May 1, 2014
Jun 11, 2013
The Toughest Girls in the Galaxy
I am an old time gamer. I have somewhere the 1st edition of Warhammer 40K, I have legions of plastic and pewter soldiers sitting in the garage which will probably outlive me and the apocalypse. So I should not have been surprised by what’s on offer from the French company behind Raging Heroes. To be fair they are hardly alone in what they depict. But let us entertain for a second the possibility that the idea behind a kick starter aiming to provide you with 3 all female 28 mm armies is to redress the gender imbalance in tabletop gaming.
Did you manage it?
I offer you:
So ok the crafting of the miniatures is top notch. But the appeal is to the 14 year old male gamer (and those still 14 at heart). It would be nice to see a woman wielding a chain gun with more than a singlet on. Below are some pictures of women in combat gear, notice the distinct lack of breastplates showing an outward indication of the wearer’s gender. Notice how from a distance you would be hard pressed to see the lace corsets the are obviously hiding under those fatigues.
How about some gaming companies start leading by example and stop playing to the masturbatory fantasies of young teens and older men who should know better.
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Jun 3, 2013
Having my genre proudly ruined by women since 1984
Well worth reading both.
It was this gutless email from some c**k-muppet privileged male whinger, directed in private to Ann that got me head-desking:
“Its bitches like you that are ruining SF. Why cant you leave it to men who know what their doing?”
I mean seriously, being somewhat over dramatic aren’t we? I am pretty sure considering the male domination of the field that even excluding golden age male writers you could still find plenty of manly-man Sci-Fi.
A warning though,watch out for Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312 it’s hard sci-fi but the gender- 
And that’s the thing I feel that reading some of these emails I am reading the thoughts of under developed boys, teenagers.
But perhaps that’s just me. Perhaps my reading was ruined at a young age, when at 9 I bought The First Travel Guide to the Moon from the scholastic book club. Or later when I read Ursula Le Guin’s Wizard of Earthsea after finishing Lord of the Rings.
There was another comment referencing whining:
Dear Ann:
Quit your bitching. Obviously your work is drek or you couldn’t crank it out so fast. Who cares what anyone calls the crap you write? So fuck off and stop whining about equality. Shit is equal to shit.”
Whining:
Verb:
Give or make a long, high-pitched complaining cry or sound.
Complain in a feeble or petulant way.
Who’s whining hey?
If you don’t want to read what women write then f*ck off and read something else. If you were trying to tell me what I can and can’t write you’d be drinking all your meals.
Note: I considered a gentle post, arguing the finer points of why its necessary to have variety, why women can, have and do write core sci-fi. But this was more fun.
Note 2: Jim Hines has a good collection of all the posting on the SFWA issue in
Roundup of Some “Anonymous Protesters” (#SFWA Bulletin Links)
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Mar 17, 2013
Episode 77 and Galactic Suburbia hits 3 years
The Show Notes
NewsTIPTREE AWARDS
Random House and their new digital only imprints - specifically Hydra.
SFWA response to Hydra letter
Random House responds
NOTE: Since we recorded this, revisions have been made to the Random House imprint contracts.Culture Consumed
ALISA: the life of a publisher…
TANSY: A Game of Thrones (the book) and nothing else ever again because THERE ARE MORE BOOKS.
ALEX: Warehouse 13, season 1; Shadow Unit (http://shadowunit.org); Arc 1.4; The Triangle; Anita Sarkeesian’s first Tropes vs Women in Video Games
I also get a short mention this episode for the points I raised on twitter regarding Grimdark that blossomed into this post.
You can play the episode from the player below or you can download it here.
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Jan 29, 2013
Book Release - The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth
Long time readers will remember my review of Bitter Greens last year and an accompanying audio interview I did with Kate Forsyth.
In that interview we briefly talked about the book Kate was writing about Dortchen Wild, the woman who gave the Brother’s Grimm a significant amount of their content.
The release date is set for mid march this year but I thought I would give you a little heads up.
The History:
Dortchen first met the Grimm brothers in 1805, when she was twelve. One of six sisters, Dortchen lived in the medieval quarter of Cassel, a town famous for its grand royal palace, its colossal statue of Herkules, and a fairytale castle of turrets and spires built as a love nest for the Prince-Elector's mistress. Dortchen was the same age as Lotte Grimm, the only girl in the Grimm family, and the two became best friends.
