Here, have another drink. You deserve it. This is a long and ranty post.
I’ve been part of an interesting discussion on Facebook today (it during my lunch hour – honest boss!).
The questions posed can be distilled as these:
- Do women authors fail to get the respect they deserve?
- Do romance writers, predominantly female, cop a kicking?
- If that is so, is it the fault of the patriarchy?
I believe the shorter answer is:
- Perhaps
- Yes
- No
Let me qualify:
Do women authors fail to get the respect they deserve?
Perhaps. Do male authors get the respect they deserve? Perhaps.
The issue doesn’t come down to the gender of the authors but the genre in which they write. Would a man disdain from reading Patricia Cornwell or PD James or Agatha Christie or Ruth Rendell, just because it’s a woman’s name on the cover? Judging by the sales success of these authors, the answer is no. How many women have read a Dick Francis, a Wilbur Smith or a Clive Cussler recently?
I’ll also pose a counter question: whose respect are these disaffected women authors craving?
Barbara Cartland, it can be argued, was a woman writer who didn’t get no respect, whose name is a byword for disposable, feather-light romances. Rumoured to be worth at least £40million in 1994, do you think she cared that she didn’t win the Booker Prize?
Who respected her? The people who bought 60 million copies of her books over nearly 80 years, that’s who.
Here’s another fact to mull over, in a September article in Huffington Post, it was revealed that more women than men read novels and that 11/15 of the NYT best sellers are by women authors. So women are hardly under represented in the book buying market place.
More than that, women have agency because they choose where to spend their money. There was discussion on how unfair it is that women authors feel the need hide using male pen names or initials, conveniently forgetting that many male authors have to do the same if they want to break into world of romantic fiction.
Do romance writers, predominantly female, cop a kicking?
Women’s voices are heard in literature all the time
Yes romance gets a bagging and I think the issue is less about sexism and more about ubiquity. Let me explain.
It is human nature to treat as valueless those things which are in common supply. Romance is the most popular with many more titles in this genre released every single year than any other type. Is it any wonder the romance and erotic titles sell $1.44 billion a year.
Most people buy just one new book a year. Romance readers are (pardon the pun) passionate. This four year old article says that the average romance reader will buy three new titles a month. There is no reason to believe that this has changed any.
Long story short because people see romantic fiction everywhere, there is a tendency to dismiss it as commonplace. It’s wrong, but there you go.
As for hand-wringing over why most men don’t read romance novels. Here’s the thing: we’ve already established that men read fewer books than women, the second reason is that men and women look at romance differently (which I’ve addressed before).
Women (and yes, I’m being broadly generalist here) look at romance as part of their spiritual and emotional fulfillment – a connection to their significant other. Men’s approach to romance is different.
One thing I do know is they love romance – they just don’t define it in the way women do (a love story). Romance to men is *doing* something, not *feeling* something. Romance is Die Hard and Bruce Willis putting his life on the life to save his wife, Romance is 300 and the Battle of Thermopylae, it’s Beowulf, it’s Ivanhoe, it’s epic and grand.
Women romance writers don’t get any respect because it is the fault of the patriarchy?
Don’t be so hasty young lady.
Uh, no.
We’ve already established that women buy more books than men, that women read more books than men and that women ready loads more romance novels than any other genre. Women make up 85% of the publishing industry.
If you’re trying to tell me that women are brainwashed by the coersive powers of “The Patriarchy”, then make sure that tin foil cap is wound extra tight. Romance novels are empowering, escapist, fun and titillating. Yippee! Bring it on!
I’m fascinated by this question which came up in the debate: “the content and themes of the novels selling. Do they support the ideas of patriarchy or challenge it?”
What does that mean exactly? What are the ideas of the patriarchy? What are the ideas of the matriarch? If you could let me know in comments below, I’d appreciate it.
“Why romance is often looked down upon? Is this because of the general gender divide regarding men’s work as seen more valuable than women’s work?”
Strongly disagree on two counts. Romance snobs are equally men and women. To posit that it is a general gender divide which says men’s work as more valuable is not born out by the evidence – more women read novels than men. Full Stop. As the article I posted above states 11/15 of the NYT best sellers are by women authors. So women are hardly under represented in the book buying market place.
“Is romance in some ways a challenge to the patriarchy.”
In what way? How? We’ve yet to drill down to what that term actually means. In this context ‘the patriarchy’ is a nonsense term. I love men, I love how they think, I love what they do. On this I’m a Camille Paglia feminist. In fact Warrior’s Surrender is, in many respects, all about men.
While I wholeheartedly agree that there is a divide between literary and commercial fiction, I don’t think it is as result of a ‘male dominated society’. What is apparent, is prejudice amongst those who would claim to be arbiters of ‘good literature’ and their dismissal of genre fiction.
Her: “I want a book library ‘this’ big!”
Him: “I’ll get on it right away.”
Her: “I love seeing you in a tool belt…”
Him: “Hmmm, there’s something in this romance writing business after all!”
What I rail against, the snobbish pretension of some authors who believe they write *real* fiction. It’s the same as the art house filmmakers who complain that no one appreciates their genius because of the sheeple going to the movies to watch ‘commercial’ blockbusters. But the issue is class snobbery not gender inequity.
If anything it is a snobbery born out of university-fostered elitism which controls literary journals which are at issue.
When you have countless successful and acclaimed writers who are women, I’m hard pressed to see where the overt sexism is.
What is apparent, is prejudice amongst those who would claim to be arbiters of ‘good literature’ and their dismissal of genre fiction.
I don’t give a toss for the good opinion of para-masturbatory ‘literati’ whose arrant self-indulgence leaves them blind to great storytellers.
I’m proud and humbled by the fact that I can give someone a few hours respite from their everyday world by the stories I tell.
Who cares for the opinions of men and women who would never stoop to read romance. They are the ones missing out.
The best answer is success. I bet EL James doesn’t care. She’s laughing all the way to the bank.