Gender Redux...
Most of you know that I continue to be concerned with gender/age issues relating to short story sales and market accessibility. ccfinlay has offered up this interesting post on the subject today http://ccfinlay.livejournal.com/58972.html.
I'm still not certain what I really think about it. There is a part of me that said, hey, this sounds good, why not? But there is another part of me that said, what is this saying, exactly? Why do I suddenly feel hinky?
JJA (F&SF's editorial assistant) said:
John came back with: "I know, I know! I'd be happy to mix some women writers in our top eight, but I was trying to keep recognizable professionals in there. What I'd *rather* do is have the top eight be all F&SF contributors, but I haven't found enough of them that are F&SF's friend. I think you're the only one!"
...recognizable professionals...
and herein lies the rub... A small number of magazine markets control the 'identity' of writers as professional or not professional. The orientation of these markets toward specific kinds of stories necessarily limit the scope of who attains this status. Favoritism or bias, even a tiny amount, has large consequences, particularly if this is a hidden 'shared' bias (say the one of the default reader being 30 something white male) in limiting the access and success of persons not conforming to that underlying format.
Further, if access is granted (token)wize or as a means to appease unrest then (in my opinion) the result is a 'limited' success story or the resulting identification of not quite recognizable professional status for a token number of female writers.
In some ways this is quite evocative of the issues around civil rights with words like integration and discrimination ghosting right at the edges.
I argue, that the issue isn't whether women are producing quality stories, it's that the magazines aren't buying them. Throwing a 100 stories by women at a market and then entreating the 'already professional' female writers to make sure they have theirs in there too - is really sending a harsh message. I remind you that the LARGEST paperback market in the world is FEMALE and it is primarily written by female writers. What underlying distinctions limit success in THIS genre?
The answer here isn't to send more, it's to go look at the underlying structure and examine what it is telling you for clues to WHY this is happening. If you believe your market is 30 something white males - then that is what you will receive. Consider what portion of the SF (writer/reader/film watching) population FITS that default. Is it time to adjust your bias - your compass?
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mallory_blog) wrote,
thoughtful