In 1806, Hesse-Cassel was invaded by the French. Napoleon created a new Kingdom of Westphalia, under the rule of his dissolute young brother Jérôme. The Grimm brothers began collecting fairytales that year, wanting to save the old stories told in spinning-circles and by the fire from the domination of French culture. Dortchen was the source of many of the tales in the Grimm brother's first collection of fairy tales, which was published in 1812, the year of Napoleon's disastrous march on Russia.
Dortchen's own father was cruel and autocratic, and he beat and abused her. He frowned on the friendship between his daughters and the poverty-stricken Grimm Brothers. Dortchen had to meet Wilhelm in secret to tell him her stories. All the other sisters married and moved away, but Dortchen had to stay home and care for her sick parents. Even after the death of her father, Dortchen and Wilhelm could not marry – the Grimm brothers were so poor they were surviving on a single meal a day.
After the overthrow of Napoleon and the eventual success of the fairytale collection, Dortchen and Wilhelm were at last able to marry. They lived happily ever after with Wilhelm's elder brother Jakob for the rest of their lives. [source]
What to expect
One thing that I really enjoyed with Bitter Greens was Kate’s attention to detail and the elements of history she was able to shine a light on – the events that seemed so unlikely that they must be fiction, which did in fact turn out to have a considerable basis in recorded history.
I expect we will see the same again - a great tale and an unearthing of another hidden female storyteller.
Details:
ISBN: 9781741668490
Published: 18/03/2013
Imprint: Vintage Australia
Extent: 560 pages
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Jan 21, 2013
Still an old white man telling women how to behave
You’d have to be living under a rock or enjoying an internet free rural paradise (my internet’s been out again) not to have noted the furore caused by the bumbling oafishness of David Koch, the Business journalist turned morning show host on the nation’s leading Breakfast variety show.
He’s generally an affable bloke, outside of his area of expertise (finance) he’s a bit of a soft touch, sort of what you’d require in a morning show host.
If you can forgive him the collection of groan worthy jokes he puts out and the fact that he’s chairman of Port Adelaide Football club. He’s not too bad, like an affable uncle who thinks he’s still funny.
Relatively harmless.
But he chose to weigh in on the issue of breastfeeding, was criticised for it and was unrepentant.
He clarified his position such that he believes women have a right to breastfeed in public (actually it’s the law, regardless of what he thinks), but that he thinks they should be discreet about it, classy even.
Perfectly reasonable one might say. Except of course that I’d be hard pressed to think of a time that I have seen women breastfeeding indiscreetly (and I come across a few in running the Mums and Babes session in my Library work).
In reality it’s not really a problem is it - the majority of Australians are not assaulted by the sight of milk laden mammaries to the point of revulsion.
Bikini covered bosoms on Sunrise are another matter entirely though eh?
Yet here we have a high profile media figure expressing an opinion on it, letting women know (ever so affably) what he thinks they should do.
Everyone has a right to an opinion, to express it, is his view.
Yes, everyone can have an opinion they’re as common as the aperture that I’d suggest Koch has his head in inserted in.
The trouble is not everyone has a platform to send that opinion nationwide.
One could argue that to broadcast your opinion widely, it had better be an informed one. Because for all the unthinking oafs on television, there are hundreds of unthinking viewers out there willing to take their opinion as gospel.
I suspect Koch is adamant that he won’t back down because, he’s been caught out being an oaf, expressing an opinion on something he has no experience or knowledge of and he’s so used to being in a position of power and knowledge, so used to being perceived and perceiving himself as the nice guy, that he can’t cope with the challenging reaction. He’s not a bad guy, he’s not a misogynist, he must think.
No he’s just an old white guy letting the girls know how they should behave. Reinforcing cultural myths surrounding women. Contributing to that cultural bias that means we have discussions about breastfeeding, or how women who get raped should have been dressed more discreetly.
Standing steadfastly by an opinion is not a good thing when that opinion is opposed by well argued points of view. The bigger person has the courage to reflect, see that they were wrong and admit it.
It gets harder to do the older we get, the less challenged we are in our spheres of influence.
And Koch is a privileged old man, atop the celebrity talk show pile.
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Dec 16, 2012
Adventures of a Bookonaut Podcast Ep 1
Play direct through the player below or download direct as an mp3 or via iTunes ( you will need to go to the podcast home page and click the subscribe to iTunes link).
