According to Underwire, part of Wired.com's blog network, it is time to vote for the sexiest geek of 2008. Lewis Wallace notes that, "Every geek's a little bit sexy, somehow. Maybe it's the glasses, the hot talk about black holes... or gadgets." Why is this a gender issue? When you're talking about a list of sexiest people why does it always end up being a photo gallery of women in very little clothing. We're talking about geeks here. I suppose over the years geeks have come up in the world when it comes to popularity they may even have found a niche for themselves at the top somewhere. I am also pretty sure that being a geek has very little to do with sexy, half naked bodies. So let's look for a list of sexy minds.
I don't know how to find out what the original list that Wired put out as their suggestions for sexiest geek, but what I love are the "oh so true" and enlightened comments.
When I first perused the list it seemed to mostly include scantily clad female actors who play geeks on television or in the movies. Perhaps if enough people participate the list can be corrected. Mr. Wallace writes, "Each year we seed the list with some of the smartest, sexiest and most "wired" men and women on the scene, then throw open the competition to our readers." Take a look at the list and you'll see it doesn't quite reflect that.
Some of the points raised in the comment section include:
under_score comments that, "This isn't 1988, it's 2008. Simply liking games isn't enough for a girl to be considered a geek anymore."
om points out that, "First, just liking video games doesn't make you a geek. Being a geek is a lifestyle. Second, most of these people are actresses who play geeks but are not themselves geeks in real life."
twile suggests, "Let's pick people who actually have geeky tendencies, or like nerdy things, rather than those who simply host programs aimed at geeks. Scarlett Johnanssen, while very sexy, is not really that geeky. She's a big time actress who sometimes plays geeky characters. Alexandra Kosteniuk actually is an amazing chess player, and she's pretty. See the difference?"
These comments bring to mind a couple more thoughts. Yes, girls can and are a part of the traditionally male world of video games, war games, and other aspects of the gaming world. As you can probably tell, I'm not one of them, but I did play my fair share of Risk games in high school (thanks Chris, Erick, Eric and Paul). I think many more girls and women would play the games if they had a chance to try them. Perhaps this brings us back to being boxed in by our gender and marketing of toys. Being an amazing chess player and being pretty still doesn't quite fit the definition of sexiest geek. It's the geekiness that's supposed to be sexy not the aesthetically pleasing figure female or male. I guess we just can't help it, male or female, we're so vain.
Now that we've taken care of our President, perhaps you can take a minute to vote for the real sexiest geeks of 2008 both male and female. Just remember to vote for them because their geekiness is sexy not because their body is. As of right now Jade Raymond is vying for a top position on this list and seems to be a legitimate sexy geek. She seems passionate about what she does and it definitely falls in the geek category of careers.