The Mybuggery never ends
The Bronte Society: where diva strops are a recurrent theme.
The latest: male author quits the Society over appointment of Lily Cole, 'an actor and model who has a double first in History of Art from Cambridge [as[ a “creative partner” in the society' for the Emily bicentenary'.
Cole gives a strong and articulate response alluding to the reasons why the Brontes published under androgynous pseudonymns.
This is an excellent take on it: The Brontë Society backlash against Lily Cole says a lot about how men treat female genius: [J]ust because you’re a man who has written several books about women, it doesn’t mean you can’t be a total fucking misogynist at the same time. Nick Holland has made the decision that, because Lily Cole is young, beautiful and popular, she can’t possibly understand his precious Brontë sisters. Moreover, she absolutely cannot represent his precious Brontë sisters. The fact that Cole has been making headlines for years about her commitment to academia is, apparently, worth nothing.
(Incidentally, I can't see that Holland himself is actually an academic? - no, he is the same one that writes children's books about tortoises*.)
And on men who write books about women: in this particular instance I am reminded of hearing a friend of mine giving a paper on C19th French literary intellectuals bigging up C18th salonierres over the drear female creatures of their present day. Because those dead women in the past were great, not like the ones that fellas have to deal with in their day to day lives, making demands, being given posts that (dare we suppose?) they had some ambition towards themselves.
*Not that we think that there's anything wrong with writing children's books, only that we are rather inclined to think that, if a woman who did so was appointed to the post, men would be pointing a finger on that account.... This entry was originally posted at https://oursin.dreamwidth.org/2709872.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
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