cohu's blog

“So what does it actually mean to write like a woman, or a man for that matter? Sadly, absolutely nothing. Men actually write “women’s books” all the time, but they’re certainly never labelled as such. When male writers write about relationships, family and the domestic sphere, fiction or non, they’re considered groundbreaking and often celebrated for it. While female-authored works are disdainfully labelled “diary-like” or “confessional,” male writers get “courageous” and “candid” for their epic family sagas and autobiographical musings. Take for example Esquire magazine’s recent list of “the greatest works of literature ever published,” a list for male readers that included, without acknowledgment, 74 men and only one female author. Lists like this reveal that it’s not actually the topic of writing the status quo rejects, but rather the sex of the person penning it. We tend to only respect a woman’s writing when she writes what’s not expected of her, yet we don’t apply the same rule to male writers.”

via Write like a man: The unspoken rule for avoiding the pink cover | Afterword | National Post.