Some thoughts on male privilege
I've noticed it more lately: men coming into women's spaces and telling them "you're doing it wrong. Do it MY way."
I'm sure it happens all the time, every day to every woman, but two recent incidents stick out.
1)
On Dear Author, they refer to it as the Lee and Ann Show. The ongoing argument between Ann Sommerville and Lee Goldberg about the legitimacy of women's writing, particularly fannish writing.
Lee Goldberg has a noted antipathy to fanfiction. This is likely because he makes his living writing pro-fic and when people give away the same profuct, his sales fall. He cloaks it in terms of theft and copyright and such. But at base, he is anti-fanfiction. He has never said a word about fan films or any predominantly MALE way of interacting with the text, only fanfiction, which tends to be dominated by women. He especially loathes slash, mocking it mercilessly in ways that reveal a deep-seated vein of homophobia, which is a majority-female pursuit.
Lately, he's taken to pointing and mocking at erotic romance e-book sales on his blog. This is another field written by women for women. Why isn't he going to Tor and telling people like John Scalzi that Old Man's War is never going to do anything in e-book? Oh, yeah, because it's so much easier to sneer at some unknown woman who just sold Hot Manly Lovin'.
He has flat out said that fannish writing should be consigned to trunks, and that women should really try writing something useful.
2) On a certain writer's LJ, a certain male reader made the comment she was "wasting her talent" writing erotica, because it doesn't sell. The conversation moved to a different LJ. His whole attitude came off "silly, stupid women, let me show you how to make real money." He ran down the romance and erotuic romance genres at every turn and did eveything but scream "you stupid bitches, do it MY way!" He was polite enough, but it was Nice Guy(tm) polite, superior and condescending with a side of "I can't let them provoke me."
In neither case was there respect for the stories women are telling, or even the concept that they have stories to tell. In no wise would any of this have happened on a true-crime forum or any other male-dominated genre. Because clearly they have the pen-is, which makes them superior writers.
It reminded me of the Elmore Leonard rules (here, learn to write like ME), but blunter.
I'm sure it happens all the time, every day to every woman, but two recent incidents stick out.
1)
On Dear Author, they refer to it as the Lee and Ann Show. The ongoing argument between Ann Sommerville and Lee Goldberg about the legitimacy of women's writing, particularly fannish writing.
Lee Goldberg has a noted antipathy to fanfiction. This is likely because he makes his living writing pro-fic and when people give away the same profuct, his sales fall. He cloaks it in terms of theft and copyright and such. But at base, he is anti-fanfiction. He has never said a word about fan films or any predominantly MALE way of interacting with the text, only fanfiction, which tends to be dominated by women. He especially loathes slash, mocking it mercilessly in ways that reveal a deep-seated vein of homophobia, which is a majority-female pursuit.
Lately, he's taken to pointing and mocking at erotic romance e-book sales on his blog. This is another field written by women for women. Why isn't he going to Tor and telling people like John Scalzi that Old Man's War is never going to do anything in e-book? Oh, yeah, because it's so much easier to sneer at some unknown woman who just sold Hot Manly Lovin'.
He has flat out said that fannish writing should be consigned to trunks, and that women should really try writing something useful.
2) On a certain writer's LJ, a certain male reader made the comment she was "wasting her talent" writing erotica, because it doesn't sell. The conversation moved to a different LJ. His whole attitude came off "silly, stupid women, let me show you how to make real money." He ran down the romance and erotuic romance genres at every turn and did eveything but scream "you stupid bitches, do it MY way!" He was polite enough, but it was Nice Guy(tm) polite, superior and condescending with a side of "I can't let them provoke me."
In neither case was there respect for the stories women are telling, or even the concept that they have stories to tell. In no wise would any of this have happened on a true-crime forum or any other male-dominated genre. Because clearly they have the pen-is, which makes them superior writers.
It reminded me of the Elmore Leonard rules (here, learn to write like ME), but blunter.