Episode 1 Show notes
Joelyn mentions some fine folks in the interview some links to their writing are given below:
Wena Poon - http://www.wenapoon.com
Joyce Chng - http://awolfstale.wordpress.com
Dave Chua - http://davechua.wordpress.com
People in Happy Smiley Writers Group Projects
Sarah Coldheart - http://www.seriouslysarah.com/blog
Raven Silvers - http://www.ravensilvers.com/blog
Lina Salleh - http://lookykrill.wordpress.com
JY Yang - http://www.misshallelujah.net
Yuen Xiang Hao - http://www.opendiary.com/notkieran
Rosemary Lim - http://www.twotrees.com.sg
Graphic Novelists/ Artists:
Cheeming Boey - http://www.iamboey.com
Max Loh - http://paperperil.tumblr.com
In addition to teaching in the Department of Internet Studies, Dr Merrick supervises PhD students, and researches feminist theory, science fiction, feminist science studies, sustainability and online cultures.
In this interview Sean and Helen discuss her book, the current state of Feminist SF and consider what men in the genre, might be able to do help cultivate a healthy respect for female writers and feminist science fiction history.
Some of the links mentioned in the interview:
Thank you for listening, you may leave audio feedback at https://www.speakpipe.com/Bookonaut, or you may leave written feedback on Facebook, the Podomatic page, or below.
Music: Music featured in this podcast is from the song Voodoo Machine by Lavoura downloaded from the Free Music Archive and Licenced under these conditions
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Dec 7, 2012
The majority of sci-fi & fantasy readers are men
For those staying here -Tansy’s points as mansplained by me are:
- “But it’s historically accurate” is not a defence when your fantasy work is sexist
- Because our understanding of history is largely filtered through male primary sources and subsequent male historians, its only by looking at social historians and digging a little deeper that you begin to see the influential roles women play
- And fantasy is not history, if you are repeating sexist norms in fantasy you must ask yourself why?
But back to the title, I think the title and its subsequent points at the TOR post are in interesting statement of a mistruth, a misperception, a myth if you will. Not that I think the commenter was being consciously sexist, just not willing to challenge their own assumptions (Never mind that there’s a host of problems defining what science fiction and fantasy is and looking for actual evidence beyond anecdote).
Myth: That SF & F is the domain of men and women are recent interlocutors.
I am beginning to see this myth or something similar to it rebirthed, retold and rehashed. And I must be honest I have been at times victim to it myself. It’s a myth that women are only a recent addition to the community and that there needs to be time for adjustment for men. That the expectations of men have to be moderated down.
You see, I have been reading Helen Merrick’s, The Secret Feminist Cabal which takes a good look at female participation (and all that entails) in the genre of science fiction. You should read it if you want to gain appreciation of a fuller history of SF.
Ask yourself the question – When did women really start participating in Science Fiction? What’s your perception?
The 1970’s, 80’s?
The answer is - from the beginning, certainly the early part of last century, as writers and readers and increasingly as vocal participants in fandom. But this certainly didn't gel with my original perceptions gained from being a reader, a fan. It feels to me as if every decade (plucking a figure out of my backside, perhaps generation?), the consciousness of the community seems to reset itself and thus we get the feminism 101 discussions, the mistaken beliefs that only men read SF & F rehashed. That women who cosplay are fake geek girls. That only boys read comics. That women only came to Doctor Who because of David Tennant.
I think I, and others have been guilty of assuming that our personal male centric view of the SF&F community is reality and owing to a larger culture that doesn’t challenge this we happily continue reinforcing this belief for ourselves and others.
And I think it leads to men in the community letting themselves off the hook. “This is the way it is because its the way its always been. But hey things are changing and getting better for women so I don’t have to do much”.
A hundred odd years is a long time for things to be getting better. It’s a long time for women to be told that sci-fi or fantasy isn’t their domain. It’s a long time for women to be knocking on the door and saying we’ve been here all along. It’s a long time for us to be continually forgetting their involvement.
I think its long overdue that men of the science fiction and fantasy community take up the responsibility of challenging what is written and said about women by men of the above opinion(and some are). Time to stop letting cranky old sexists off the hook because “hey you know this women in SF & F is a new thing and you gotta give people time”.
The buck stops with us. Let’s accept that we share this genre with women, that their stories are great and always have been. Let’s expect more from writers and their treatment of women (and other minorities), let’s not always look first to excuse men’s bad habits, with talk of market forces or arguments from history
There are only benefits to this approach.
