Making Geek Chic

Writing 100

February 13, 2012

“Making Geek Chic” by Tammy Oler

“Making Geek Chic” was an article written by Tammy Oler for an online magazine called “Bitch Media.” The article begins by exploring technological fashion, or fashion of the future, if you will. The main idea is to break girls out of their pop-culture ideas of shopping and to introduce them to the technological age. For a long time, law enforcement, the military, and the medical industry have tried to find ways to connect technology with clothing to improve human safety and their own health.

Celebrities, particularly female, (Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, etc.) have already worn futuristic clothes that combine technology with fashion. Lady Gaga had a “living dress” that moved and Katy Perry worn an LED gown. Some ideas that have already been worked on include a jacket that was named the “No-Contact Jacket” because it helped protect women on the street from being hurt. Unfortunately it doesn’t exist yet, but Nike has created a pair of shoes that sync with your iPod or iPhone to pick songs that match your work-out to help give you motivation.

There is a group that came up with an idea called “tech crafting,” which is crafters, designers, and students making their own futuristic designs. They want women and girls to get more involved in science and technology. When you tech craft, you are taking electronic circuitry and sewing to make “wearable technologies.” They are working things such as a purse that lights up with your cell phone goes off and a hoodie that lights up to display your mood, so people know if you’re happy or sad. This group has grown immensely in the last two years and runs many blogs.

The LilyPad Arduino is a microcontroller board specially designed to be sewn into clothes or fabric. Syuzi Pakhchyan and Alison Lewis are two women who are also tech crafters, and they want more women to get their hands on this LilyPad to increase the awareness of technological fashion. Pakhchyan is the author of Fashioning Technology: A DIY Intro to Smart Crafting. She tried to make girls interested in technology when she was in grad school and also taught a robotics class to children. Even though the class consisted of mostly boys, the girls were much better programmers.

The number of women and girls involved in tech today are decreasing exponentially. The article states that according to the National Center for Women and Information Technology, 18% of all computer science degrees in 2008 were earned by women, down from 37% since 1985. Even though women