{"id":717,"date":"2010-03-17T10:50:56","date_gmt":"2010-03-17T10:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/2010\/03\/17\/chicklit-is-sexist\/"},"modified":"2010-03-17T10:50:56","modified_gmt":"2010-03-17T10:50:56","slug":"chicklit-is-sexist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/2010\/03\/17\/chicklit-is-sexist\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicklit is Sexist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interesting article in today\u2019s Independent interviewing Daisy Goodwin<\/a>, chair of the jury for this year\u2019s Orange Prize for Women\u2019s Fiction. She is utterly depressed by the amount of \u201cmisery lit\u201d out there. \u201cIf I read another sensitive account of a woman coming to terms with bereavement, I was going to slit my wrists,\u201d<\/em> she says. <\/p>\n

This is distressing, not least because I\u2019m working on a novel that\u2019s in part, oh dear, a sensitive account of a woman coming to terms with bereavement\u2026 But there\u2019s a reason I\u2019m doing this, besides all the psychobabble about the catharsis of creativity etc, and I suspect that a great many other women writers are experiencing the same motivation. We are sick to death of the assumption that because we are women we must be writing CHICKLIT.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chicklit sells in squillions, and so for far too long publishers in Britain have been trying to dress everything else up to look like it. They say they don\u2019t, of course \u2013 mine reassured me that they have a particular \u2018look\u2019 for their chicklit covers and it is not the look they have given my novels. Unfortunately, nobody has explained the difference to the readers. These days jolly-jolly, pretty-pretty, girly-wurly covers of all types are instantly assumed by the book-buying public to be chicklit. Most women writers who want to be perceived as tackling themes beyond the buying of high-heeled shoes and the seduction of Mr Perfect (plus their sequels re sudden relegation to Nappy Valley) loathe the concept of chicklit \u2013 which is a marketing phenomenon more than a literary one \u2013 and don\u2019t want their work to be mistaken for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Therefore we have resorted to the tactic of choosing themes that are as dark and miserable as possible. So that nobody can possibly consider putting a girly-wurly cover on top of it. So that we have to be taken bloody seriously for a change. Because publishers \u2013 who are often women themselves \u2013 are perpetrating via their presentation a miserable sexist assumption that women writers only write fluff, and that that is all women readers want to read. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s why, in the 21st century FGS, we still need the Orange Prize<\/a>, which draws attention to serious writing exclusively by women. It shouldn\u2019t be necessary, when glorious novelists like Rose Tremain, Margaret Atwood, Lionel Shriver and A.S. Byatt prove with every word that the quality of women\u2019s writing can match or exceed men\u2019s, no question. But necessary it is. A plea to the book trade: stop window-dressing as fluff work that is not fluff and then maybe we\u2019ll feel more positive about the prospect of writing you some pleasurable, redemptive, interesting, grown-up books once again. <\/p>\n

UPDATE, Thursday a.m.: Jojo Moyes has a terrific piece in the Telegraph saying much the same, but blaming critics rather than the book trade. All part of the same thing, I guess. http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/culture\/books\/7466372\/Why-is-womens-fiction-so-miserable.html<\/a><\/p>\n

More interesting commentary: Joan Smith in the Independent. http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/opinion\/commentators\/joan-smith\/joan-smith-one-womans-misery-is-another-booksellers-joy-1922965.html <\/a><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/a><\/i><\/a><\/i><\/a><\/i><\/a><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

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No related posts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interesting article in today’s Independent interviewing Daisy Goodwin, chair of the jury for this year’s Orange Prize for Women’s Fiction. She is utterly depressed by the amount of “misery lit” out there. “If I read another sensitive account of a woman coming to terms with bereavement, I was going to slit my wrists,” she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}