Pseudonym?
I read this blog entry a while ago and, after my initial guh-deity-take-it reaction, I realized that I have a decision to make.
I am a writer. I want to be published one day because I have a lot of ideas I'd like to share with the world. However, if there is one thing I don't want to deal with is the whole sexism thing as described above. Even though I won't want to deal with it though, I'm going to have to. This is current. This is my time.
I've played with using a pseudonym before. I mean -- why bother just being Me if I can be someone else too. Isn't that the point of writing and stories -- to broaden yourself in different ways? Like Yoga of the Mind?
The idea of having a masculine name for my writing appeals to me -- just like fantasizing about true androgyny appeals to me: if I can't be sexless, then I can be both in my own little way. (I've also considered taking a gender neutral name but the truth of it is I haven't found one that I actually like enough to ascribe it to myself.)
However, I can't really turn my back on the fact that I would still be a woman taking a man's name. I feel that I can't/shouldn't ignore that. Sometimes, I feel that it would be complicit in...in something...if I were to do that.
Unless I'm looking at this the wrong way.
If I, as a person with their reproductive organs on the inside, were to take a name associated with that of the opposite sex (or with neither sex) would it
1. Reinforce the idea that women are inferior to men by silencing their voice?
or
2. Help tear down socially/culturally constructed gender norms?
I am a writer. I want to be published one day because I have a lot of ideas I'd like to share with the world. However, if there is one thing I don't want to deal with is the whole sexism thing as described above. Even though I won't want to deal with it though, I'm going to have to. This is current. This is my time.
I've played with using a pseudonym before. I mean -- why bother just being Me if I can be someone else too. Isn't that the point of writing and stories -- to broaden yourself in different ways? Like Yoga of the Mind?
The idea of having a masculine name for my writing appeals to me -- just like fantasizing about true androgyny appeals to me: if I can't be sexless, then I can be both in my own little way. (I've also considered taking a gender neutral name but the truth of it is I haven't found one that I actually like enough to ascribe it to myself.)
However, I can't really turn my back on the fact that I would still be a woman taking a man's name. I feel that I can't/shouldn't ignore that. Sometimes, I feel that it would be complicit in...in something...if I were to do that.
Unless I'm looking at this the wrong way.
If I, as a person with their reproductive organs on the inside, were to take a name associated with that of the opposite sex (or with neither sex) would it
1. Reinforce the idea that women are inferior to men by silencing their voice?
or
2. Help tear down socially/culturally constructed gender norms?