Update: Women in Publishing

I have written before about the fact that significantly less female than male authors have their work reviewed in major publications.Well, some number crunching has been done since I last posted about this topic and it seems like the disparity does not originate with the reviewers, but with the publishers.

...These numbers we found show that the magazines are reviewing female authors in something close to the proportion of books by women published each year. The question now becomes why more books by women are not getting published.

It is unclear why less women are getting published but it seems to have something to do with a possible bias in literary journals.

Of the new writing published in Tin House, Granta,and The Paris Review, around one-third of it was by women. For many fiction writers and poets, publishing in these journals is a first step to getting a book contract. Do women submit work to these magazines at a lower rate than men, or are men’s submissions more likely to get accepted? We can’t be sure. But, as Robin Romm writes in Double X, “The gatekeepers of literary culture—at least at magazines—are still primarily male.” If these gatekeepers are showing a gender bias, there’s not much room to make it up later.

While it is unfortunate to hear that female authors are not properly represented, I am happy to hear that people are trying to get to the bottom of the disparity.

Female Authors 2010

It is no secret that modern literary culture favors men, but in 2010 women might have finally made major publications do something about their bias.

It started when Jodi Picoult (followed by Jennifer Weiner) took to twitter, complaining about the fact that female authors are given significantly less notice by prominent critics. Subsequent research found that the numbers confirm Picoult's charge- Times Book Review does give far less space to novels written by women than to those by their male counterparts.

After being so publicly called on their sexism, influential review publications have taken note of the female authors they have ignored for so long in their best of 2010 lists. Times' and Salon's lists prominently featured books written by women, and the National Book Awards had four female finalists out of five.

Thoughts? Have you read any 2010 publications written by women that you would recommend? I myself am currently making my way through Courtney E. Martin's Do it Anyway: The New Generation of Activists. Martin's book explores the causes and biographies of eight young activists in a reverent, but still critical way. If you get the chance to read it it is definitely worth your time.

Emotional Creature

Eve Ensler (Of Vagina Monologues fame) has a new book of monologues out, I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World. MTV has been promoting the work through posting videos of young women reciting segments of five of the monologues on their website. I am predisposed to like everything Eve does and really appreciated large portions of these pieces. However, there are a couple of elements of the monologues that annoyed and offended me a little. Below are my thoughts on the video segments I saw and monologues I read.

The first monologue listed on MTV’s website for the series is “You Tell Me How to Be a Girl in 2010.” The parts of this monologue that I really like are how Eve takes on homophobia with lines like “And if the hetero nuclear family is so great/how come everyone is fleeing it” and how she highlights the world’s violence against women problem (“Women are burned, raped, bludgeoned, sold,/starved, and buried alive/and still don’t’ know they are the majority.”) However, neither of these aspects were highlighted in the video clip read by Aubrey Plaza. What is highlighted is the part of the monologue that calls my generation apathetic, “What happened to teenagers kissing/instead of blogging and dissing?/What happened to teenagers marching/and refusing/instead of exploiting and using?” That really made me angry. As Stephanie Herold wrote for Campus Progress, young activists do exist despite the lack of “teenagers marching.” And part of the way we are working to bring about change is by doing some of that blogging.

The second monologue “I Dance” I found very powerful, especially when it speaks out against society’s attitudes towards a young woman’s body “I dance past your lustful eyes/Your dirty interpretations of my teenage body.” However, again, what was chosen to be highlighted in the video was the part that speaks against technology, “I dance ‘cause it’s better/than sexting.” I realize that technology has been utilized as a way to abuse women, but the theme of technology-bashing in these monologues is really disheartening for someone like me who does most of their activism through it. Sure, we should highlight what is wrong with it (it makes it easier to bully and emotionally abuse people) but not without also displaying the awesome ways young people are using it.

The third monologue “Asking The Question” is just awesome, both the part emphasized via video and the entire thing. Adorable and happiness inducing.

The fourth monologue “It’s Not a Baby, It’s a Maybe” was a really thoughtful look at how one young woman might think about an unplanned pregnancy. However, I was once again disappointed with the segment they decided to highlight in video. The video seemed to deliberately avoid the central conflict in the monologue, which was whether or not the speaker would get an abortion.

The fifth monologue “Dear Rihanna” was hard to read, but I appreciate how it captures some of the troubling reactions people have to dating violence. The video segment seemed well chosen.

