After Caitlin Flanagan left to dabble in her writing hobby at the New Yorker and New York Times, I had some concern that The Atlantic wouldn’t be able to find another woman with sufficient internalized gender bias to fill that coveted “woman’s issues” space in the back of the magazine among the ads for tacky jewelry and pretentious headmaster capes. But I need not have feared: Lori Gottlieb is setting the bar at a new low. Actually, her column isn’t sexist; it’s an equal opportunity offender and men should be just as insulted by it as women.
I would despair, but for Ed Champion.
I’m all the more surprised that The Atlantic is giving it away. Haven’t they heard the parable of the free milk and the cow?
Filed under: authors, magazines, reading Tagged: | Caitlin Flanagan, Ed Champion, edrants, free insults, Lori Gottlieb, New York Times, New Yorker, The Atlantic
Based on my experiences (20+ years as a professional writer) there is an absolute SURFEIT of women in prominent editing and publishing posts. Some have indicated to me that they have difficulty appreciating a story or novel with a male point of view (and factored that into their determination not to publish my work). The politically correct, affirmative action crowd would have it that sexism is the sole province of the male power structure or such rot, but the proliferation of women in publishing, the books they’re favoring, has led to statistically LESS male readers and alarming reports that juvenile boys/young adults are reading fewer and fewer books…
What the fuck ever, Cliff Burns. I have some anecdotal evidence of my own as refutation. I interned at Graywolf Press, staffed nearly entirely by women, and several of the BIG BOOKS released while I was there were male-centric: Out Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson; Refresh, Refresh, by Benjamin Percy; The Water Cure, by Percival Everett. There isn’t any female cabal laboring to keep you unpublished.
Burns, I think you’re a charming case of how little experience counts for anything when you didn’t have the critical tools to do much with it.
Anyway. The Atlantic! What on earth…? I guess it bears out the impression I had that it was of those institutions with an illustrious past and not much else.
My “evidence” may seem anecdotal to you but it comes from over 2 decades serving in the literary trenches. In a recent article on Norman Mailer in ESQUIRE, Tom Junod says this: “Manhood, and the courage necessary to attain it, were once the great subjects of American fiction, or at least the American fiction written by men. Now they aren’t even considered operative concepts, much less subjects suitable for great novels.” More’s the pity. And so we end up awash with Sophie Kinsella clones and, God help us, Chick-lit. THAT’S progress?
An average of The New York Times fiction bestsellers, first week of each year, 2000-2008, has a male:female author ration of 92:44.
I’ve worked in several publishing positions, and although my colleagues have mostly been women, my superiors have mostly been men.
Eighty per cent of the editors I know of are women. That’s in book publishing AND magazines. They’re the ones who decide what makes it into publication. They’re the front line and gender biases do inform their decisions (some have even admitted as much). Your bestseller statistics may be true but does that ratio hold for mid-list books, the niche publishing markets, etc.? That’s a whole other world. I’m not claiming a “cabal”, I’m merely stating that prejudices exist and a mentality that says that white male authors have had their day and now it’s time for women and minority writers to be given their voice. I say that’s rubbish and that only the best books, regardless of social or cultural considerations, should be given precedence. The arts and academia are the last bastions of political correctness. Let’s hope that changes soon…
No, no. It does not “seem” anecdotal, it is. You could have lived for a 150 years and it wouldn’t represent more than the perspective of a single individual subject to all biases, blinkers, memory issues, location etc. such a matter entails. You can wave statistics around until the cows come home but until you can show any real, substantial, significant causation you’re just flagging a pet issue like every other politically correct nonny with a favourite hobby horse.
“Manhood, and the courage necessary to attain it”? I don’t even know what that means. Because no one’s writing about it anymore! We’ve been left with silly female editors who only publish pink coloured, shoe covered, chick lit!
*yawn*
(You’re quoting Esquire?)
“a mentality that says that white male authors have had their day and now it’s time for women and minority writers to be given their voice. I say that’s rubbish and that only the best books, regardless of social or cultural considerations, should be given precedence.”
I think the situation today more like, only the best books are being given precedence, and now at last women and minority writers get to compete for that precedence alongside the white men. Truly I have no fear that white men are going to lose their racial and gender privileges any time soon. The Atlantic is certainly working hard on their behalf!
Anecdotes:
Female editor (from a letter): “As a middle-aged woman I find I can’t relate to male protagonists.”
Phone call from female editor with HarperCollins Canada (rejecting my novel): “It’s too bad you’re not East Indian. They’re very hot right now”
Me: “You mean you’d give me different consideration if I was East Indian?”
Editor: (trying to backpedal) “Er, no. Actually, forget I said that…”
(My wife, standing next to me, shaking her head with indignation as she listened in.)
The stupidity of editors will never cease to amaze me…
[...] don’t take a turn for straightforward hilarity until one reads the comment section over at Charlottesville. One struggling rebel writer/martyr used the opportunity to make an [...]
21st century book award winners—male:female author
Bram Stoker Awards (novel) 3:0
Caldecott Medal 9:0
Edgar Awards (novel) 5:1
Hugo Awards (novel) 4:3
Man Booker Prize 5:3
National Book Awards (fiction) 4:4
National Book Critics Circle Awards (fiction) 4:2
Nebula Awards (novel) 2:3
Newbery Medal 3:6
PEN/Faulkner Award 6:2
Philip K. Dick Award 4:0
Pulitzer Prize 6:2
Spur Awards (novel) 6:2
current Amazon contemp lit/fict top 100 61:39
Sorry, I didn’t break them down by race, but you can be certain that white men still rule.
Pwned
Men win more awards than women? Wouldn’t this seem to indicate men are simply better authors? I mean, just going by strict analysis of raw numbers? Which is why, perhaps, there are prizes devoted to ONLY female writers; since they can’t compete on a level playing field…etc. Or maybe there’s this cabal of males who meet in secret to choose the winners and…
To quote one of your previous post-ers: “You can wave statistics around until the cows come home but until you can show any real, substantial, significant causation you’re just flagging a pet issue like every other politically correct nonny with a favourite hobby horse.”
Experience has shown me one reality, you folks another. So be it.
From Albert Greco’s BOOK PUBLISHING INDUSTRY (Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates):
“By the early 1970′s females held half of all editorial positions, reaching the 66% range by the early 1990′s”.
I wonder what the numbers is today…
“Going by strict analysis of raw numbers” based on literary prizes, the truly objective, sure fire way to discover the best being published in literature today! As I’m sure you’d agree, having won tons and tons.
Gosh, Cliff, you’re so transparent. Someone needs a testosterone fuelled, man strengthening hug.
“Men are simply better authors”? Did you really mean to say that out loud?
Also from Albert Greco’s BOOK PUBLISHING INDUSTRY (Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates):
“some relatively available data suggest that women hold a sizable number of jobs in this industry; however, the vast majority of them are in lower and middle managerial tiers (with corresponding wage scales).”
Clearly men are better authors. Clearly men are better soldiers. Clearly men are better presidents. Clearly men are better fathers. Clearly men are better CEOs. Clearly men are better computer programmers. Clearly men are better cobblers. Clearly men are better jerks. Clearly men are better murderers. Clearly men are better surgeons. Clearly men are better architects. Clearly men are better at practically everything. Except. Maybe. Motherhood. Maybe. And once we get this cloning thing figured out, we’ll be better at THAT too. Nyah!
Men *are* better chefs.