Do you read books by authors of your own gender?

[jamesread]

LOL San Francisco?

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by jamesread

It implies that there is or should be favoritism involved in who readers select to read based on gender bias and not necessarily on quality of individual authors.

Which confirms that you haven't read it.

Pretending that gender bias doesn't exist may be more comfortable, but it only comforts the bias that does exist, whether we are aware of it or not. You can live in a dreamworld if you want, but please don't attack those of us who are trying to see and understand the real world.

[captkjaneway]

I probably read more male authors than female, but then again I can't stand 'chick-lit', romance or the real doozy 'historical romantic fiction'.

[bill_mchale]

I think I would also point out that not all gender bias is inherently sexist. I am sure many of us have a group of friends of our own gender who we can relate to in a different way than we can with other groups of friends which are of mixed gender. That in fact would constitute a gender bias, but would not be inherently sexist.

Likewise preferring a particular gender because they had a set of experiences that was essentially unique to members of that gender again is not inherently sexist.

Now, in this discussion, I think to a certain extent there is a fine line between observation versus sexism. If you state that men are unable to write a believable female character, you are probably making a sexist statement.. but what if you state that you have never read a male author who was able to write a believable female character? Yes it is an observation -- but is it an objective observation or one colored by a sexist belief?

--
Bill

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

Now, in this discussion, I think to a certain extent there is a fine line between observation versus sexism. If you state that men are unable to write a believable female character, you are probably making a sexist statement.. but what if you state that you have never read a male author who was able to write a believable female character? Yes it is an observation -- but is it an objective observation or one colored by a sexist belief?

Ah yes, it's a very good question but I'm not sure it's possible to give it an objective answer. I would say, personally, that our perception of things is always influenced by this bias, whether we would like it to or not.

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Ah yes, it's a very good question but I'm not sure it's possible to give it an objective answer. I would say, personally, that our perception of things is always influenced by this bias, whether we would like it to or not.

Actually, I would say, in individuals, it should be possible to do experiments that will determine the answer. Here is a possible experiment.

Give someone two books, one by a male author and one by a female author. And ask them to asses the novels. Repeat with two more books by the same authors... but without the author's names appearing anywhere on the book. You would need to repeat this alternation, maybe a few dozen times to start determining if the person has a genuine bias. And maybe you should start with the person not knowing the authors.. and then give them second works knowing the author and their gender.

--
Bill