Why Is This A Thing?

If you're a member of Geek community, then I'm sure you've caught wind of the "Cosplay is NOT Consent" Movement. Here's a good article that explains it if you're not familiar. Essentially, the movement's purpose is to raise awareness of inappropriate behavior towards costumed congoers and, hopefully, prevent it from happening. The objectification of women in geek culture is, sadly, nothing new. I've gone on tirades before about women finding themselves having to prove how "geeky" they are in order to battle the myth of the "Fake Geek Girl." I've talked until I was blue in the face about how pursuing popularity in the cosplay community has practically destroyed it.

I really didn't think it was possible for anything to take all three of these things that I DESPISE about the geek community and roll them into one.

Yet the universe has managed to surprise me again.

May I present for your disapproval, The Miss Nerd America Contest.

It's a beauty pageant for nerds geek women who, according to the site will be awarded points for, "intelligence, nerd cred, and nerd beauty."

I didn't realize there were subcategories for beauty. Is nerd beauty different from regular beauty? Is nerd beauty supposed to be on such a lower scale from regular beauty that you have to point out that it's specifically nerd beauty?

They had subcategories for winners before: Miss Sci-fi/Comics, Miss Literature, and Miss Math and Science Nerd. These were replaced with the "adorable" and diminutive, "Miss Nerd America Princess!"

Are you kidding me?

Naturally, there are already a sizable number of entries from women whose pictures vary wildly in content: from simple and straightforward profile picture-esque shots to boudoir-quality shots in cosplay.

What I can't figure out is why? I'm sure there are some women who'd get a kick out of entering in a nerd beauty pageant (I'm calling it what it is, because a half-naked picture will probably get more votes than a woman that's a rocket scientist for NASA on this thing because voting for the winner is open to the public) but who is running this thing? That's the first burning question I would have to ask myself before divulging my personal information on poorly, cobbled together website.

Who IS Groovy Nerd Media? I haven't been able to find ANYTHING of note about them and their website is about as informative about them as their Facebook page

So a couple of guys running a computer business started the Miss Nerd America Contest  Geek Beauty Pageant to crown the Miss Nerd America Princess and give her and her royal court an Amazon Kindle and some (apparently) much needed nerd cred?

Okay....

Why is this a thing?