Long time, first time.
Heya heya! I've been lurking here for about a year now, and this is actually my first post.
Someone on my friend's list linked me to this post by Cupid's Bow. Basically, she's writing about how she feels that the patriarchy is trying to keep female authors down, so that men can continue to dominate the market.
My first thought, honestly, was that this was complete bollocks: as soon as I think author, I'm more likely to think "female" than "male". Most of the books on my shelves are written by females, from the Harry Potter series to all the Agatha Christie books to Mary Burchell, a little known writer of romance (romance being a female-dominated industry, which I'm told represents about 50% of the American book market.)
Thinking about it, she might be right. Specifically the fields of Fantasy and Sci-Fi tend to be male-dominated, but these aren't the main genres I read, so I can't really comment.
She also posted two questions, however, which really got to me. And I quote:
Is the non-capitalist aspect of fanfiction actually a method of silencing the artistic voices of women? And does it take away what should be legitimate opportunities for us to earn an income from what we create?
The answer, as far as I can tell, is "no." No, no, no. The non-capitalistic aspect of fanfiction is not so that you womyn can be opressed, rather is it because fanfiction infringes on intellectual property rights, and thus trying to make money off it is illegal. Technically speaking, publishing it on the web at all is illegal, but most authors don't mind, as long as you don't try to make money from it.
Is it just me, or does this seem to be a case of someone trying to turn a non-feminist issue into "Help, help, we're being oppressed, we're being oppressed!"?
My friend has a rebuttal up here (that entry being what alerted me to the post in the first place.)
Someone on my friend's list linked me to this post by Cupid's Bow. Basically, she's writing about how she feels that the patriarchy is trying to keep female authors down, so that men can continue to dominate the market.
My first thought, honestly, was that this was complete bollocks: as soon as I think author, I'm more likely to think "female" than "male". Most of the books on my shelves are written by females, from the Harry Potter series to all the Agatha Christie books to Mary Burchell, a little known writer of romance (romance being a female-dominated industry, which I'm told represents about 50% of the American book market.)
Thinking about it, she might be right. Specifically the fields of Fantasy and Sci-Fi tend to be male-dominated, but these aren't the main genres I read, so I can't really comment.
She also posted two questions, however, which really got to me. And I quote:
Is the non-capitalist aspect of fanfiction actually a method of silencing the artistic voices of women? And does it take away what should be legitimate opportunities for us to earn an income from what we create?
The answer, as far as I can tell, is "no." No, no, no. The non-capitalistic aspect of fanfiction is not so that you womyn can be opressed, rather is it because fanfiction infringes on intellectual property rights, and thus trying to make money off it is illegal. Technically speaking, publishing it on the web at all is illegal, but most authors don't mind, as long as you don't try to make money from it.
Is it just me, or does this seem to be a case of someone trying to turn a non-feminist issue into "Help, help, we're being oppressed, we're being oppressed!"?
My friend has a rebuttal up here (that entry being what alerted me to the post in the first place.)