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Aug 27, 2012
Excusing the “Nice Guy”
or having sympathy with a potential predator. I came a cross the link below in my twitter feed. I think it’s a great example of the way in which men discount the actions of other men behaving badly.
So without further ado I introduce Char. of the “on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam” blog with The Question
I post this not with the attention of blaming or trying to induce handwringing in my fellow male community members 1 but as part of a continued campaign of awareness raising.
So
- Read
- Become aware
- Pass it on.
1. I am as fallible and oblivious to some aspects of rape culture as the next man↩
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Aug 6, 2012
Readercon Resolved
The Convention Committee has issued a public statement:
Public Statement by the Readercon Convention Committee
August 5, 2012
In regard to the harassment complaint brought by Genevieve Valentine against René Walling for his actions at Readercon 23, with additional relevant information provided by Kate Kligman, and the Readercon board's decision to restrict Mr. Walling from membership for two years, in contravention of Readercon's stated policy that harassment at Readercon will be met with a lifetime ban:
We, the Readercon convention committee (concom), unreservedly offer the following apologies and statements to the individual people who have been hurt by Readercon's actions, to the larger Readercon community, and to everyone who has been distressed by the Readercon board's decision and its implications, especially in the context of recent discussions about the toxicity of harassment and the need for event organizers to create safer spaces. While the original complaint and decision were handled by the Readercon board rather than the concom, we take full responsibility for correcting the board's errors, providing redress to those who have been harmed, and taking active steps to make Readercon safer and more comfortable.
Where this document says "we," it refers to and speaks for the entire concom.[Continue]
H/t Mr Scalzi
A good result for the Committee, the Convention and the community at large.
Although I think that a mandatory lifetime ban as the only tool for enforcing policy needs review ( though I certainly think it fits the behaviour in this instance). It’s very easy in a seemingly clear cut case to say “Nup. any form of harassment- nail the offender to the wall”.
My concern lies in the effect such a blunt instrument might have on reporting harassment that might be discounted as borderline social ineptness by the victim.
That is:
creepy guy/girl is a bit too touchy feely but the victim doesn’t want to report it because
a) they are discounting the unpleasant occurrence themselves weighing up its significance perhaps
b) the penalty is harsh, no matter what the severity of harassment might be and the victim feels uncomfortable getting someone booted from the con.1
Best in my mind that a victim feel comfortable reporting a potential misunderstanding/potentially harassing behaviours, so that con staff can “have a word” with the offender and record the instance.
Behaviours that are not checked, might develop into something we have seen above. The socially stunted, bumbling idiot who exhibits harassing behaviours, will curtail the behaviour. The predator, will be on notice. We hope.
Then again cons are staffed by fans. Is the sort of response system something we can expect to get from volunteers?
1.From Barriers to Effective Enforcement of Sexual Harassment Law: Women often do not want to hurt the harasser. This reason derives partly from the traditional saying "boys will be boys," which is used as an excuse for inappropriate behavior by males. Girls are taught to keep silent and to overlook bad behavior by boys. Carol Gilligan's research indicates that women think about the possible negative consequences to all persons involved. The negative consequences to the harasser may not be inconsequential. Since many women have little choice about where they work, they find it necessary to put up with a situation that they feel they cannot change. "What can't be cured must be endured" is too often the case with victims of sexual harassment [source].↩
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Jul 8, 2012
eBook Release - The Secret Feminist Cabal - Helen Merrick | Wizard's Tower Books
Although Helen Merrick’s book, The Secret Feminist Cabal has been out for some time (it won a 2010 Atheling Award and was nominated for the 2010 Hugo’s). This is the first time I have seen it promoted in ebook form (which makes it so much more tempting to buy- and I did) and it’s available at Wizard’s Tower Books, headed by the wonderful Cheryl Morgan1.
What is the Secret Feminist Cabal?
The Secret Feminist Cabal is an extended answer to the question Helen Merrick asks in her introduction: "why do I read feminist sf?" In this wide-ranging cultural history we are introduced to a multiplicity of sf feminisms as Merrick takes readers on a tour of the early days of sf fandom, tracks the upheavals of the 1950s and 1960s and the explosions of feminist sf in the 1970s, and contextualizes subsequent developments in feminist sf scholarship.
Her history is expansive and inclusive: it ranges from North America to the UK to Australia; it tells us about readers, fans, and academics as well as about writers, editors, and publishers; and it examines the often uneasy intersections of feminist theory and popular culture.
