Nothing to Prove (song)

Last updated
"Nothing to Prove"
Song by The Doubleclicks
from the album Lasers and Feelings
Genre Nerd-folk
Length3:53
Songwriter(s) Laser Malena-Webber
Aubrey Turner
Audio sample
Short excerpt from the song, including the titular refrain.

"Nothing to Prove" is a feminist nerd-folk song by The Doubleclicks released on their second album Lasers and Feelings . It is a response to the misogynist concept of the "fake geek girl" and the subsequent bullying and gatekeeping prevalent within the geek community. The Doubleclicks released a crowd-sourced music video, featuring segments filmed by women within the geek community, that went viral and received over a million views.

Contents

Background

The Doubleclicks, nerd-folk duo and siblings Laser Malena-Webber and Aubrey Turner, have personal history of being challenged about their "geek cred" at shows and online. [1] However, they were more concerned about young girls, just becoming interested in things but being bullied and shut out of the community by such behaviour just because of their gender. [1]

Music video

The idea for the music video concept came from screenwriter, and friend of the Webber siblings, Josh A. Cagan. [1] While touring, the duo recorded some clips of women holding signs about their geekery and how they have been challenged about it. [1] When they returned from the tour they solicited submissions online, receiving a "completely overwhelming" response. [1]

The video was released on YouTube on July 23, 2013. The video went viral, received 500,000 views within the first five days and soon exceeded one million. [1] [2] [3]

Laser does, however, acknowledge a lack of intersectionality in the video as the majority of the contributors were white, saying "That means I didn't try hard enough." [4]

Other appearances

The song was played before a panel called "Sex, Sexy and Sexism: Fixing Gender Inequality in Gaming" at PAX East in April 2014 to applause from the audience. [3]

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 McGinnis, Jeff (July 30, 2013). "The Doubleclicks take aim at 'fake geek girl' criticism". Toledo Free Press .
  2. Greenwald, David (February 18, 2014). "Geek-pop duo the Doubleclicks hit $80,000 with biggest Portland Kickstarter music project yet". The Oregonian .
  3. 1 2 Granshaw, Lisa (April 24, 2014). "Debunking the 'fake geek girl' myth with the Doubleclicks". Daily Dot . Retrieved March 27, 2015.
  4. Dieker, Nicole (October 21, 2014). "GeekGirlCon is an oasis of acceptance". Boing Boing . Retrieved March 27, 2015.