I am reading a book right this second that deals, a little bit, with this issue. Literature After Feminism, by Rita Felski. It’s a really good, accessible academic read about how feminist criticism has worked in the past 30 years or so, and how it works today. It is as good of a response to this issue as any I can think of right away. Plus. The domestic as depressing? Jeez. I wish people would get over calling domestic fiction less worthy than other sorts merely because it’s domestic. If you don’t like it cause it sucks, that’s one thing. But the kitchen in the hands of, say Wharton, can be as deadly a place as the deck of the whaling ship, and just as domestic. Or it can be just as revelatory as any hero quest on a fishing raft. Pfffht. Of course there is women’s writing. But that doesn’t mean all women writers are writing women’s writing, nor that men can’t write like a woman writer or that a woman writer has to be true to “women’s subjects” merely because of her gender. It’s a genre, just like sci fi or mystery. Yes, it’s a broad one. (Ha ha. A BROAD genre). But it’s still as legitimate as, say, English Literature or American Literature. Fussy canon-guard.
I think it’s a sad commentary that people are even discussing “women’s writing” as a lumped category in the 21st century.
Damn, Laureniste. I picked up on this earlier this afternoon off this other Guardian article.. I commented on it here at Scribbling Woman I strongly disagree that this is a No Comment situation. I try to avoid profanity in my discourse, but this getting The Heretik close to that line. Maybe over> Why? Sure, we have all seen the “non serious woman blogger” bit these last few weeks. That’s bad . While I am sympathetic to the idea that history and writing, indeed everything belongs to us all, when you see the forces of ignorance belittling and pigeonholing what is 51% of the population by belittling its authors, you can’t just say no comment. No, you have to say bullshit. No comment is the approach that lost John Kerry the election. The time for high mindedness is high time gone. I’m going to have more on this later. I’m going to put it in the Uppity Woman celebration of proud women. Lauren, you are a gifted, proud, and strong voice for all you hold true. The less gifted, the less proud, and the less strong all look to your gifts and your pride to help them find strength. I can’t myself lucky to have come to know you through your writing. Don’t sit this one out.
Yes, ‘women’s writing’. Like ‘women’s work’ and ‘women’s duty’ and various other demeaning, patronising phrases. I feel like I’ve entered a timewarp and Mr Darcy is coming to call and ask my father for my hand in marriage, as soon as I’m done with my ‘women’s writing’.
Actually, I think the best comment is Jane Rodger’s rebuttal which is included in the link (if you manage to not get so pissed off that you quit reading before the end). Rodger’s observation that it is unlikely that the quality of submissions had really eroded that much in the twelve months since she had edited the previous anthology is the best counterpoint, really. The bashing really reflects the editor’s personal problems more than anything else.