It is sexist to say that women are family oriented- it is not to say that men are NOT family oriented. It is sexist to say that women should know how to cook- it is NOT to say that men don’t know how to cook. It’s a fascinating double standard.

Me, I think it’s just that men haven’t had their movement yet. Maybe one day that will come. Perhaps all the well pressed, articulate, intelligent, caring men in the world will one day step forward and take their power. Regardless, I’ll end my parallel tangent here and extend my gratitude for well-written, enjoyable blogs that encourage me try to stretch my mind around difficult topics and express them on the page.

From the perspective of a writer, we all put bits and pieces of our lives and who we meet in our novels. Look at Jane Austen and Pride and Predjudice–you can see with her life story the simularities. In a few recent stories, mothers were portrayed as bad all the time. In the midst of writing one story, I changed the mother’s personality. I made her flawed and lovable. I don’t believe you can judge an author totally by their books as it only gives a shattered picture of the personality behind the book.

The thing is–there IS a service provided in that approach but the approach is so DOMINATING as to be suffocating. And we’ve all learned how to take art a part so well, we’ve lost the ability to APPRECIATE it, or to value appreciation as a scholarly mode.

EXCELLENT.

What I have found, so far, is that no writer is safe from portraying women in a negative light. There are several “woman” paper doll templates to chose from regardless of the story line. Either they are smart women not living up to their potential, either in a dead end relationship or a dead end job or they are cookie cutter beauties without a brain cell or the god awful scenario, the riot-torch wielding feminist who is successful but would be so much “happier” if she’d just have a cocktail and let her hair down. I don’t think this is a fault, so much as a habit. If we were so hard on the characterization of men, we’d find some pretty unflattering molds by male and female writers.

Speaking of female writers, I think, the way in which Hemingway and others blamed woman haters characterizes their lady subjects can often be more feminist leaning than the myriad chick-lit novels which put women in a box from a woman’s POV. Of course, again, I think this is the art of writing. Writers, regardless of what is between their legs, tend to write what they see from their own experience fogged goggles. That is not to say that it’s true but not to say that it’s wholeheartedly wrong on a page, either.
This is a fun topic that I don’t think I’ll ever be done with. Thanks for the thoughtful post. Off to read some Russo!

It’s fine to have opinions, strong opinions, and to publish them, however I believe we have a responsibility to fairness when it comes to making sweeping judgments about an author’s personality and character. Yes, it is revealed in their writings, but we have an obligation to look for, note and publish both sides of the issue. Readers are intelligent people. They can figure out the truth without being beaten over the head with the reviewer’s opinions.