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beccaelizabethI was reading a thing where a(nother) female writer of science fiction said how she has to use a gender neutral nym to get respect / sell in that market. She said she was frustrated by it because gender shouldn’t matter.
I have to disagree. Gender matters. It’s just not a disqualification for anything.
When I go to the book shop I have a two step sort process on books. One, is it by a woman. Two, is it about a woman. Anything in the SF&F section that matches those criteria and isn’t from a series I gave up on already is going to get bought.
I am not, on the whole, overburdened by books.
I can find books in the dark fantasy section. Most of those series I have given up on for Reasons, including but not limited to excessive glamorisation of creepy stalker dubcon/noncon, women as sex workers or sex goddesses or sex defined roles in series I was hoping would in fact be about kicking arse, and creepy attitudes to addiction that loop back into the creepy dubcon where their vampire friends neeeeed them so much and they didn’t mean to hurt them but they were giving all these bite me signals like leaving them and now they’ve fallen off the wagon and it’s all their fault! Woe, woe for the self blaming woman who I was rather hoping would get on with being a supernatural PI but who yet again turns out to be in a paranormal romance instead. … I don’t knock paranormal romance, I just feel it’s a different genre to urban fantasy and I can’t find enough urban fantasy that doesn’t suffer from a tendency to skip the plot just to get to the next sex scene. I want to read detective stories, they wrap the detective plot by having the enemy leave them a note, because they’re really writing vampire themed erotica. These were not the books I was looking for!
By women, sure, but… but.
So then there’s fantasy. To be honest the main reason I’ve given up on fantasy thus far is just not liking the writing. There’s authors I love and adore when they’re writing urban fantasy or SF, but put them in a DnD style setting and OMG tedious. Plus I get tired of women who have as their main problem their own self doubt or unforced obvious errors. And then there’s the creepy ubiquity of noncon in grimdark settings, or even settings that seemed proper heroic up until it’s a woman getting captured.
I’ve had more luck with science fiction. I’ve read plural SF books where women’s main problems are enemies who they defeat by being actually quite good at what they do. Competence rocks. But I’ve had bugger all luck finding SF by women, let alone about women, by looking in bookshops. There are even authors where I know they write SF - I have entire shelves of their SF, they’ve been writing SF since maybe the 70s, there is no shortage of their SF - but I cannot find it in a book shop. Their fantasy is sitting right there, but their SF series (plural, more books than their fantasy, actually rocks quite hard) are nowhere to be seen.
It’s kind of hard to buy SF by women when there’s no SF by women sitting there waiting to be bought.
And now I find there’s people still hiding behind initials or masculinised nyms? I have been hunting! I read all the names on all the shelves! Whyyyyy must you hide from me? I wish to discover your awesome!
Gender matters.
But I got to admit, thus far it’s a clumsy tool for filtering for what I’d really like.
Ao3 works better. Just put the noncon/dubcon tags on all the books and I’ll have filtered so many wastes of time away.
… I know rape is a real issue that a lot of women want to write about. But I am so very tired of it. I’d just like to be able to pick a different option for that day.
I want to read women doing heroic acts for selfless reasons based in compassion and a strong sense of justice and a need to protect others. I can name a lot of guy books where they do that. It’s not actually hard. I want to read about awesome competent women who have skills they gained by study and hard work. That’s not actually unusual, right? I mean, the world works like that. So where are we?
I’ve been looking in the by+about women books in the hopes we can reflect our experiences in our work maybe better than annoying men can. I am not a damsel or a tower princess, at least not while I’m reading. I want to be a starship captain or a fleet admiral or a paladin or a book learned witch. Why can’t I find where to send my money?
So, women authors: it’s totally up to you which name you use.
Just tell me how to find you if y’all are hiding for the dudes’ sake.
Cause it matters to me.
I have to disagree. Gender matters. It’s just not a disqualification for anything.
When I go to the book shop I have a two step sort process on books. One, is it by a woman. Two, is it about a woman. Anything in the SF&F section that matches those criteria and isn’t from a series I gave up on already is going to get bought.
I am not, on the whole, overburdened by books.
I can find books in the dark fantasy section. Most of those series I have given up on for Reasons, including but not limited to excessive glamorisation of creepy stalker dubcon/noncon, women as sex workers or sex goddesses or sex defined roles in series I was hoping would in fact be about kicking arse, and creepy attitudes to addiction that loop back into the creepy dubcon where their vampire friends neeeeed them so much and they didn’t mean to hurt them but they were giving all these bite me signals like leaving them and now they’ve fallen off the wagon and it’s all their fault! Woe, woe for the self blaming woman who I was rather hoping would get on with being a supernatural PI but who yet again turns out to be in a paranormal romance instead. … I don’t knock paranormal romance, I just feel it’s a different genre to urban fantasy and I can’t find enough urban fantasy that doesn’t suffer from a tendency to skip the plot just to get to the next sex scene. I want to read detective stories, they wrap the detective plot by having the enemy leave them a note, because they’re really writing vampire themed erotica. These were not the books I was looking for!
By women, sure, but… but.
So then there’s fantasy. To be honest the main reason I’ve given up on fantasy thus far is just not liking the writing. There’s authors I love and adore when they’re writing urban fantasy or SF, but put them in a DnD style setting and OMG tedious. Plus I get tired of women who have as their main problem their own self doubt or unforced obvious errors. And then there’s the creepy ubiquity of noncon in grimdark settings, or even settings that seemed proper heroic up until it’s a woman getting captured.
I’ve had more luck with science fiction. I’ve read plural SF books where women’s main problems are enemies who they defeat by being actually quite good at what they do. Competence rocks. But I’ve had bugger all luck finding SF by women, let alone about women, by looking in bookshops. There are even authors where I know they write SF - I have entire shelves of their SF, they’ve been writing SF since maybe the 70s, there is no shortage of their SF - but I cannot find it in a book shop. Their fantasy is sitting right there, but their SF series (plural, more books than their fantasy, actually rocks quite hard) are nowhere to be seen.
It’s kind of hard to buy SF by women when there’s no SF by women sitting there waiting to be bought.
And now I find there’s people still hiding behind initials or masculinised nyms? I have been hunting! I read all the names on all the shelves! Whyyyyy must you hide from me? I wish to discover your awesome!
Gender matters.
But I got to admit, thus far it’s a clumsy tool for filtering for what I’d really like.
Ao3 works better. Just put the noncon/dubcon tags on all the books and I’ll have filtered so many wastes of time away.
… I know rape is a real issue that a lot of women want to write about. But I am so very tired of it. I’d just like to be able to pick a different option for that day.
I want to read women doing heroic acts for selfless reasons based in compassion and a strong sense of justice and a need to protect others. I can name a lot of guy books where they do that. It’s not actually hard. I want to read about awesome competent women who have skills they gained by study and hard work. That’s not actually unusual, right? I mean, the world works like that. So where are we?
I’ve been looking in the by+about women books in the hopes we can reflect our experiences in our work maybe better than annoying men can. I am not a damsel or a tower princess, at least not while I’m reading. I want to be a starship captain or a fleet admiral or a paladin or a book learned witch. Why can’t I find where to send my money?
So, women authors: it’s totally up to you which name you use.
Just tell me how to find you if y’all are hiding for the dudes’ sake.
Cause it matters to me.