So Much Truth I Want To Weep
Dogs and Smurfs: Why women writers and stories about women are taken less seriously, by Max Barry
If you read, write, own a book, or have ever loved a story in your life, go read this immediately. Pulls the wool right off.
Why do we all know JK Rowling - arguably the most successful childrens' author of her age - as JK Rowling, and not by her real name, Joanne Rowling? Her own agent admitted it's because little boys are such horrible sexists that they'll never willingly read a book written by a "girl" - whereas girls will read a book written by anybody - that they had to disguise her femaleness by abbreviating her given name.
Really. In this day and age, female writers are still forced to adopt male pseudonyms to have their work taken seriously. Welcome to the 1800's, everyone.
So, while I'm hugely irritated at Miss Rowling for reinforcing the most hideous gender stereotypes this side of I Love Lucy in her books - O ho, Molly Weasley's being silly and emotional again; silly women and their silly emotions that should never be taken seriously - I vigorously hope that the real lasting impact she's had on childrens' literature will be to knock the stupid gender bias out of little male readers' heads, so that they will have much broader minds when they grow up to be big male readers.
Q
Of course, were I at all inclined to be bitter, I would point out that this article wouldn't be taken nearly so seriously if it were written by a woman. But on the plus side, this is exactly the kind of thing that feminism strives for: women AND men being equally free to point out crap that ain't right and go, "uh, NO, actually".