Quick Hit: What it's like for a female writer
Shari Graydon at the Ottawa Citizen has a great piece on what it can be like for a woman writer. (Hate mail galore!)
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So true, especially what happened to Diablo Cody after JUNO came out, and it even got worse when she won an Oscar. So pathetic. I am a film fangirl, so I always check out film blogs for news updates about movies. There are always nasty, mean remarks from fanboys about Diablo Cody while they sing praises for crappy male screenwriters who wrote stupid shit and never won an Oscar.
I shuddered at the go-to comment the caller to the radio show when Ms. Graydon was a guest:
"Your problem, lady, is you just need to get laid."
Do such men really think sex shuts women up? Or that it should subjugate them, put us back in our proper places, etc.?
PS This topic appeals to me a lot personally because I've been leading a sort of double-life the past year or two, writing for "BUST" magazine as well as being employed in various capacities on the fringes of the sex industry. I am somewhat hesitant to network my current blog about being a stripper, although that trepidation fades a lot when I realize it is the reality of my experience, and I'm losing integrity in my own estimation if I don't own it.
The thing is, away from the feminist community, criticism is so much harsher for outspoken/uncompromising/spitfire women in general, sigh...
It is always different for female writers (well, females in general). It doesn't so much matter what she writes, it matters that she is a woman. And what type of women affects the perception of her writing even more.
http://stuffqueerpeopleneedtoknow.wordpress.com/
This is exactly the kind of information that discourages me from voicing my opinion in public forums. I am one of those women with (as Shari says) "a natural attachment to being treated with respect", and I have a notoriously thin skin. I'm not proud of these things, but even with great women like Feministing at my back, I know this stuff (well, some of it) would bother me.
Kristi, then let me ENCOURAGE you. I wrote a review of a film ("The Hellstrom Chronicle")that interested a lot of men because it was about bugs (talk about stereotyping male tastes!). Someone linked it at Metacritic, and I must have gotten 1,500 hits to it in the span of a day or two. Of all those people, I got exactly ONE nasty comment (I had mentioned that I was driven a little crazy by the narrator using the word Man over and over to discuss humanity). Things are improving.
Thank you, Marilyn! :) That is good news.
I have to remind myself of other good news as well -- like the blogger who mentioned that, though she occasionally publishes some of the craziest hate mail she gets, just to show how crazy it is, the hate mail is less than 1% of her emails, most of which are supportive, thankful, or at least friendly.
Is that blogger Twisty? I'd be afraid to send her hate mail - she's very formidable.
It's Heather Armstrong of dooce.com
and dooce is so fantastic.
I very much liked book In Your Face. Has read literally for one day... All I recommend!