First off, please read this: Why James Chartrand Wears Woman Underpants.
You’re back? Good. James’ a good writer, isn’t she?
Well, like expected, the whole story made a huge splash in the internet community. It even made news. I’m a it late to the party, but still, I have one, two things to say about this whole thing:
- Yes, gender bias still exists. Shocker.
And so does racismn and all the other biases against religions, cultures or political oppinions and litrature preferences. - Even the nicest, most benevolent person in the world will have prejeduces and s/he’ll most likely not even now it. The culture we grow up in leaves its mark, and similiar like we have a tough time to see the air we breath, we have a tough time seeing our cultural perceptions.
- Professional victimes (no matter who they are) are upset at someone succeeding and happily jump into the fray. The justification differs from person to person, but the siren song of “How DARE s/he!” stays the same.
And yet I’m so not surprised.
There’s a reason, they’ve printed “JK Rowling” and not “Joanne K Rowling” onto the Harry Potter books when the first one was published, you know? Or why male romance writers often have female pseudonyms. Or why a David has a much easier time landing a job interview than a Gülçan. There are thousends of little ways to put people into boxes, just to make dealing with our increasingly complex world a little bit easier.
And in the end the whole thing won’t change much. A few people got confrontet with their assumptions and biases, a few got upset and lashed out and another few started to think.
But I’m just glad about the many “You go, girl” remarks – that, at least, is a sign that things are slowly changing.
Comments (2)
Personally the only thing I would be upset about would be I would feel as if I was being lied to about a person’s identity. Do I understand why she did it? Yes. Was it justified? Yes, but still.
I personally don’t care whether a writer is male or female. I look at the content, not the author’s gender or race or what have you.
I, however, don’t like being led to believe one thing and then being told it was all a lie. it’s happened to me before in the anonymous environment that is the internet. It tends to tick me off.
Plus the aesop that women have to pretend to be men in order to get ahead has some unfortunate implications for both sexes.
Because it works?
That’s the most unfortunate implication IMHO. The pseudonym made such a huge difference, in everything; pay, attention and respect – and that’s the most unsettling thing. :/
Like she wrote, as a father with two kids she got “Oh, he’s such a great organizer and such a great father” while as mother with two kids it was “Erh, I wonder if she’ll manage that…”