Merrick brings things up to date with considerations of feminist cyberfiction and feminist science and technology studies, and she concludes with an intriguing review of the Tiptree Award as it illuminates current debates in the feminist sf community. Broadly informed, theoretically astute, and often revisionary, The Secret Feminist Cabal is an indispensable social and cultural history of the girls who have been plugged into science fiction. [Source]
Published by Aqueduct Press books, it is available from Amazon, but I prefer not to deal with them if I can avoid it, besides you can purchase both formats ( mobi and epub ) from Wizard’s Tower DRM free.
If you are keen on the paperback version Booktopia has it for $21.90 and if you type the words FINALS in the appropriate coupon box in checkout (before midnight tonight) you can get free postage(not just on Helen’s book but on your whole order).
1. After a little more digging it seems that its probably been available through Aqueduct press for a while in ebook form↩
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May 19, 2012
Understanding Privilege
Mr Scalzi attempted to reframe the discussion around privilege with a metaphor that SWM(straight white male ) gamer dudes might understand with
Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is
An admirable effort, though in hindsight using the Games analogy was always going to bring out those types of people that focus on the minutiae, the rules lawyer types, those that have no idea of what the spirit of the game may mean.
WARNING - Don’t read the comments
Mr Hines having followed the discussion, dug up some statistics to try and help those determined to turn Mr Scalzi’s post into a personal attack on their own poor disadvantaged straight white male lives, realise that its not about them on a personal level.
Can you here the sirens, yep lots of Whaaaambulances.
Anyway here’s Mr Hines post
Facts are Cool
Then I came across this comic book representation the Patriarchy as Matrix, and thought maybe we need to approach the situation visually. Anyway enjoy - you may need to embiggen the gif to rad the matrix script.
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Apr 7, 2012
Links that have me pondering for half a day
or possibly longer.
I blame Jonathan Strahan who signal boosted Catherynne M. Valente’s post which led to much goodness.
So Catherynne wrote a post:
Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees: Gender and the Fallout Over Christopher Priest
If you are tired of the whole Priest debacle, the post is less about him and more about the community’s reaction to him and how, that if he was a woman, he’d have been threatened with violence and rape.
The comments are worth reading and the inevitably clueless man turns up and even been schooled by Cat and then Scalzi doesn’t seem to shift him.
Catherynne linked to Requires Only Hate by acrackedmoon as an example of a woman who is constantly on the receiving end of misogynistic hatred for her no hold bared takedowns of SF&F sacred cows. Peter Watts called her a rabid animal.
I discovered a new term Neckbeard:
Neckbeard - Talkative, self-important nerdy men (usually age 30 and up) who, through an inability to properly decode social cues, mistake others' strained tolerance of their blather for evidence of their own charm.
Which had me in stiches, because it’s spot on.
acrackedmoon’s post Lord of Neckbeards – Tolkien rape/suicide/pedestal watch challenged me as a fan of Tolkien and gave me a new perspective. It’s well worth a read.
acrackedmoon then linked to How to be a fan of problematic things which should help you come to terms with having your literary or genre darlings criticised.
Say goodbye to a couple of hours, if you follow the links.
More trumpet blowing from me:
I have been nominated to run in this years fan fund for the National Science Fiction Convention to be held in Melbourne.
If you appreciate the work that I do in Australian Speculative Fiction Fandom and you have a spare $5, you can vote for me here and help send me to the National Conference
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Mar 11, 2012
Bad Romance–Suffragette Style
Mar 8, 2012
Happy International Women’s Day
only I wish it were a happy day for women around the world. Even now in the “land of the free” women are battling old battles against entrenched sexism and conservatism.
This was a protest against the Republican Party’s War on Women, note the age of the protestors and their peaceful protest, note the arrival of extra troopers, then riot police then swat.
Shame America.
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Feb 26, 2012
Feminism - where I admit to being indecisive?
I have almost finished listening to the latest episode of Galactic Suburbia, a great podcast that manages to raise a feminist viewpoint unthreateningly. Indeed I have to wonder if the idea of militant, man hating feminism is a result of severe poisoning of the well by threatened conservatives with vested interests. In much the same way that atheists get called militant(when generally they are being vocal).
However, and I think it was Alisa (paraphrasing here you should really go and you know LISTEN to HER) who still voiced some sadness/annoyance that it was a man who had said what women had been talking about for YEARS.
Why is it that he gets listened to?
I seem to remember a skills coach teaching other women how to talk like a man, not just words but inflection. If I recall correctly, men generally make statements, women often have an upward inflection that makes even statements sound like a question - thereby suggesting uncertainty.
