Author's Journal | Jamie Freveletti.com

I’ve read with interest the debate raised by Jennifer Weiner and Jodi Picoult(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-pinter/jodi-picoult-jennifer-weiner-franzen_b_693143.html about the dearth of commercial writers covered in influential newspapers and magazines across the country. Both women point out that white, male writers steal the lion’s share of the now dwindling review space. In particular, the press drum begun in advance of Jonathon Franzen’s new book has the women wondering why his stories about family angst are labeled “astounding” and “literary” while their stories about family angst are labeled “commercial” and “women’s fiction.”

I’ve read a lot of talk on this subject, but as a lawyer I love facts, and here are some that support Weiner and Picoult’s view at Karen Neches' comment on a blog of the issue as well as Karin Gillespie's excellent blog post:

Ms. Neches writes:

     I went to Publishers Marketplace which tracks all the major newspaper book reviews each week. For the week of August 16-22, there were 64 reviews. Nineteen were books written by women. I track these reviews regularly and there’s nothing atypical about those statistics. Considering that women purchase seventy percent of books, there’s a clear bias at work here. For more stats:http://girlfriendbooks.blogspot.com/2010/08/jonathan-franzen-and-other-darlings-in.html
   
    
If Ms. Neches’ stats are correct, then Weiner and Picoult aren’t confused, they’re two smart people making a valid point. Literary agents know that sexism exists in publishing, they ask women to hide their identity as female in order to sell to a wider audience. Ditto publishers, JK Rowling being a prime example.

Writers in the industry know it exists. Franzen himself articulated it quite clearly when he famously dissed Oprah’s book club because he was afraid that the book would lose weight with male readers. He wasn’t confused, he was responding to the same bias that Weiner and Picoult are pointing out, and he was worried about falling on the wrong side of it.
                                       
And the money made by these women as bestsellers does not diminish the argument, especially in light of Franzen’s own bestseller status. We’re not talking sales, we’re talking power and labels and societal rank. The more reviews that label a writer a literary god, the higher his social standing.

“But,” you say, “publishing is loaded with women. There can’t be sexism there!”

Well, when you think about it, why would women escape the entrenched beliefs of generations past? Why would we have any greater insight? Women are human, and they can fall prey to the same prejudices as anyone else.

We’re all a product of our society, and are infused with the cultural norms of that society whether male or female. Our society has changed enough, thank goodness, to allow women some of the greater freedoms, but in no way have we completely eliminated sexism. We only gained the right to vote in the last century, haven’t yet had a woman President, and few rise to CEO status in major corporations. And that includes publishing houses and the companies that own them.

So the women in publishing may have some of the same biases we all inherited and that may include them giving more weight to a man’s words than a woman’s. Not pretty, but definitely possible.
                       
What does inform the debate is education. We need women and men in positions of power to speak up about what they see around them in order to give the rest of us a chance to look at it, think about it, and debate about it. Weiner and Picoult have done that. It’s up to the rest of us to ensure that what they see doesn’t continue.