So, let's just say you get that novel published. Ever wonder what the odds are of getting it reviewed, or for getting a phone call from editors at the
New Yorker,
Atlantic Monthly, or the
Times Literary Review asking you to write an article in their esteemed pages? It appears to be much more likely to happen if you are a man. (Third-gendered persons like myself were not included in the study). Very interesting article with stunning graphic data; you should def
check it out.
3 comments:
I've been moaning about this for years. About 70% of every serious literary thing goes to/is written by men. (I stand in the bookstore counting names on table of contents pages -- it's an obsession.)
Worst of all is The Believer's Reader's Choice awards, if they still do them: the long list they generated was like 85-90% men. I mean, it was positively freaky. But what does it mean? That the readers of The Believer, which I'm *pretty sure* include approximately half women, think that the "best" fiction -- witty, smart, innovative, engaging -- is that which is written by men.
Maybe it actually is? Because I know a lot, lot, lot of writers. And the women who wrote the kind of smart/smartass fiction that gets serious of attention ALL QUIT. And most of the successful ones are writing stories about love and domestic life. (Exactly one of the writers I know writes about traditional female subjects and still gets some serious attention.)
Women just aren't taken as seriously as men -- and we don't take ourselves seriously, either.
wow..I agree with RMellis. It really is hard to get women to think of themselves as writers, artists,whatever instead of domestic servants. I suffered with that thought too but thank the gods..I have made a change and I am an artist first. Interesting post!
I always say I'm a loser poet but it's the gate keepers who keep me out! lol fake prestiges!
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