I dug around for some studies, but haven’t stumbled across anything yet.
I did, however, come across a post on whether men can call themselves feminists or allies. On the one hand I feel that If I call myself a feminist its appropriation, that by talking about feminist or gender issues I am perpetuating the problem (I am a man and you will listen to me, while I tell you all about feminism) on the other hand I don’t want to shrink from that label because it might be seen to be a dirty word, In much the same way that I don’t want to shrink from calling myself an atheist.
Allies just doesn’t seem to be committed enough.
On the other hand I wonder if there is utility in me speaking on Feminism if my audience is male. Is it better for me to act as a gateway to feminist understanding, for men or people who have their women filters on?
I don’t know if this last point holds though, as it was me listening to the women of Galactic Suburbia, that lit the flame so to speak, I didn’t need no man telling me about Feminism
I note also that male writers who write about feminist issues tend to have less threats of sexual violence levelled against them, less hand waving of their “silly disturbed hysterical thoughts” is this because the idiots who sprout misogynist crap actually are forced to listen to/read the arguments?
So here I sit. Ever so slightly undecided. Do I explain gender bias, and attack misogyny where I see it?
Do I fall in to my familiar role of teacher? Or should I just act as a signpost gently pushing people in the general direction of good feminist resources?
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Jan 15, 2012
Galactic Suburbia racks up a half century -Episode 50
I can’t tell you how much this show has altered my perspective for the better…well I can but I think you should give the show a listen and experience the awesome goodness that is the Galactic Suburbia team.
50 episodes of entertaining speculative fiction commentary with delicately infused feminist perspectives, that creep up on you and lift the veil of privilege from your eyes (getting a bit wordy aren’t I?).
ehem…. just download it you won’t be sorry.
Episode 50
In which we leap happily back and forth (with occasional ranting) over those fine lines between feminist critique and anti-female assumptions, plus share our bumper collection of holiday culture consumed. Happy New Year from the Galactic Suburbia crew!
You can download the show here or click play in the flashplayer below
You can send feedback to the team at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow them on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs.
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The Stella’s - condescension, tokenism and quotas
I’ll preface this post with a disclaimer; a lot of what I say here has been written already, possibly more eloquently and definitely more notably by women. It’s hoped that by throwing my hat in the ring that I add mass to the momentum, rather than it being perceived as “mansplaining”.
A Good Summary
I read A woman's place by Jane Sullivan in yesterday’s age. It’s a good piece that summarises the debate on gender bias in literature, in Australia. Once I got passed the irksome opinions of V. S. Naipaul1, I settled in for what turned out to be a good summary of the discussion.
Thankfully, sensible debate, as far as I can see, does not descend to the blatant sexism evident in Naipaul’s opinions. There is, however, some remarkable resistance from both men and women to a suggestion that something should be done about the issue of gender bias.2
I was a little dismayed at reading Jennifer Byrnes quoted comments in Sullivan’s article. I respect Byrnes and I am a fan of her show. She is quoted as saying:
There’s a couple of things to draw out here. My criticisms here are less a direct criticism of Jennifer Byrne and more of the sentiment she expresses.
Condescension
I can see why a woman might find a female only prize condescending. It could be perceived as –“well your‘re not really good enough to compete against the boys but here’s a prize and a nice condescending pat on your sweet little head”. That point of view would hold water if there were a level playing field, if literature was judged purely on merit alone(if you think it is or you’re any sort of literature judge that does, read on).
Recent references to Prize lists, publishing schedules, review outlets demonstrate skewing toward male writers despite increased (an in some case dominant) numbers of women being involved in both writing and publishing.
The judges are biased?
The second point in the Byrnes quote is the incredulous3 response to the possibility that Judges would be biased. My response to that would be of course they are. Not biased in the Naipaul sense- a blatant misogynistic bias against women (or other groupings in the community for that matter) but a hidden, unconscious or implicit bias.
The employment sector dealt with this some time ago, mainly in relation to race, yet despite yeas of EEO policy, many fail to understand why affirmative action for any disadvantaged group is necessary.
| A little aside on Implicit bias. It’s been found that most people have an implicit and unconscious bias against members of traditionally disadvantaged groups, this despite their education and their positive opinions(however strongly held). It is quite possible to be strongly in favour of promoting equality, women's writing, yet still be biased in your actions judgements toward it. |
Elizabeth Lhuede alludes to how this type of bias might form, particularly in women. My own observations from teaching support the notion that gender stereotyping begins at the kindergarten stage( and probably before).
