Science and Cupcakes: Thor Losers

People had opinions after Marvel announced the new Thor. #Thor was trending on Twitter for two full days. Nothing trends on Twitter for multiple days. The Twitter collective has a maximum attention span of 27 hours. But the Thor announcement cultivated such a response, that it spawned a feedback loop of nerd-rage and counter-rage-at-rage. I stopped eating for the duration, instead absorbing the opinion-fueled-energy directly through my eyes and converting it to calories. I also seemed to develop additional calf definition. I'm just saying that your nerd-rage sustains me.

And while I firmly fall into the New-Thor-Direction-Is-Awesome camp, I'm always curious about the makeup of my nutrition. Yes, nerd-rage is delightful, but what flavor am I consuming? Before getting into specific nerd-things, it'll probably be helpful to look at more general norm-things to give some context.

Human beings have a serious commitment to patterns. We prefer them, we seek them, whole parts of our brains are devoted to identifying them. In the grand scheme of the universe, we are tiny, meat-based pattern recognizers-- we're not even that picky about the quality of our collections. We have systems in place to help us identify true patterns (SCIENCE!) while simultaneously engaging in making up whatever patterns suit us (constellations!). Theories of cognition posit that we have a representation of objects in our heads (a cat, for example), and that we identify things by seeing how closely they resemble that representation (Do they have triangle ears, fuzzy belly, and incorrect grammar? Object identified: CAT). This process then both informs and reinforces our internal pattern of the object/concept/thing. We tend to have a distaste for things that don't conform to our expected patterns-- it's why many people hate jazz (less repetition of musical themes within the song), and moving to a new OS often first inspires a level of frustration generally seen only in bureaucratic offices and when operating the Mako in Mass Effect 1.

I hate everything about you. Your very shape inspires exponential rage.

And it's why we get so threatened when gender norms are violated. Humans have created expectations of modes of behavior based on cultural ideologies that are tied to a perceived gender. While some behavioral trends have been informed by biology, there is nothing explicitly "natural" about most gendered behaviors. Take a turn down a different cultural-development street, and females being the smaller of the species could have resulted in an increase in violent action to defend their place in a social hierarchy, rather than taking the roundabout make-friends-to-secure-social-safety route.* No, there is no niceness gene in the female brain, and research has shown that testosterone is not responsible for violent men. We train children on how men and women act, and society reinforces it-- the same patterns get reinforced for generations and the behaviors become so entrenched that it's called "natural". There's a ton of research about this, people devote their entire lives to studying this, and its mind-blowingly fascinating so if you have any interest, there's a ton of resources to delve into.

So we have a bunch of made up patterns and a species that gets flustered when patterns aren't adhered to. We expect Thor to be a man, and we expect women to act a certain way. Certainly not swinging weapons around, and especially not ones that require strength to wield-- that would be weird and doesn't adhere to what we know about Thors and Wimmins. So we have a giant outburst of OMG LADY-THOR MAKES BAD FEELS and this is all exacerbated by nerds' tendency to want to protect the fandom. Some members of the culture are particularly protective of who has access to the culture, or what changes are implemented in our fictions. Nominating themselves to fulfill the role of gatekeeper, these individuals champion the authorization of potential persons, media, or changes to either, and are not at all hesitant to make their opinions known on the internet. (Behold: A nerd making her opinions known on the internet. The irony is not lost on me.) Gatekeeper behavior in nerd culture is particularly consumed with authenticity and leads to many of the issues being discussed on the internet about our culture today. (See: fake-geek girls, character representation, and rage at those who became fans only after the movie came out.)

Combine these general-human factors with geek culture's tendency to view itself as Official and Benevolent Gatekeeper of the Fandom and you have a recipe for a sexist nerd-rage backed with all the righteous indignation of the most devout rules lawyers. It's a layer cake of various flavors of misconceptions-- deliciously complex. I've mentioned a lot of things and cited a bunch of science, so the tendency may be to think that this behavior is normal for humans and there is nothing to be done about it. This is a wrongness-- don't think this thing. My intent, rather, is to highlight that these are not simple issues. They are complex problems, intertwined with a bunch of behavioral norms, so just blaming sexism is to simplify the variety of issues that need to be addressed. The good news: culture is alterable! By being aware of and deliberate about what culture we are reproducing, we create new norms of behavior and expectation in the rest of the fandom. Which is precisely what Marvel is doing with this change. That said, raging-nerds, I'd appreciate it if you'd jump on board as soon as you can. You're harshing my fem-Thor buzz.

* Someone will likely argue that statistical differences in strength among sexes results in a preference of one course of action over the other, and thus I will refer back to how biology can (and often does) inform behaviors, but, again, this is not a required course of action.