‘We have an overwhelming cultural bias
that is against women, and is against
the domestic. And we don’t question
that cultural bias when it comes to
judging prizes. I’m not saying people are
prejudiced, but we have innate biases.
And women can be just as bad, sometimes
even worse, than men for this, and it
will translate into every aspect of the
judgments we make.’
As well as publishers and judges, this
gender bias is relected in the readership
too. A Good Reads survey found that
80 per cent of a female author’s readers
are women. Men are much more likely to
read – and recommend – male authors.
Professor David Bamman, of the
University of California Berkeley, analysed
100 of the New York Times’ By the Book
columns where writers discuss their
favourite authors. He discovered that men
tended to recommend other male writers
four times as often as female writers.
Bamman also co-authored a paper
on gender in iction which concluded:
‘Women certainly write about women
more than men do. In books written by
men, women occupy on average only a
quarter to a third of the character-space.
In books written by women, the division
is much closer to equal.’
Whether it’s writing or being written
about, women’s voices still aren’t being
heard. These saddening statistics might
make you want to think twice aboutadopting a female pen name, Brian. The
double whammy of that and a female
protagonist may count you out of the game.
An interesting example that might be
of more help to you is the case of Sean
Thomas. He started his career writing
literary novels about male identity but
when they were unsuccessful, his agent
suggested he jump on the Da Vinci
bandwagon with a religious thriller, under
the name Tom Knox.
In an article in the Guardian, Thomas
explained why he changed his name.
‘My own name was associated with
freelance journalism about art, sex and
politics, and had the taint of literary
failure. Also, it just wasn’t butch enough.
Tom Knox was the limsiest of masks,
and yet, as I wrote the irst book, The
Genesis Secret, he developed in my mind: a
younger, better-looking version of myself.
I imagined him jogging on a Malibu
beach with his pure-bred borzoi dogs.
It was a joke, of course, and yet he did
become a second personality. It was
liberating, and allowed me to play with
tropes and characters that I wouldn’t have
addressed when I was “serious” novelist
Sean Thomas.’
When the demand for this genre
slackened, Thomas then turned to writing
psychological thrillers.
‘The switch was abrupt,’ he says, ‘from
Grail-hunting drug cults to wistful tales
of haunted twins. I had to kiss Tom Knox
and his borzois goodbye. As I was going
to write from a female perspective, I
didn’t want to put of any readers who
might presume that a male writer could
not carry a female voice. So I shifted sex.
I became a gender neutral author.’
Thomas took his grandmother’s
maiden name for his new incarnation,
SK Tremayne. We don’t need to wonder
why he chose to be gender neutral
rather than using a female pseudonym,
but it does give us an insight as to the
way forward for you, Brian. Instead of
wrangling with the pitfalls of a female
name, it seems that coolly anonymous
initials are the solution.Tips to take away
■Be like Sean/Tom/SK and let a new
name invigorate your writing. Choose a
name as quirky or unconventional as you
like and see where it takes your pen.
■Subvert gender stereotypes and use
the word ‘curls’ in your work. In a survey
of the classics, it was used far more by
female writers.
■Explore writing gender neutrally by
writing in the second person. Never reveal
whether the ‘you’ is male or female.Whether it’s writing
or being written about,
women’s voices still
aren’t being heard
Send your letters to Emily at [email protected]