I’ve been a fan of xkcd for a while now, and I’m always happy that girl geeks are for the most part well-represented in the comic.
I love xkcd for addressing the issue of girl geek invisibility. I’m on my college quiz bowl team (the epitome of nerdiness) and the scene is very male-dominated. Sometimes at first my team isn’t taken as seriously because it’s mostly female. Girl nerds and geeks unite!
One immediate proof of how this is mainly an American stereotype is that if you look at other countries such as China or Iceland, these stereotypes do not seem applicable. In the former, just as many women major/work in math and science fields as men…and I remembered reading that in the latter…slightly more women majored/worked in math/science fields than their male counterparts. From examining my own family from my maternal grandmother/great-aunts onwards, most of the women tended to gravitate towards science/technology/medical/business fields.