tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-630346294397505634.post2033791181628091150..comments2024-03-16T03:00:25.132-04:00Comments on Romance Novels for Feminists: RNFF Pet Peeve: "It's a Guy Thing..."Jackie C. Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146684628443152376noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-630346294397505634.post-703281440781413182012-10-28T01:07:34.101-04:002012-10-28T01:07:34.101-04:00Looking forward to reading them! :)Looking forward to reading them! :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-630346294397505634.post-74593208146197825962012-10-28T01:06:41.309-04:002012-10-28T01:06:41.309-04:00Lol! Lol! Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-630346294397505634.post-46973849375916226212012-10-21T20:09:47.033-04:002012-10-21T20:09:47.033-04:00"I may be a woman on the outside, but on the ..."I may be a woman on the outside, but on the inside, I'm a human being just like everybody else." - RF joke ^_^Miss Andristhttp://screaming-banshee.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-630346294397505634.post-35016407002645594942012-10-20T13:53:37.133-04:002012-10-20T13:53:37.133-04:00You're very welcome!
And welcome to the club ...You're very welcome!<br /><br />And welcome to the club of those who "think like a man" -- and like a woman. Otherwise known as thinking like a human ;-)<br /><br />Hope to be posting in the future about why this view is so prevalent, particularly in the romance field, and to look at the scientific claims for similarity vs. difference between the sexes.<br />Jackie C. Hornehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04146684628443152376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-630346294397505634.post-55146370738195625702012-10-20T12:03:09.961-04:002012-10-20T12:03:09.961-04:00I just want to say, thanks so much for this post. ...I just want to say, thanks so much for this post. I've claimed this before, and I'm tired of feeling like an anomaly because I 'think like a man' -as if they have dibs on reason- and have male interests. In romance and romance circles -actually, many circles- this view is not only a view, it's touted as The Right Way, the way women should be.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-630346294397505634.post-50012349687085761712012-10-18T09:33:02.955-04:002012-10-18T09:33:02.955-04:00Ooh, a TED talk? I can't wait to take a look!
...Ooh, a TED talk? I can't wait to take a look!<br /><br />Yep, the insistence on women's greater emotional capacities was definitely a historically-specific (19th c) claim. It's fascinating to study how ideas associated with being male or female have changed over the course of history -- how women worked so hard to claim that they could be just as rational as men (18th c), how men reclaimed emotion via the Romantic poets, how women fought back by claiming even GREATER emotional capacity during the 19th c. Just knowing that these ideas have CHANGED over time really helps dislodge the "men are this way BY NATURE" argument, doesn't it?<br />Jackie C. Hornehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04146684628443152376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-630346294397505634.post-47408113518492056932012-10-18T03:57:03.853-04:002012-10-18T03:57:03.853-04:00This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine, too. I tried to ...This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine, too. I tried to post on this a while ago with my iPad--but I could't get it to work. arg. Anyway, this is really something I cannot stand. As you say, while it seems to empower women, it does so in a superficial and ultimately reductive way. While, say, Austen's insistence (through Elizabeth and other characters) that women had greater emotional capacities, such an act at such a time was revolutionary--dividing a world wholly ruled by men into two spheres (with one for women to finally rule). Of course, the problem with the act now is that such binaries eventually trap men and women in stereotype and continue to divide a world that should be jointly owned and shared--not divided. As I said, in my TED-Ed video, we haven't walked a mile in Austen's shoes, we've walked about a trillion miles in them. It's time for new boots! JW Ashleyhttp://www.bookswithbenefits.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-630346294397505634.post-62612829713446213202012-10-14T20:33:25.633-04:002012-10-14T20:33:25.633-04:00Sally:
Thanks for your post. I was reorganizing m...Sally:<br /><br />Thanks for your post. I was reorganizing my all too large "to read" pile today (a neighbor kindly gave me a new, revolving bookcase!), and rediscovered Cordelia Fine's DELUSIONS OF GENDER. Will definitely have to move it closer to the top of the pile...<br /><br />Yours in subverting the Paradigm,<br />JackieJackie C. Hornehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04146684628443152376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-630346294397505634.post-14442136069868913802012-10-14T18:22:32.598-04:002012-10-14T18:22:32.598-04:00Kudos to the blog owner!
And bouquets to you too,...Kudos to the blog owner!<br /><br />And bouquets to you too, Kimberley! Like you, I am an “outlier with ‘male’ interests” and viewpoints, and my wonderful father would be considered a “failure” by the alpha-jerk world.<br /><br />Biologism (“boy brains and girl brains”) is simply bad science in the service of socially conservative morality – for a good refutation see “Delusions of Gender,” by Cordelia Fine.<br /><br />Biologism, and its (even more) evil twin, Gender Policing, are used as instruments of social control to turn us into happy robot consumers.<br /><br />Subvert the Paradigm – or as my father’s hippie generation would have put it, “F*%k the System!”!<br /><br />SallySally Abravanelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-630346294397505634.post-36418722783028733612012-10-13T17:57:43.079-04:002012-10-13T17:57:43.079-04:00Hey, Kimberly:
I don't blame you for being si...Hey, Kimberly:<br /><br />I don't blame you for being sick of all the gender policing. Publishing may be a business, but writing is something you do to tell the story YOU need to tell. Please keep doing it, and find some writer friends who are more supportive of you and your goals.<br /><br />I think the most interesting writers are those who push genre and gender boundaries. But then again, like you, I refuse to be a member of the homogeneous "public" that makes marketers' lives so easy.<br /><br />I am curious to see what the directions independent publishers, and self-publishing, will take the fiction industry. Perhaps like cable television, the market will be split into smaller, more specialized sectors. If so, let's make sure that one of those sectors has the name "feminist romance" on it...Jackie C. Hornehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04146684628443152376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-630346294397505634.post-59622900627221443402012-10-13T14:00:14.584-04:002012-10-13T14:00:14.584-04:00I'm constantly fighting my daughter's scho...I'm constantly fighting my daughter's school for hosting seminars called "Girl Brains, Boy Brains". They'll cite statistics and anecdotal evidence "proving" that there's something to these gendered tendencies instead of acknowledging how much they're enforced by society, not DNA. I'm sick of being considered an outlier for my supposedly "male" interests, and I'm sick of living in a world where men who aren't alpha-jerks are considered weak for it. A lot of crap in our society stems from that.<br /><br />I'm further sick of being pressured to capitulate to stereotypes in my writing. In my writers' circles (which are mostly comprised of romance authors simply because of my publishing history), those who write traditional romances openly insult the few of us trying to break out of these gendered stereotypes. They'll mock us for being unpublishable, for being unprofessional, and then condescendingly explain to us that this is a business and the public wants these tropes so we'd better serve up what's wanted or remain doomed to obscurity.<br /><br />And the sad part is, they're right. As hard as it is to get published, it's even harder when you're breaking genre and gender boundaries. That's why it's difficult for me as a reader to find the books I want: because publishers don't believe that I want them.<br /><br />Seems to me indie is going to be the only way out of it, but that's not very lucrative for the writers for the most part, which means in turn there'll be less available. And it's harder for readers to find the indie authors that'd suit them because there are so many that don't.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02973405888540293627noreply@blogger.com