The Miles Franklin
The Stella would be condescending if the Miles Franklin was a fair race and it’s not, based on it’s historical results and the existence of implicit or unconscious bias.
How might bias, unconscious or otherwise effect the Miles Franklin or any other prize for that matter?
- Selection – The Miles Franklin is judged on books submitted by publishers and who knows what sort of decisions are made by publishing houses? Do they choose their “best horse” or do they throw all eligible authors in the race?Who at the publishing house gets to decide and what biases, conscious or unconscious are in play there?
- Judging - Next come the judges and I hasten to add this is not an attack on them, they have an unenviable task – between 60-70 books read and deliberated on in a matter of months. Do they screen for unconscious bias? How would they? A retrospective analysis of their reading patterns and choices? A structured critiquing of each others decisions? They whether male or female ( and the gender balance for 2011 as 60/40 in favour of women) are all subject to bias.
What’s to be done?
The judging panel is relatively stable and the gender representation is good ( at least 60/40 in favour of women for the last 10 years). On the face of it you could think that having more women judging would result in better representation of women writers in the results and hence the skewed results are actually reflective of quality of the work.
I would argue that implicit bias pays no heed to the gender of the judge, that specific training of judges, or the institution of structural or systematic tools to filter out as much bias as possible needs to occur. So that, if faced with an all male short list in 2012 we can have confidence in the notion that at least for that year we ruled out as much potential gender bias as possible.
Perhaps the judges, some or al,l do try and address the issue, there’s no statement to that effect on the website though. The judges already have to read all the texts once, the long listed works twice, prevaricate over decisions, all while holding down demanding day jobs. What tools systems do you use to account for hidden bias, gender or otherwise that don’t turn what is already a gruelling job into one of the labours of Hercules?
A separate prize for women strikes me as a very easy way of countering gender bias in that respect – though it will have its own issues with bias4
Quotas and Tokenism
Instituting a quota system is a fairly rough tool, a quick fix that gets around training and consciousness raising of people who make employment decisions – which as the literature seems to suggest is very difficult even with people who hold positive opinions of disadvantaged groups. I don’t think anyone would push for a quota in the Miles Franklin but an understanding of the existence of implicit bias and perhaps some attempt to reflect on how it might be affecting judgement would be a start.
Likewise no one wants to see women included just to make the awards look like they are handling the issue of gender bias. I do think though, that there is enough depth of talent in Australian literature that once you reflect on whether your reading selections and judgements are skewed by bias, broaden your reading,challenge your own perceptions, that there will be no shortage of quality writing by women. I am confident that it would only be the ever diminishing blatant misogynists that will raise a call of tokenism.
In summary
A literature prize for women is not condescending, it’s not condescension to ensure that men and women begin the race on the start line. It’s a practical and efficient way of combating the weight of history and the power of dominant culture that affects us unconsciously.
Those who decry affirmative action are ignoring reality, perceiving such awards as a head start, or to really murder the racing analogy, a performance enhancing drug. When in reality women have been running with their shoelaces tied.
Extra reading:
A long, long way to go: different tools for new wave of feminism
1 A man who should be held in contempt for his views on women's writing in much the same way that HP Lovecraft should be held in contempt for his racist views. A man who claims that in a couple of paragraphs her can determine a writers gender. I wonder if he has been called on this, put to the test or is he viewed like a kindly but embarrassing uncle that still makes Sambo jokes at family get togethers.?
2. And there is most definitely an issue, you can excuse a year here and there in the Miles Franklin results but a long analysis hints at something not quite right (see Sophie Cunningham here)
3. To be fair Byrnes may just be questioning the critics, tone in text and all that.
4.Race, Transgender Authors, etc. all topics worthy of another post.
Dec 23, 2011
End of Year Gender Audit
Now prior to conducting the audit I had a fairly high opinion of myself. I have no obvert preferences for male writers over female, and I thought on the whole the gender split would probably be fairly close, say 60/40 in favour of men.
How
wrong
I
was.
As a feminist friendly male reader I had a gender split of 82/18.2 So I set about making a conscious effort to read female writers, especially for my recreational reading as opposed to my official reviewing.
Why?