If any of you get a chance to see any of the videos or read any of the monologues let me know your thoughts in comments.

Happy International Women's Day!

If I could write a postcard to my sisters from all around the world, I would say:

Hey!
Happy International Women's Day from the United States! The weather is a little rainy here, at least in the Midwest, but we're still enjoying Obama's sunshine (at least for a little longer)! Things have been going pretty good with the Fair Pay Act and the no longer around Global Gag Rule, but we're still have a lot of work. I hope we see each other one day soon, when we can celebrate our sisterhood with no clouds above our heads. Enjoy your celebration and good luck!
Missing you,
Kate

An Open Letter to Activists of All Sorts

Bill Ayers, Obama's pal, spoke at Knox this afternoon. While his talk acknowledged the election "controversy," it focused more on the purposes of activism and how an individual can balance activism with individualism.
Ayers is a dynamic speaker, and one of the most important moments for me came when Mr. Ayers spoke about connecting activist movements. He is most famous (or infamous) for his work within the anti-war movement, but he also talked about his experiences protesting after Prop 8. Mr. Ayers noted how the feminist movement and the environmental movement can connect to the anti-war movement to broaden support for all causes.
I think this is absolutely important, and something both feminists and other groups don't do often enough.
I think of myself as a Marxist, pacifist, feminist, with an emphasis on feminist. I also feel passionately about ending global warming, expanding gay rights, and emphasising immigrant concerns. However, I blog, almost solely about feminism.
The post I wrote about the Texas sheriff was linked in many places in the blogsphere, but one aspect I failed to address was the victim's supposed crime, drug possession. While I feel that drugs should be legalized I didn't go there; I don't think I even remarked upon it. I should have. Drug legalization and the prison industrial complex and feminism are intimately linked, as are feminism and environmentalism, feminism and food, feminism and pacifism, feminism and LGBTQ rights, and feminism and [insert your cause here].
However, another issue within the feminist community is the ostracism we may feel after identifying as feminists. Some groups do not want their causes associated with us. There is still a huge stigma on feminism. Many of my progressive friends still shy away from the label or refuse the association. I urge these causes, whether it be the movement for universal health care in the United States or organizations against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to accept feminism as an important cornerstone of your organizations. The agenda of your group will not be diminished or over taken by feminist concerns, instead your participants and concerns will be broadened to make them more comprehensive and important.
And my sisters and brothers in feminism, we must also expand our agendas beyond the typical women's rights checklist. Fair pay has to do with more than sexist discrimination; it deals with economics, socialism, and the further discrimination suffered by sisters of color. Abortion is tied to racism and environmentalism and radical religion. What a beautiful web we could weave.
Historian activist Howard Zinn addressed specialization within social movements:

"To work on a real problem (such as how to eliminate poverty in a nation
producing $800 billion worth of wealth each year), one would have to follow that
problem across many disciplinary lines without qualm, dealing with historical
materials, economic theories, political problems. Specialization insures that one
cannot follow a problem through from start to finish."

I didn't address the charges levied against survivor of the Texas sheriff's assault because I didn't want to complicate the issue within a short blog post, so I categorized it as rape, a man's power over a woman. While it was rape, it was also about drug legalization, and the threatening power of the prison industrial complex. The woman's problem was not accurately addressed, and a prescription for her mistreatment will not come out of a misdiagnoses.
Please, my feminists and fellow activists we need to begin a dialogue between each other. I promise to do better as a blogger. I will ask the more complex questions and explore the deeper power dynamics. I will not be afraid to ask other causes for support or help and be quick to answer their calls for assistance. I urge you to do the same. Feminist blogs need to address other environmental issues. Environmental blogs need to address immigrant issues. Immigrant rights blogs need to address feminism. Ect. Ect. Ect. It will make us each stronger. We have the power.
Si se puede.
Yes we can.

Invisibility

Cross-posted at XXBlaze

A huge topic in Feminism is the claim that minorities and women are invisible in our society. The default "human position" is male. When reading something in which the author is not specified, the average American assumes that the author is male. If the author is female, of color, or homosexual, we praise it as a "fine piece of work by X minority". In short, a white man can publish a book and be praised for his contribution to academia, while a woman, person of color, or any other minority is primarily identified by that minority specification, not their accomplishments. Their contribution is something that belongs to a collective, whereas a white male's work is attributed solely to him, not to his unstated group membership.

