Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparrow
 I'm not understanding the point here.
It seems you took romance 'for example', and then argue that it's because romance is primarily written by females that stops it being taken seriously.
I think you could look at any number of genres, and show their authors aren't taken seriously. SF is an obvious example (although most of the writers there are male). |
Yes, you're right, there are a lot more things that come into play. I wasn't trying to suggest that the only factor for judging the literary value of a genre is whether it's predominantly written by female or male authors. I was trying to show that there is a feedback loop that is created by and feeds prejudices. If everybody believes something about the differences between men and woman (for example, men like action stories, women prefer romance), then it becomes true. There are many kinds of prejudice and not all are gender related.
What I was trying to show is that in the simple act of choosing what books we read, we are influenced by, and in turn influence, very complex social mechanisms. We may think we are unbiased, but that's not really true. And again, this doesn't apply only to gender issues.
I'm sure my point is not becoming any clearer, but maybe that's because I don't think clear-cut opinions are very useful in this kind of debate.
