Knitless Friday

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

It's an off week for While She Knits, but here's a question for you all, some of it taken directly from a discussion I had recently.

filkferengi posted about a site for book reviews of books written by women.  And there was a recent blog post about the disproportion of  male vs female Caldecott winners.  So, a question.

Do you select books by the sex of the author?  Often?  Rarely?  Ever?  I've never read for women-authors in my science fiction or fantasy.  How about you?  Do you pick something off the shelf saying to yourself, "Oh cool, a woman-written book about rockets, war, faeries, witches"?

Do you notice who the illustrator of a book is, much less what sex? 

Comments

[chocolatepot.livejournal.com]

I don't really often notice the sex of an author unless I look at the picture or make a note of the name to get another by them, or something like that. It just doesn't occur to me.

I notice who the illustrator is if it's Trina Schart Hyman or Charles Vess. But they're the only ones. :D

[parron.livejournal.com]

To me, it doesn't matter - but I remember I used to have a friend who would specifically chose women writers, artists, etc. If we had to do a project on an artist, she'd pick a woman - if we had to write an essay on a book, she'd pick one written by a woman. I don't know why she did it, but I remember how annoying I found it - personally, I like to choose literature and art based on the quality, not the gender of the creator!

That said, though, I admit to having a kind of bias. Mostly due to years in fandom, I tend to work under the general assumption that men write better epic plots, with twists and turns and lengths and story - but are weak with characters and dialogue. And that women write better dialogue, character, and character based drama, but flounder a bit with epic plots and grand scopes. Silly, I know.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

Um, no? I don't think I ever do? I mean heck, I never did figure out Avi's gender. I guess for me the author's gender only comes into effect when the subject of gender is an important one in the book--not just in a defying stereotypes, but more in a male-author-writes-female-character-poorly way, I guess? But that's something I'll notice after the fact.

I usually don't read books with illustrations anymore? Just doesn't happen.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

I tend to work under the general assumption that men write better epic plots, with twists and turns and lengths and story - but are weak with characters and dialogue. And that women write better dialogue, character, and character based drama, but flounder a bit with epic plots and grand scopes. Silly, I know.

I wouldn't call it silly at all--I would suspect it is, in fact, very true. Just from my own experience. I mean, it obviously doesn't hold true for all, and there's a fair amount of leeway as to how weak they are on one thing or another, but I would say at a basic level, it goes back to how men and women function--men generally on a more analytic level, women on a more emotional/character-driven level.

[adalanne.livejournal.com]

Interesting links, especially the illustrator one. Reminds me of some issues with the comic book industry (http://ratcreature.livejournal.com/175099.html?format=light).

I've never picked books based on the author's sex, but I think that's probably because female authors are just as (if not more) prevalent as male authors. (Side note: Anyone else notice that's it's fairly common to hear people say "women authors" or "women doctors", etc., but no one says "men authors" or "men doctors"?) I mean, finding a mainstream movie directed by a female director is like a needle in a haystack, but female authors are everywhere.

I definitely do judge authors by their sex sometimes, only if they force me to. ^_^ If I'm reading and think, "This female/male character just does not sound right," I'll check the cover, and if the author is the opposite sex of the character in question, I'll have my answer. I've yet to have a book do that to me and discover that the author is the same sex, though I expect to some day. And then there's the books that make me feel like the author is hitting me over the head with their sex. (Wow. That didn't sound as dirty before I typed it.) I'm all for omniscient narrators with a definite gender, but if it starts distracting from the text, I get frustrated.

I think the only illustrator I know is Mary Grandpre, and that's because I was completely engrossed in anything Harry Potter. Funny, because I honestly will buy a book just if I love the cover; you'd think I'd notice the creators a bit more.

[avian-xj.livejournal.com]

I do notice the gender of an author, but I don't usually pay much notice, and I'm fairly certain I don't make any assumptions from it. I know I've never chosen a book just for the author's gender.

I guess I agree with Jade in what I do notice from the author: when someone mentioned to me that at the time Jane Eyre was written, most people just kind of accepted that the pen name was male so a male wrote the novel, even if it was scandalous or whatever, and my reaction was "HOW COULD ANYONE READ THAT AND THINK A GUY WROTE IT. THERE IS NO WAY!" XP

I notice the illustrator of a book just like I notice the author. If I like an author's work, I'll want to remember the name to find more work by him/her. Same with the illustrator. Can't say I pay any more attention to gender than for author's either.

[adalanne.livejournal.com]

I dunno, it starts getting a bit chicken-or-the-egg here, especially since we have to add in the very subjectivity of what gets published. If publishers believe male-written epics sell better than female-written epics, then they're going to ignore the female-written epics, regardless of quality. And thus the public won't see those.

I think a better indicator would be what kinds of books each sex prefers to read. In my personal experience, I haven't seen an sex-based disparity of plot vs. character, but of course that's just me. Maybe there's a study out there.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I read books by either men or women, but I find that I tend to enjoy books by women more. The difference is not great: but it's enough to make me extremely conscious of whether I am picking a male or female author at any give time, and why.

In illustration - most of my familiarity with illustration is in the comic book industry, where there are so many men in the business and so few women. Trina Robbins, perhaps? It's not that I would choose female illustrators, given the choice; it's that I don't see much choice there.

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

Nope, never. The name of the author is usually the last thing I look at on the book. I've had pretty equal positive/negative experiences with both male and female authors, so it doesn't make much of a difference to me.

[cleo]

It honestly depends on what I'm reading it for.

If I'm reading for me, the gender of the author is not something that I look at. I read the back of the bok, read a few pages to guage the style of writing, and then I either pick it up or leave it. Really, the style is the biggest thing for me. I don't read the Harry Potter books because JKR's style really turns me off.