Being a Feminist, I abhor when the majority subconsciously classify the words of a "minority" as representative of that minority group. It creates this sort of "otherness" in which we are all hyper-aware of race, gender, and sexual orientation because it seems to be known as the most important facet of one's identity.

However, when this identity is not stated, we simply assume that someone is a straight white male. Perhaps we might think the tone is sufficiently feminine, and then we consider that the author is a woman. Unless a piece of literature specifically alludes to homosexuality, race, or religion, we assume that the author is heterosexual, Christian/Atheist, white, and usually male.

I, just as much as the rest of you, am equally guilty. I subconsciously make distinctions of "otherness" when reading something by a woman, a homosexual, or, for instance, a Muslim. I make insensitive comments even about my own gender unknowingly because I grew up in a society that counts privelege and many different bigotries as a standard part of socialization.

What I really do not like about the mainstream Feminist movement is that it ignores a lot of these intersections of privelege. We do discuss issues that affect all women, but I have noticed that when we discuss relationships we always seem to discuss them in the context of heterosexuality. Among other things, we generally do not touch issues facing South American women or Middle Eastern women, or concentrate on the inequities facing a "stay at home Mom" or a particularly poor woman.

More than anything, however, I notice the assumption of heterosexuality. As a bisexual female, many of the discussions in the context of heterosexuality do not apply to me at all. A huge portion of my identity is not covered by mainstream Feminism, although I do not think it is by design. The pursuit of a feminist relationship between two women is not absent of its pitfalls. Absent, however, from the usual columns on how to craft a feminist relationship is any mention of homosexuality, polyamory, or transgenderism.

I only thought of this recently because of the discussions surrounding Amanda Marcotte's racially offensive illustrations in It's a Jungle Out There. Privilege very often results in a subconscious prioritization of issues. I see that many feminists place women's issues above racial issues and gay rights frequently. It is not appropriate to demonize the privileged, because we all are in our own way, but it is useful to point it out.

I suppose then that this is my two-bits. I would like to see a lot more about gay issues under the Feminist umbrella, not only because both are important to me, but I think that it is instrumentally important that Feminists remain cognizant of all types of priviledge, especially those types we might unknowingly further.

For what it counts, I suppose this is a bizarre sort of post that I write more as a minority than a majority. Considering my educated whiteness, this is a rare state for me. The fact still remains that when I write, I do so knowing that all of my readers assume that I am heterosexual. This is both a blessing and a curse. One day, I hope that my invisibility as someone who is not heterosexual will be obsolete.

New Contributor Introduction

Hey all! Amelia is letting me contribute to this lovely Feminist blog, so you'll be seeing more of my posts in the future. Just as an introduction, I am a young Philosophy/French major at my local university, and I do activism for our university Feminist organization frequently. I will be looking to complete my undergraduate thesis on domestic violence someone in the next year or so.

I have self-identified as a Feminist for only two years. My "conversion" was fueled mostly by the welcoming and awesome Women's Studies 101 class I took my Freshman year. I place myself on the radical side of feminism, à la Dworkin. I am anti-pornography, pro-choice, and generally just the kind of liberal that makes liberals look conservative.

I am really looking forward to contributing as much as a I can, and as constructively as possible. I am more interested in the theory side of Feminism, so you will probably see a lot of commentary in that vein. I am really honored to have the chance to contribute here!

Amazing Feminism is Happening

A little feminist sunshine for your evening!

Girls Write Now is a mentoring program in New York City for low-income, first generation, and immigrant young women who are paired up with women writers in the city. They work together on writing and editing, but they also talk about education, goals, and family.

This is a wonderful program, and it brings to light an important feminist concern: mentoring. Women have been graduating from college at a higher rate than men for several years now, but men still hold nearly all of the high positions within most companies. One reason for this seems to be mentoring, or The Old Boys Club.

Women are less openly discriminated in the workplace and often even invited to after-work "bonding," such as drinks, but sexism is still present. The conversations during these "bonding" events often steers away from topics women can relate to; just because these drinks are not taking place in a strip club, does not mean sexism is not there. Older men often feel closer to younger men and, whether consciously or not, the older men will pass on advice or give recommendations for these younger men.

Older women are not exempt from this sexism. Older women may choose not to recognize the merit of younger women's work because of competition. Many women feel that there are only so many places for women are these companies, and for their own sake, choose to mentor young men.

Which is why Girls Write Now is such a great program and a reason why I am SO excited about it!