Some may ague that you should read what you enjoy, not be forced into a choice3. I think to some degree that’s fine especially if you are just a recreational reader. But I also review books so I think it behoves reviewers to examine and challenge bias if it’s obvious and institute structural changes to their reading selection in an attempt to curtail unconscious bias.
The results
I made a conscious decision to request books from women. You don’t always get the books you request and a lot of times you get books that you don’t. I also decided to be less conscious of choice towards the end of the year.
60/40 was the split in favour of men.
A surprise
Of my 5 star rated reviews 73 % were women4
I am still keen to do better next year, as I note that there women to be read in my TBR pile this year.
1. much to my chagrin I as unable to rescue this information from my hacked wordpress site
2. Even this may be generous, no lower than 15% I would bet my signed William Gibson on.
3.When you start to dig a little deeper on how we think and make decisions, choice doesn’t really seem that free, i.e. guided by preferences, manipulated by marketing, undermined by subconscious bias.
4.Still reading Roil by Trent Jamieson and think it will be a five.
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Dec 20, 2011
A response to Dmetri Kakmi
I have posted here due to a blogger glitch that was preventing me from posting at Dmetri’s site.
Thus my extended comment begins:
An interesting post. The cynic in me thinks you might be poking the hornets nest to attract some hits but I’ll take it as read that you are genuine, mind you this technique has worked – I had no idea who you were.
I am taking part and a quick refresher on the wordpress site doesn’t mention that men should join, the post refers to readers - it’s fairly gender neutral in that respect. The point is to challenge gender bias, which can be largely subconscious. Because it’s subconscious there needs to be a structured and systematic response.
Now statistics can be misrepresented, there can be errors in collection etc. The statistics quoted carry more weight than your opinion, regardless of your assurances that you do indeed read quite widely, for a couple of reasons. First you are a sample of one and second your selection/memory will be hindered by confirmation bias.
I conducted a gender audit of my reading in March. I was fairly widely read, didn’t care weather the author had dangly bits or not and thought that the split would come out fairly even maybe 60/40 in favour of men – the actual result was 72 /18.
You know there is a gender bias bingo card with stock standard response that men and some women come up with when somebody complains about gender inequality? This comes close to ticking one of those boxes. All things being equal yes all anybody has to do is write a damn good book. But things aren’t equal. Women can both write good books and challenge gender inequality. Maybe you need to go to a different coffee shop or slum it.
Another tick box. “Quit your complaining there are people less fortunate than you.” Yes, let forget about gay rights in Australia at least it’s illegal to kill gays here. You could be in Iran.
The challenge runs for a year. You have a year to read the books and you can choose the level you want to challenge yourself at. You’re so widely read that you’d probably romp in the lower levels. This is a personal challenge, if you don’t want to celebrate don’t. I mean FFS you’re complaining about striking postures above. The original post at Australian women writers carries none of the bra burning, vagina examining feminist weirdness you are attributing to it.
Ignoring that the challenge is about readers and challenging reading behaviour. Peter has privilege.
With readers it quite obviously does. If you or Sonya Hartnett don’t want to be pigeon-holed that’s your prerogative. This is probably the one point that has any merit.
Authors want to be accepted for the quality of the work. Yes, some good work does float to the top but if you or Sonya or any author out there doesn’t think there are barriers that are based on a multitude of biases, subjective opinions - then well let’s just say the evidence doesn’t seem to be in your favour.
The point I think authors need to take to heart is that you must write the best book you can, and consider when apportioning blame for failure whether there are internal reasons rather than external.
But again when talking about gender bias we are talking about something that is observed and is external to the writer.
One of the AWW’s complaints is that men don’t read women. I’m a man and I read women
Yes sample of one. Pretty sure you can find a person to fit any exception to any rule.
Why not just support the challenge. Women can present just as “authors” without reference to their pink bits, write a good book and challenge inequality all at the same time.
You seem to be casting the challenge authors/ women writers participating in the role of victim playing, wicker burning harpies, who all need to shut up and write a good book. That’s disingenuous to say the least.
For the record I usually reserve punching people who are actually physically trying to hurt me. Still I suppose it’s a way of ensuring positive reviews or an assault charge.
Missing the point. It’s challenging an observed problem of inequality, it’s voluntary. You missed the 90’s and EEO didn’t you?
They are not complaining(well not in the sense that you are attributing i.e. chronic complaining), and they have written something worthwhile. It’s an entirely positive campaign and still a man has to come in and beat it down with his trouser snake.
The challenge is about levelling the field not giving the women a two goal lead.
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