Yeah, it is International Women’s Day. You were expecting me to say something, weren’t you?
Well actually I tend to keep fairly quiet on such days. There are plenty of other people posting, and there’s a not-insignificant number of women who think I have no right to count myself as one of them. But here are a couple of things I noticed today.
Firstly over at The Guardian Meg Clothier asks where all the adventurous heroines in literature are. It very quickly becomes obvious that they are almost all in what people call “genre” fiction, particularly science fiction and fantasy, which caused Book Blog editor Sarah Crown to say this:
When we’re children, we see no distinction between SF and litfic; they aren’t different genres (which of course they ought not to be when we’re older, before someone shouts at me). So, Northern Lights is SF/fantasy, but it’s also held up as a great example of children’s literary fiction.
By the time we’re in our late teens, though, the two have diverged, and the heroines only seem to survive in the SF branch. Why is this? It shouldn’t be the case.
The general conclusion amongst the comments appears to be that only be setting your story in another world are you allowed to be sufficiently transgressive as to have an adventurous heroine. The real world is much too tightly policed.
My other link is to Socialist Worker. Yes, really. Despite my friendship with China Miéville and Ken MacLeod I don’t have much fondness for Trotskyism, and when I was in college Socialist Worker hadn’t really caught on to the idea of feminism. Today, however, to mark International Woman’s Day, they have chosen to run an article highlighting discrimination against trans people. Here it is. And they have understood the issue well too:
There is a deep significance in the fact that the study included gender non-conforming people who don’t necessarily want to transition, because it opens a window into understanding how people of any gender who don’t fit the narrow norms of what’s acceptable for men and women are also often mistreated. This makes a strong case for why the struggle for transgender equality is a struggle for the safety and equality of all.
Well done, Socialist Worker. (Never thought I would say that.)
First, I’ve never understood why anyone cares what anyone ELSE identifies as – and 2nd as far as I’m concerned, anyone who has anything intelligent to say on any topic is welcome to speak up.
You appear to be doing a wonderful job on all counts.
I’ve seen main characters I’d describe as heroines in other genre novels as well (such as detective stories and thrillers). I think “mainstream lit fic” frowns on adventures and heroism altogether, not just on adventure heroines. Or at least on other kinds of heroism except of the “constant struggle of the daily life and not being totally crushed by it” variety. But that is probably (at least partly) my prejudice against contemporary mainstream fiction speaking. Or at least I hope so.
This point was made on the Guardian site. Crown noted that while lit fic might be much less adventurous, men were still generally portrayed as having power and prestige. That is, of course, the way the world is, but it also reinforces our expectations of how the world should be.
That’s probably very true.
In the Finnish mainstream literature I’ve been exposed to lately, men seem to be most often portrayed as divorced, with lousy jobs or no job at all, with a drinking problem, and generally unhappy. I wonder if that also speaks about how the world is in these parts — or maybe it’s just a question of the taste of the fiction review editors in the magazines I read. Anyway they are doing a good job keeping me away from the titles they like to promote. Luckily there are other sources for interesting literature.
Funny thing, until an hour ago, I would have agreed with Tero. Then I came home from the library with Jane Smiley’s ‘The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton’. This Pulitzer Prize winning author does not have any difficulty writing books with wonderful heroines.
I confess , my reading tastes are irretrievably promiscuous, so maybe thus explains why I happen across more main-stream heroines. They are out there.
As much as I think China Miéville is a very accomplished writer, I had great problems with the resolution or lack or, in ‘The City and the City. I just couldn’t understand why the protagonists would think it a good thing to keep the two cities separate. But I’m vehemently anti: Marxist, Soviet, Trotskyite and all those ‘ite’s’ east of Estonia. I’ve seen too much ugliness – first hand – here to ever consider that any of those had any merit.
I think the reader is supposed to be troubled by the ending of The City and the City, and start thinking about analogous situations they accept as part of everyday modern life.
China talks about some of the real-world influences on The City and The City in this interview.
Thank you very much for that. I read it through – quickly, just now, as I have to go to a meeting but will reread it again with more attention later.
Now this ” There are plenty of other people posting, and there’s a not-insignificant number of women who think I have no right to count myself as one of them. ” did catch my Eye.
I have a reasonably efficient Imagination, but, I .. as a Born Male Person and ..apart from the couple of bouts of Clinical Depression .. stable in my Masculine personality and sexuality I can say that I can only just barely begin to understand the sheer PAIN that a Trans-person has to face before even contemplating Trans -surgery at its present level of medical development.
As for the sheer Courage that is needed to actually go through with the .. Trans-formative ? .. medical procedures ?? Well all that I can say is that it is a desperate shame that your ..that all Trans peoples ..courage can’t be met with acceptance, if not with gratitude for your willingness to be at the sharp end of medical research.
Sorry if thats clumsy in the use of Gender Specific descriptors.
You are a .. Pioneer ? .. Cheryl ..though that’s probably not a description that you’d feel comfortable in applying to yourself.
As for your References ..I do look at ‘ Socialist Worker ‘ from time to time and err, ..I also look at The Daily Mail on the basis that there’s always something to amuse those of us who have a taste for the Ironic.
Hi Arnold – apologies for the late approval on this. It got caught in my spam trap. Thanks for the kind words, though I should note that many other people are far braver pioneers (and activists) than I.
The only analogous situation I have experienced was in Berlin in 1973. We were taken to ‘see’ the wall. It remains the single ugliest object I have ever seen. Like a leering, sneering, steaming turd.
And for the record, in Robert Frost’s poem, the thing which does not love a wall is Frost. Only the crotchety old neighbour thinks, ‘good fences make good neighbours’.
But there aren’t any physical walls in the book. It’s more the process of “unseeing” and the artificial borders. Think, for instance, about how the denizen of any modern city learns to not acknowledge the existence of panhandlers. Or how about going through a major airport– you take a long, circuitous route to get to the outside world despite the plethora of doors around you that open on to shorter routes, and which other people (the airport workers) use all the time. Why don’t you? Because those routes aren’t part of the space you inhabit as a passenger. But have you ever thought how ridiculous that would look to someone who had no experience of air travel?
I don’t have trouble accepting the literary concept of the divided city. My objection is to the implication at the end, that these divisions should continue to be enforced.
With regard to your example: ‘the denizen of any modern city learns to not acknowledge the existence of panhandlers.’ As long as I lived in NYC or London I never reached a point where I didn’t register and be horrified by their situations.
My point is I can’t discern any reason why the Cities should not be joined. They have complimentary problems and skills. After the initial period of adjustment, the combined city would be stronger and a more pleasant place to live in. To me, the ending is just – dumb!
But maybe that’s the reaction that China wants you to have.