Every day is a men’s only literary prize.
Obviously, the best solution would be to make all literary prizes fair and equal, to ensure there’s an equal number of male and female (or genderqueer) authors considered for each one, that the judges are equally consistent. But it just ain’t that way, and after viewing the VIDA numbers year after year, it doesn’t seem like we’re going to have a miraculous literary gender equality revolution any time soon. I know there are the women who have indeed won prestigious prizes recently and throughout history, your Jennifer Egans, your Louise Erdrichs, your Toni Morrsons. But even when women do succeed in publishing, they’re more often than not treated, and marketed, differently. There are still female authors today who wish to be known by non-gendered first initials only, and there’s a reason for that. And I don’t think most of this is insidious evildoing, that people are blinded by testosterone and determined to bring the ladies down, or anything. It’s just how the game is already rigged, not just in publishing but in society.
Obviously, the best solution would be to make all literary prizes fair and equal, to ensure there’s an equal number of male and female (or genderqueer) authors considered for each one, that the judges are equally consistent. But it just ain’t that way, and after viewing the VIDA numbers year after year, it doesn’t seem like we’re going to have a miraculous literary gender equality revolution any time soon. I know there are the women who have indeed won prestigious prizes recently and throughout history, your Jennifer Egans, your Louise Erdrichs, your Toni Morrsons. But even when women do succeed in publishing, they’re more often than not treated, and marketed, differently. There are still female authors today who wish to be known by non-gendered first initials only, and there’s a reason for that. And I don’t think most of this is insidious evildoing, that people are blinded by testosterone and determined to bring the ladies down, or anything. It’s just how the game is already rigged, not just in publishing but in society.
