Women in Books and Film

A couple days later, I read a tweet from bestselling author Jennifer Weiner reacting to a new study by a group called Vida which promotes women in literature. Vida learned that when it comes to women of letters, they’re just as overlooked as women in the film industry. Vida examined several marquee publications which review books and broke down what those organizations published in 2011 by way of reviews and author/book mentions. The gender disparity, particularly in publications well known for their political liberalism, was astonishing. Among the stats:

  • In 2011, the New York Review of Books published 133 articles about books written by men, 19 about books written by women. When you look at the reviewers, 201 of them were male and 53 were female.

 

  • At the New Yorker, 459 works by men received coverage as compared to 165 by women.

 

  • In the pages of The Nation, 293 books by men merited articles while 118 books by women were covered in articles.

 

  • The New Republic dedicated 198 articles to male authors and 50 to female authors.

 

  • Harper’s Magazine published 65 articles about books written by men and 13 articles about books by women authors.

 

  • One hundred and eighty-four books by men netted articles in The Atlantic while 64 by women were the subjects of articles.

 

This is an atmosphere where, in a recent review of a book about the Obamas’ marriage and Michelle Obama’s experience in the White House -- written by New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor -- the bestseller was marginalized by a male reviewer, historian David Brinkley, as “chick nonfiction.” Oh yes. It was.

 

All of this collective sludge enraged pop culture writer Melissa Silverstein, who frequently chronicles gender disparities in the movie and television industries. Writing on her Women & Hollywood web site, Silverstein lamented: “No matter how many times people try and convince me that things are better for women, every time I see new stats they just prove the opposite. Women's progress has plateaued. You've seen the stats on women in the entertainment business. You see how few women there are running corporations. You see how few women are making it in politics. It's like there is one giant conspiracy -- intentional or not -- that says you girls have gotten far enough, be happy with what you've got, now shut up and leave us alone to go and pilfer another country and start another war.”

 

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lengeft1
03.17.12

I am a woman. I am stating this unequivocally before I make my point, as a sort of disclaimer. As I don't pay any attention to the Academy Awards or the film industry (other than watching what I enjoy...not what others TELL me to take pleasure in), I will only comment on the literary part of this column.
I find it ironic that the female author you mention is Jennifer Weiner. I read "Good in Bed". I will never read another of her books. Why? Because each is described in reviews exactlt as "Good" was...and I loathed it...just as I have detested every other book by a female author that comes under the category of "woman's literature", or "chick lit". The common denominators are simple: all the men are clueless, whether nice but vapid and weak, or cruel and stronger, and the women really don't need them in the end; all of the women are "victims" of some sort; everyone drinks too much, and sex is a weapon, tool and a device for, well. every conceivable issue, anxiety and dilemma. There is a male author who fits into this category as well (who I won't touch either): Wally Lamb. Save me. I have never met a man, who, once trying these books, would further investigate the authors' offerings. They pander to women, and women alone. And they sell remarkably well.
There is a comparable category for males, and it is called "men's adventure", and better bookstores use it. I won't read Clive Cussler, and he typifies the genre: bold, manly men with an excess of testosterone that even highly intellectual lesbians can't resist, who always "get it done", need no help, always seen to have, or be, the proper tool, know everything masculine (how to fix cars, swagger, climb a rope, sneer) and walk off into the sunset. If you're ignoring this subset of literature (some of which is written no more poorly then much of the so "hailed and revered" woman's literature) you've made your argument specious at best. It exists, and has for decades.
The point is, many of the female authors are not producing anything desirable or accessible to those who do not want stories and characters that are interesting only to women, about women, are somewhat...or extremely...misandrist, have poor plot lines, marginal writing and are so full of angst and bitchiness as to be unappealing.
I read female authors: Linda Fairstein, Faye Kellerman, Fanny Flagg, Katharine Slater, Mo Hayder, Poppy Z. Brite, Kathy Reichs, P. D. James. None of them pull any punches, or are in the habit of blaming men for the troubles of their female characters, who generally have strength, character (ironic, isn't it?), intensity and emotional depth...even when they are NOT sympathetic.
My current male author reading consists of James Lee Burke, Michael Connelly, Johnathon Kellerman, T. J. Parker, several Scandinavian authors, Clive Barker, Dean Koontz, Lee Childs. My older male authors, my favorites? H. P. Lovecraft. Robert E. Howard. Joseph Hellerman and Herman Rausch. Donald E. Westlake and William Faulkner.
I don't read "woman's literature". I am a woman, and I detest it as much as I detest current "man's adventure" (and before you mention Conan, maybe you should read "Red Nails" and some of the actual written stories, in which powerful women act in singular, intelligent and decidedly modern ways). It is slanted, biased, and for me, as unreadable as any Harlequin Romance ever was. Perhaps that's what's causing the lack of attention...some readers want a balanced, interesting story with full characters who don't simply hate the opposite sex.