And how do you feel about that, brain?
Well, it's always good for women to get published. But on the other hand, I feel certain that there have been all male issues without calling them THE ALL DUDE REVUE. By definition, herding women authors into a single book or magazine and proclaiming it special for their appearance there is, well, segregation, and has an ugly implication that they won't be appearing in regular issues.
Of course, women do appear in RoF. Maybe not with the density we'd all like to see in a field in which women are doing thrilling, daring work, but they appear. So a special issue is all the more emoticon-inducing.
And if this issue doesn't sell, will it be used as an excuse to buy fewer stories by women in the future? Who knows?
But brain, isn't this what we want? A high percentage of female authors in a table of contents? Well, 50% would be good. 40%, too. But creating Very Special Issues once in a 15 year run isn't the same as addressing the problem head on by understanding the psychology at play and changing the editorial paradigm. It's just a bone, thrown.
I guess I prefer Weird Tales' approach, which is to do an issue dealing with gaze and gender, inviting writers specifically to contribute, and welcoming both genders as long as they engage with the subject matter.
I also shudder to think what the cover will be on this. It's gonna be bad, y'all. Bad.
All in all it feels a bit like a way to shut up those of us who criticized the magazine. And this sort of thing never shuts anyone up. Will I be submitting? Prooobably not. The email issue remains, and I don't have a lot of time this year--again with the issue of I get asked personally for stories too often to regularly submit blind.
I think I'd be happier about an All Email Submissions Issue. That would actually address one of the criticisms, and not discriminate against any one group (people who submit on paper can also submit online, I promise), and would be interesting: would quality drop, as has been claimed? Would the workload become untenable, as has also been claimed? Even better, email with numerical codes so that authorial gender was unknown, as in the famous orchestra experiment. I would submit to that so fast.
Because really, I fight the women's visibility issue all the time, by working as hard and as much as I can, as well as I can, and being in those ToCs, with my oh-so-feminine name right up there next to the male ones. I fight that fight, every day. It's not a Very Special Episode for me, it's my whole life. And that's tru for most women writers, I think, if not all of us. The way to win this fight is not to submit to segregated spaces, but to exist unashamedly and frequently in public ones.
But no, we have the hoary old moon-hut issue, where all the ladies sit together and don't touch the boys' stories with their cooties.
And the cover. Well? Boobs, chained women, girls making out, or disembodied ass? Taking all bets!
Click for NSFW image.
And yet.... I've participated in an all-female anthology, because we still, as women writers, need to make use of whatever opportunities offered to us. In my 20s, I used to expect a level playing field. In my 30s, one for my female students. Now, I am holding out that when my 5 year old niece hits adulthood, she will really be offered the equality my generation was led to expect. We are a slow species sometimes.
I think doing an all-female issue just makes it clear that women are the outsiders, the weirdos, the ones who are separate from "regular" male authors. It gives those not interested in leveling the playing field an excuse to say, "But you got your own issue!" As though throwing someone a feast once a year will keep them from starving on the other 364 days when you ignore them and won't give them the time of day.
And it makes it look like women can't hack it unless you stoop to give them their own little space because they can't compete with the boys on a regular basis or something.
I'm not impressed by a magazine doing an all woman issue, because that's basically admitting that the other 11 months are chock full of gender discrimination. It just makes women more Othered than we already were.
Then again, I haven't been impressed with RoF EVER. *rolls eyes*. Frankly, I don't have time in my life for people/publications that pull that crap. It's 2010, I have internet access, and I can find better venues for getting my sf/f short story fix that don't need to have special issues.
As for boobs, chains or ass? I vote for all of the above in a spectacular threesome of fail.
Is this a yearly issue that Weird Tales puts out?
I'd love to give them a gender story that isn't in the binary, if that's the case, and maybe should subscribe if it's a yearly thing they do.
True, that.
but why not have one magazine out of fifteen years that 13 year old girls can look through and say "these are all people like me, i want to write fantasy" because they might not pick up any issue otherwise.
(Thanks for your comment on Hines' journal, btw)
How much more are they supposed to buy? I suppose they could consistently aim for 50%, but then the argument that they're locking out the men starts to become viable. :-/
I can't imagine that women would feel unwelcome at RoF in the same way they might feel unwelcome at Analog or F&SF.
And the cover. Well? Boobs, chained women, girls making out, or disembodied ass? Taking all bets!
Would it be too much to hope for all of those things? And a unicorn?
Studies have shown that self-chosen segregated spaces can actually be better for development. There are actually African-Americans who are seeking a more segregated education for their children so that they won't have to deal with race power issues with their education issues. When it is a choice and not geographical forcing of segregation it often has positive results. Similar studies have been found for male/female segregation in school.
Now, I'm not sure about the power dynamics of the writing world. I agree that setting a percentage of women authors may be a great way to do it. There is power in having a context together and a safe space to explore that difference which has been subjugated. The trick is to make sure that quality doesn't go down. The standards of publication would need to be just as high in order for the credibility to remain in whatever source decided to do this. One way to do this might be to make a smaller publication. If 50% could be superb quality work by women statistically speaking, make the issue 50% smaller.
Again I don't know enough about how discrimination works in the writing world to comment much in these areas. Good luck in your own fight. I really appreciate all you do for women with your strong, independent, unique women characters, especially September.
I'm liking this idea more and more...