Why You Should Read the Secret Loves of Geek Girls No Matter Your Gender
By Hafsa Alkhudairi
Read with Caution – May Contain Spoilers!
The Secret Loves of Geek Girls is an anthology of the contributors’ experiences with love laced with their geekery and lifestyles. The stories are non-fiction ranging from first loves and self-discoveries to how to pieces and essays about emotionality and women’s power. Most people can relate to at least one story in the mix and feel some kind of companionship to their woes or happiness. The pieces are either comics or prose. Their art ranges in styles. So every reader, whether they like comics or not, will find an art or a writing style that will please them with a story to match their experiences and loves or lack thereof.
Before I start expressing my opinion about the affects this anthology has on geeks sociologically and psychologically, I want you all to read it because it is the best book I have read this year and it’s still the 6th of January. Also, the stories, even the how to pieces, are a very intimate expression of experience and understanding. The idea behind it that being geeky does not mean that having a relationship is impossible, that it will always be a positive one or that it will not hurt. Being geeky means that we have a backdrop of support from those who have the same inclinations towards the geek life or from the geek life itself.
Sociologically, the Secret Loves of Geek Girls is a haven to help those who read it to see the possibility of happiness, acceptance or even safety. The stories show interactions of these amazing geek ladies with the people around them, how the choices they made changed them, and what they did when society’s ideal did not meet their lifestyles. There are also many instances where readers would learn about the consequences of certain actions, give them courage to get out of their comfort zone, and give advice about their online dating profile or about how to be comfortable with themselves. This encourages people to be more social in whatever capacity that is and to see that they are not alone. Meaning that they are changing the social standards one expressive piece at a time.
Psychologically, based on a Wikipedia entry about tribes, kinship is what creates a tribe, which is a social group that supports each other and helps each other survive. The Secret Loves of Geek Girls creates a connectivity that is tribal in its nature. The readers receive support and love that is hard to come by through the book and helps them survive beyond the actual physical to the psychological. The stories help the readers understand the contributors and themselves as well as link them together. If you don’t have a geek tribe, the reader will definitely feel like you a part of the tribe the writers and artists subscribe to. Since the Secret Loves of Geek Girls has an overall positive note and attitude, the psychological affect, in my opinion, is a positive one and the reader won’t feel left out.
Now, why your gender doesn’t matter and why it is important to read this book, other than what was stated above.
I feel compelled to tell you that I wish I had a book like this during my teenage years. It would have answered many of my existential questions.
- The book itself bonds together the experiences and makes women empathize with each other rather than tear each other down.
- The stories themselves tackle different issues that can be related to no matter the reader’s gender.
- If the title seems more one sided, the book is actually multidimensional and relatable no matter your background or the gender you associate with. (This does not minimizing what men go through – Would love to read The Secret Loves of Geek Boys! Make it happen!!)
- The book shows that happy endings do exist but not in the way we want them to manifest. There are bad types of love but the search for it is not futile.
- Girls (and any struggling teen no matter the gender) need a resource to show that they can rise above whatever it is that is troubling them and see that help and understanding is out there.
- It is an anthology of experiences;
- Experiences are relatable.
- Experiences are a reference for future action.
- Experiences can be learned from.
- Experiences can be a source of hope.
- Experiences are the key for self-improvement.
- Experiences can be used by future sociologists and historians to study the present!
- The book encourage you to be you whatever that means to you and whatever freedom or restrictions you have for yourself.
If you have or can grab a copy then grab a hot chocolate (or coffee or tea), go to your comfiest reading spot, curl up and read the love out of this book.
If not, never fear, Dark Horse has picked up The Secret Loves of Geek Girls and will be distributing it worldwide on October 2016 and feature a few new additions including a cover by Noelle Stevenson, a foreword by Kelly Sue DeConnick, artwork by Genevieve FT, and stories by Marjorie Liu and Carla Speed McNeil.
- Cover Art by Gisèle Lagacé & Shouri
- Art by Renee Nault, Jen Bartel, Sanya Anwar, and Kristen Gudsnuk.
- New comics by: Margaret Atwood, Meaghan Carter, Megan Kearney, ALB, Jen Vaughn, Meags Fitzgerald, Gillan G., Diana Nock, Roberta Gregory, Laura Neubert, Sarah Winifred Searle, Natalie Smith, Jenn Woodall, Mariko Tamaki/Fiona Smyth, Irene Koh, Fionna Adams/Jen Vaughn, and Annie Mok.
- Illustrated stories by: Janet Hetherington, Sam Maggs/Selena Goulding, Megan Lavey-Heaton/Isabelle Melançon, Cherelle Ann Sarah Higgins/Rachael Wells, and Stephanie Cooke/Deena Pagliarello.
- Text stories by Brandy Lynn, Diana McCallum, Jen Aprahamian, Katie West, Adrienne Kress, Soha Kareem, Loretta Jean, J.M. Frey, Trina Robbins, Twiggy Tallant, Rachel Deering, Hope Nicholson, Crystal Skillman, Marguerite Bennett, Soraya Roberts, Emma Woolley, Gita Jackson, Renee Nejo, Natalie Zina Walschots, Alicia Contestabile, Tini Howard, Cara Ellison, Jessica Oliver Proulx, and Erin Cossar.
- Reprinted comics by: Gisèle Lagacé and Danielle Corsetto.
