I wonder when exactly it was that Star Trek stopped being perceived as light, fluffy, not-really-legitimate sci fi that ~housewives~ liked and started being seen as serious nerd business that girls had to keep their gross cooties off.
Also when did the Beatles start to be remembered as rock legends rather than a silly boy band teenaged girls liked?
When men decided they liked them.
this is seriously exactly how it happened. Women were actually the first rock and roll ‘critics’ because they would write in to women’s papers and magazines to share and discuss what their kids were listening to when men still thought it was trashy teeny bopper music. once it became a lucrative, mainstream genre men shoved women out of the space. Men also tend to be gatekeepers once they move into formerly female spaces - early trek fandom was incredibly open and inclusive; women would set up fan get togethers in their own houses to discuss the show or invite the actors to visit before conventions became a thing, and then were huge in organizing the first conventions - but now the stereotype of a trekkie is a nerdy white dude who scoffs derisively at casual fans and newbies with his encyclopedic and pedantic knowledge of trek
I propose we call this “mentrification”
YES
MENTRIFICATION that’s genius
by the way every single man i’ve ever explained this to is completely boggled to hear about it. they genuinely don’t fucking know. they’re always like ‘okay name a field this happened in’ and you’re like ‘beer. writing novels. gynecology. computers.’ and they’re completely fucking distraught. men didn’t invent beer???? men didn’t invent everything?
We can also witness the reverse happening, where women move into a space and suddenly it is deemed weak or unimportant. Some examples are teaching, nursing, and psychology.
…and any kind of clerical work.
