Quote:
Originally Posted by TimMason
when Virago started up, publishing was heavily male-dominated; they went some way to correcting an imbalance. They were explicitly feminist. I think it's difficult to argue that they were not, at that time, doing something that needed doing - ...
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A point worth emphasising.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TimMason
You could argue that that was then, and now is now, and that there is no longer any need for what Virago does. But I'm not sure that, say, 'Tipping the Velvet' would have made it into the big bookshops if Virago hadn't been there to publish it. And they still publish challenging books with a feminist perspective. There are Marxist publishing houses, there are libertarian publishing houses, there are houses that publish for all kinds of niches (including publishing houses for geeks and publishing houses for sports), so it seems to be fair enough that there should be a publishing house with a feminist outlook. It's not as if they prevent male authors from being published!
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Definitely. That is a
political stance, where a women-only policy may be part of the politics, but not the outset. "Tipping the velvet" is an interesting example. There is a complete dearth of interesting quality literature with lesbian themes, while themes of male homosexuality is a good deal better covered. Edit: relatively better covered.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TGS
Quite frankly it it wouldn't matter if the were a dozen publishing houses publishing only women writers, or a dozen literary prizes only for women. The world is dominated by white men - the publishing world is no different. Pointing at a few examples of "special" treatment for women and characterizing that as sexist misses the point entirely.
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I agree.