. . . because we’re all so busy cleaning the house, getting our nails done, [insert something stereotypically female here]. OK, just to be clear (because it’s not always apparent on the internet), this is sarcasm. I do not believe any of the above, and hopefully you don’t either, but there are people out there who do. For proof you need only read the comments to this blog post by Moonrat over at Editorial Ass and take note of a certain anonymous commenter that got into a little debate with Maggie Stiefvater.
This all began with Publisher’s Weekly posting their picks for the 10 best books of 2009. All 10 books are by male authors. The announcement of the list and it’s testosterone laden nature caused something of a stir in the blogging world. My own take on it was that it was just one list, by one group of opinionated folk and it’s getting to be the time of year when best of lists abound. I’ve never put much stock in any of these sort of things because I feel I’m fully capable of making my own opinions, and I’m so contrarian in nature, I tend to disagree with most picks anyway. It’s all very similar to big awards shows like the Oscars or the Grammys, which always seem very out of touch with reality. So, the all male review over at Publisher’s Weekly didn’t really get my blood boiling.
No, my blood didn’t start boiling until I read those comments by Mr. Anonymous. Yes, I knew that there were people out there who were of the opinion that women aren’t really capable of writing serious books because our minds are all concerned with womanly things. Who knows, maybe there is some correlation between the cleanliness of woman’s bathtub and her ability to write serious literature. If that’s the case, then I am pretty much guaranteed to win the National Book Award based upon the dirtiness of my bathtub. The thing is, while I know this sort of sexism still exists. I am a little bit shocked that someone like this is reading publishing related blogs, and is, apparently, literate.
Women can and do write serious literature, and have been doing it quite nicely, for years, despite many people saying they could do no such thing. The other thing that bugs me about anonymous’s comments is that he seems convinced there is some hard and fast rule that romance novels, books with protagonists under 18 or books with not-real elements can not be serious and important books. These, in his opinion are the things that women are good at writing. In fact I can name a few women who have written such books including Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, Louisa May Alcott, Mary Shelly and Margaret Atwood, just for starters. I think you would have a hard time arguing that their books are not serious and important, and it’s very likely that their works will still be read years after readers have forgotten the names of nearly every author who made this year’s Publishers Weekly list.
Growing up, when my sister and I would visit my grandparents, there wasn’t a whole lot to do. They did have the card game Authors and we would usually play several rounds while we were there. For those who have never had the sheer joy of playing Authors, I assure you, you are not missing out. Think of it as something like go fish. The deck at my grandparents’ house, which looked like the cards on the left side of your screen, featured something like thirteen authors in all, one of whom was a woman. Louisa May Alcott was the only female author deemed important enough to make the cut. To this day, I have no idea why her above any other female author. I do know that as a girl with literary aspirations there was something a bit demoralizing about that one lonely female in that pack of males.
Anyway, if you are a woman reading this I hereby instruct you to ignore your dirty bathtub, to let those dirty dishes sit in the sink, and to write something important, because, apparently, there are still some people out there who think you can’t.
My Books