But as far as my academic work, I generally look at the sex of the author. My undergrad institution was a women's college; so, female authors were important to the curriculum. I look at the sex of the author because I write a lot about gender issues.

The only sci fi I've ever written about in the academic world is by a women--an African American writer by the name of Octavia Butler (I highly recommend her work, btw).

[hikari-cyhan.livejournal.com]

I don't notice the author until I read the book, unless the author is someone I know and like or dislike (I'll throw myself at a book by Diana Wynne Jones, but am very prejudiced against Stephen King).

[abhyastamita.livejournal.com]

I don't consciously seek out writers of one gender or the other, but considering that the four books I got at the library today were all by women, I probably do pay more attention to it than I thought I did. They were, by the way, Francine Prose, Nancy Kress, Connie Willis, and Jo Walton, and I almost got a book by Diana Wynne Jones as well, but decided that four books in three weeks was probably going to be plenty, since I'm supposed to be paying attention to grad school. But I definitely go through phases of male writers as well.

[abhyastamita.livejournal.com]

Women, I think, are more likely to be able to write convincing characters of both genders, whereas men sometimes get women characters flat-out wrong. For instance, Heinlein's women do not in any way resemble real women. This is probably because writing good male characters is kind of a prerequisite for getting taken seriously in literature. If you only have female characters, you're writing chick lit and no one cares. So women have to figure out how to do it right and anyway, there are simply more male character models out there to learn from. And as for the writing better epics thing, my dad thinks men writers are more likely to take risks, to go for something really grand, really avant-gard, that may just fail, which I think is something you need to write epics. I don't know quite whether I agree with him; I didn't at first, but I'm starting to lean towards it.

Obviously women can write epics and men can do nicely crafted characters, but I think there is something to the idea that women are on average better at one than the other and vise versa.

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

I don't pay any attention to the sex of the author, and I don't think it makes any difference. In fact, it would be hard to think of a sillier reason (apart from Lexile level) to choose a book.

Since I deal with children's books a lot, being an elementary school librarian, I notice illustrators. Again, I look at the pictures as pictures, and don't care two hoots whether the artist is a man or a woman. (Often, it's both: there are some excellent husband-and-wife teams whose art I love, like the Krushes, and the Provensens, the Haders, the d'Aulaires, the Petershams). Vera Williams and Lane Smith have both won Caldecotts; and I think both of them make really hideous illustrations. Their sex is irrelevant.

[gauroth.livejournal.com]

I hadn't really thought about my selection of books, but looking at my bookshelves, women authors considerably outnumber men. I think it's because on the whole women write about women better (I'm sorry, David Eddings, having your Polgaras and Ce'Nedras throwing tantrums and breaking things is just not good character development.) The books I keep and re-read are those which have decent prose, as well.

Hmm. I must consider this. *goes off to cogitate*

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

It would be interesting to compare the bookshelves of men who read a lot vs women who read a lot, and see if there is an author gender difference.

I don't seek or avoid authors because of the author's gender, but I find the majority of the books I like are by women.

*goes off to look at the gender of authors on my son's bookshelf*

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Now you know why Mary Ann Evans chose to write as George Eliot, and E. Nesbit didn't go by Edith. Or, for that matter, why J.K. Rowling clung to her initials.

In children's writing circles (they let me hang out on the fringes of these), it's often pointed out that the field is overwhelmingly female, and yet the award winners are disproportionately male. I don't think for a minute that men as a group are better writers, or that women are, either. It may be that there's a nebulous sort of "male perspective" that is more valued in our culture, and because it appears more rarely in children's books, it's likely to be noticed and acknowledged when it does appear.

I have no idea what a "male perspective" is, however.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Now wait a minute. The Caldecott award winner (for picture books) are overwhelmingly male, but the Newbery (middle grades novel) winners are overwhelmingly female. If you meant picture books, it's accurate, but for all of children's books, maybe not.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

men writers are more likely to take risks, to go for something really grand, really avant-gard, that may just fail

Very interesting point. It makes me wonder if the current trend towards more graphics/illustrations in children's fiction books (Invention of Hugo Cabret, The Arrival, The Wall, etc.) would have become such a strong, readily accepted new wave had women authors been the ones to start it.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I would have said that I never choose books by the gender of the author, but then I remembered there was a time when I discovered hard-boiled detective stories with women main characters, written by women, and I devoured them. Authors like Marcia Muller, Sara Paretsky, Linda Barnes, Carol Higgins Clark.

I don't usually notice the sex of illustrators, or even if I've seen other books illustrated by the same person, though I did recognize when I read The Invention of Hugo Cabret that it was done by the person who did Andrew Clements's fabulous book covers.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

I said "disproportionately," Checkers. Go to any SCBWI event and check out the demographics -- children's writers are -- okay, I can't give you a real percentage, but it's HEAVILY female. Go look at the Newbery list. There may be more female winners total, but there's a substantial percentage of male winners also -- a much higher percentage than is found in the field as a whole.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Yep, you're right. It looks like about half the Newberys have gone to men, but I'd say there are far more women writing children's books.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

(Avi's a man, if you want to know)

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I'm surprised that no one yet seems to disagree with hinikuish's broad statement:

I tend to work under the general assumption that men write better epic plots, with twists and turns and lengths and story - but are weak with characters and dialogue. And that women write better dialogue, character, and character based drama, but flounder a bit with epic plots and grand scopes.

I'm not sure what I think about this. I think hinikuish may be right. Some of my favorite authors (mwt, LMB) are accomplished at both. And I can think of some male authors (SciFi, especially) who stink at writing female characters and don't give much depth to their male ones, either.

Does anyone disagree with hinikuish?

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

(I thought so? And then I didn't think so? And then I just gave up?)