Roxane gay family essay
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These conversations are so difficult because we are forced to deal in gross generalizations like, “women’s fiction.” We are beholden to these arbitrary categories that are, in many ways, insulting to men, women, and writing. And let’s be clear-“women’s fiction,” is a marketing term meant to either encompass the subject matter of a book or its author, or both. As writers, we have little control over how our books are marketed. “Women’s fiction,” is a label designed to sell a certain kind of book to a certain kind of reader. The term “women’s fiction” is so wildly vague as to be mostly useless. Make the effort and make the effort and make the effort until you no longer need to, until we don’t need to keep having this conversation.Ĭhange requires intent and effort. Vigorously resist the urge to dismiss the gender problem. Nominate more deserving women for the important awards. Ensure gender parity in the critics reviewing those books. Ensure that books by men and women are being reviewed in equal numbers. Create more inclusive measures of excellence. Keep doing that, issue after issue after issue. If women don’t respond to your solicitations, go find other women. If women aren’t submitting to your publication or press, ask yourself why, deal with the answers even if those answers make you uncomfortable, and then reach out to women writers. You aren’t compromising anything by attempting to achieve gender parity. There is ample evidence of the excellence of women writers. Stop parroting the weak notion that you’re simply publishing the best writing, regardless. Stop justifying the lack of parity in prominent publications that have the resources to address gender inequity. Let’s talk about solutions.” Another woman dares to acknowledge this gender problem. Some people say, “Give me more proof,” or, “I want more numbers,” or, “Things are so much better,” or, “You are wrong.” Some people say, “Stop complaining.” Some people say, “Enough talking about the problem. Some people offer up submission queue ratios and other excuses as if that absolves responsibility. Some people say, “I’m not part of the problem,” and offer up some tired example as to why this is all no big deal, why this is all being blown out of proportion.
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Some people say, “Yes, you’re right,” but do nothing to change the status quo. A woman dares to acknowledge the gender problem. The call and response of this debate has grown tightly choreographed and tedious. The time for outrage over things we already know is over. Some men aren’t interested in the concerns of women, not in society, not on television, not in publishing, not anywhere. Every single day there’s a new instance of gender trouble. You have periods,” and, “…we’re approaching peak vagina on television, the point of labia saturation.” The 2012 National Magazine Award finalists have been announced and there are no women included in several categories-reporting, feature writing, profile writing, essays and criticism, and columns and commentary. Just this week, the co-creator of Two and a Half Men flippantly said, with regard to women-oriented television, “Enough, ladies. What starts with the legislature reaches everywhere. When we look beyond publishing, when we see that we’re in a country where we’re having an incomprehensible debate about contraception and reproductive freedom, it becomes clear women are dealing with trickle down misogyny. It is absurd that talented writers continue to have to spend their valuable time demonstrating just how serious, pervasive, and far reaching this problem is instead of writing about more interesting topics. It is a shame that I can point to any number of essays that take up the issues of gender, literary credibility and the relative lack of critical acceptance and attention women receive from the (male) literary establishment, with equal skill and precision. In the New York Times Book Review, Meg Wolitzer takes up the matter of “women’s fiction,” in her essay, “ The Second Shelf.” She does a fine job of addressing the ongoing, fraught conversation about men, women, the books we write and the disparity in the consideration these books receive.