard when they see one. They call a teacher over to help solve the problem, as Alex McGourty, 21, gets ready to take the wheel. A junior with blond hair and freckles, she built her first car engine in high school: a biodiesel "veggie mobile" she ran on McDonald's fryer oil. McGourty revs out of the driveway, and almost immediately dislodges the car's chain. Campus police block off the street, and the baseball team, just returned from practice, lines up to watch. "Look out," a construction worker yells. "It's the Nerd Girls!"

The Nerd Girls may not look like your stereotypical pocket-protector-loving misfits—their adviser, Karen Panetta, 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. In fact, calling them "nerd" is no insult at all—the Nerd Girls have T shirts emblazoned with the slogan. The crew includes Cristina Sanchez, a master's student in biomedical engineering (and a former cheerleader) who can talk for hours about aerodynamics. Caitrin Eaton, a freshman, asked her boyfriend for a soldering iron last Christmas. Juniors Courtney Mario and Perry Ross giggle when they talk about what fascinated them most about "No Country for Old Men": how did the assassin's air gun work?

read more (http://www.newsweek.com/id/140457/page/1)
Title: Re: Always necessary: Nerd Girls
Post by: pmp6nl on June 30, 2008, 09:57:15 PM
Interesting.  Does everyone agree with this?
Title: Re: Always necessary: Nerd Girls
Post by: Sal Atticum on July 01, 2008, 07:43:31 AM
Agree with what?
Title: Re: Always necessary: Nerd Girls
Post by: pmp6nl on July 06, 2008, 04:56:32 PM
Agree with what?

I was thinking the views of these girls and related dynamics...
Title: Re: Always necessary: Nerd Girls
Post by: Admiral Ackbar on September 10, 2008, 10:06:24 AM
They sent me a pm about their website:  http://www.nerdgirls.com/
Title: Re: Always necessary: Nerd Girls
Post by: pmp6nl on September 10, 2008, 11:16:52 AM
what was the pm about?
Title: Re: Always necessary: Nerd Girls
Post by: Admiral Ackbar on September 26, 2008, 01:42:47 PM
About their website.  Can't you read?
Title: Re: Always necessary: Nerd Girls
Post by: pmp6nl on September 28, 2008, 09:15:40 PM
About their website.  Can't you read?

I thought you were talking about something a little more specific related to their website.
Title: Re: Always necessary: Nerd Girls
Post by: Admiral Ackbar on October 25, 2008, 10:39:33 AM
They pmd me to say that they had a website.  They did not have one before.