My bookish pet-peeves: Part ONE - Snobbery

Part One: Snobbery

Quite recently, I’ve begun to think more on the subject of bookish snobbery. I’ve decided that’s it’s something I condone with a passion. When people turn their noses up at a particular genre, self-published author, or base their opinion on cover design because they either a) would be too embarrassed to be seen reading it or b) think it’s beneath their ‘intellect’ or c) they think it doesn’t suit their gender. And I think this is where snobbery often springs up – from gender-bias.

• Male Readers

I find, particularly among male readers, that there is a lot of egotistical views and snobbery. Some men steer away from certain genres such as domestic thrillers, romance/erotica/ historical fiction written by women, or in fact anything written by a woman (on the other hand, perhaps there are some men who are not afraid to be seen or known to read these particular types of books? I’d like to meet them).

Here’s an example – a male acquaintance of mine is writing a fantasy novel, and for a while I was giving bits of feedback which was also fun for me as an aspiring editor. There are a couple of things he’s said that kept coming back to me over and over again. I told him once that I was writing my own book and I told him it was based in ‘real-life’ in comparison to his fantasy genre, and he actually raised his eyebrows and sort of rolled his eyes. This really stumped me, and I found myself feeling ashamed (God knows why – I mean who cares what some random bloke thinks right?), and from thereon I was shy to explain any more of my book. Again, my mistake was not speaking up and standing up for myself. Another thing – he was telling me about watching Big Little Lies (based on the book by Liane Moriarty who is a fantastic author) and how he loved watching it, and I asked him if he’d read the book. His reply: Oh, I wouldn’t read a book like that (complete with a sneer on his white middle-aged face). It’s safe to say I probably won’t be helping him with any more feedback on his WIP.

• Female Readers

Moving on, some women writers or readers turn their nose up at the terms ‘chick-lit’ or ‘women’s fiction’ and strive to bend away from those kind of books just because they think it would attribute them to being a “typical woman”, and they want to prove to the opposite sex that they are better than the rest of us. If you don’t like a particular genre, fine, but don’t automatically dislike it just because you think it will make you look like more interesting to other people. Read to please yourself – not others.

• Female Writers

On the other hand, some (well in fact, many) women struggle to make their mark in certain genres such as thrillers (this is changing though), adult fantasy, and general adult fiction. In an interesting article called “THERE’S A WEIRD, SEXIST PROBLEM IN FANTASY THAT WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT” where the author, MYA NUNNALLY, writes: ‘There is a tendency to classify women as young adult or middle grade authors, despite the actual content of their books. I’ve seen it so often and it often causes me great discomfort.’ I would recommend reading the whole article to understand the context better.

The point is, women writers are always linked to a certain corner of the book world, and even in this day and age it is a struggle to be taken seriously. In the past, writers such as Mary Anne Evans (George Elliot) and the Bronte sisters (among others) used male pseudonyms because female writers were looked down upon – yet even in the 21^st century, J K Rowling chooses to use the name Robert Galbraith as her pen name for her thrillers. Why? Well, it’s obvious – the times haven’t changed, but it’s about time women are recognised as serious writers in ALL genres. (Just for fun: here’s an article on how J.K Rowling’s pseudonym name was outed)

To finish off, here is something that I saw on Twitter last month. To sum up quickly, author Jodi Picoult’s publishers sent off review copies to the media and early readers without her name or the title on the cover. The response was both fascinating and blood-curdling (see full thread). This just proves how fickle the publishing and book industry still is today. Many female writers don’t get the attention they deserve, just for the crime of being a woman.

• End of Part 1

And with this, I will close the first part of my bookish pet-peeves series. There is probably a hell of a lot more I could say on this matter, but I’d like to keep it short. I would LOVE to hear your thoughts and comments – so please leave a message below (leave your links if you want me to return a comment on your blog) and let’s discuss!

Thanks for reading,

-        -  Lena’s Notebook

This is my Review of the Month for the review collection on LovelyAudiobooks.info