["A man writes some books. They’re not brilliant examples of literary prowess but are obviously entertaining because millions of people buy them, and after all, who are we to decide what someone else should read, right?
His books all follow a certain formula and you know how they’ll end but that’s fine. People obviously like that. There are hardly any women in his books and the ones that are are very one-dimensional, and often defined in terms of their sexuality. But never mind, he’s a top bloke!
People make fun of him and complain and roll their eyes when he publishes a new one but they buy them anyway. He’s very rich and doesn’t care what people think. Good for him. Nobody would be able to recognise him in the street of course but writers don’t write to be pin-up stars.
Another male writer churns out books at an alarming rate, often a few a year. He has a team of co-writers. It’s more a successful business model than a creative endeavour but he has millions of fans and has earned a kind of respect from his predominantly male readers.
His books feature women but he’s one of many authors who glamorise violence (often sexual) against women. But again, good for him, he’s found a way of making lots of money, let him get on with it. What does he look like? I have absolutely no idea.
Then we have a woman. She writes books. Their literary merit is a matter of opinion; as with any book it’s very subjective, but they have sold in their millions. There’s some debate about what her books are about, and I haven’t got room here to talk about the differences between S&M and abuse, but some say that the books are about a BDSM relationship in which the female character has all the control, others say it’s about sexual violence and a controlling, abusive partner. Some of these people may even have read the book.
Most people are familiar with what she looks like; for example, I personally know that she recently left a gym without any make up on and was wearing a blue quilted jacket, with jeans tucked into calf length boots. In case you were wondering. Oh, and by the way she’s 52.
Her books have turned everyone into a literary critic. Her readers (predominantly female) are called stupid or desperate. Her writing is picked apart, sentence by sentence. She’s torn apart on social media. It’s not bullying of course, it’s for our own good and it doesn’t count in this case because hey, most of us doing the attacking are women who are defending other women, so you can’t touch us. To do so would be to condone abuse, you animal!...."] - "Women, Know Your Place!" Tracy Kuhn for BooksByWomen.org for the full article click HERE
First of all, I must say WOW! When I first came by this article, I thought it would be something I skim through and offer my 'mm' and 'ohs' to, however, that was NOT that case. After reading this full article by Tracy Kuhn I was BLOWN away. She didn't hit the nail on the head, she SMASHED it! Kuhn is drawing a comparison between a successful unnamed male author (I get the sense that it may be James Patterson..anyone else?) and an equally successful unnamed female author (I think we all know that it's E.L James). In this piece Kuhn notes the differences in the way these two authors are treated by society and I must say it's fairly spot-on.
My thoughts are this: Take any successful male author and you will see nothing but praise for the genius work he's created, even if his books are redundant in their story lines. Why is that? It may be because...well he's just the man. Now look at Mrs.James. Here is a woman that's broken records on so many levels and continues to get picked on for what she's created. Since slut-shaming has been deemed unacceptable is this the new thing, #CreativeShaming? For some odd reason, people all over are acting as if Fifty Shades of Grey is the most embarrassing thing she's ever done and won't let her live it down (even though it's probably the first book they've picked up since the Twilight series). The masses just love finding the next big thing to hate, don't they? Even though I'm sure James is not bothered by the harsh criticism, after all that's what comes with the big scale author life and she's too busy planning her next big project. Though, I must say I'm not sure it's just a woman thing. I think James in particular gets picked apart so wildly is because she's a woman having a voice about sex and God forbid a woman having such an influential voice about sex. What are your thoughts?
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