topic 5.2: Women writers: dull, depressed and domestic

Women writers: dull, depressed and domestic

http://www.guardian.co.uk/gender/story/0,11812,1443909,00.html

Female writers are dull, say Toby Litt and Ali Smith, two writers, to the introduction of 13, a collection of poetry, short stories and extracts from novels of female writers. The two writers are well-known writers, even shortlisted for the Bookerprize. They say, books written by female writers are 'disappointingly domestic, the opposite of risk-taking - as if too many women writers have been injected with a special drug that keeps them dulled, good, saying the right thing, aping the right shape, and melancholy at doing it, depressed as hell.' Female writers like Kirsty Gunn react: 'defining domestic as dull is a complete misnomer: this is were we spend our lives, there is no reason why the word should be loaded with such pejorative meaning.'

I agree with Gunn: it is stupid to call all books from female writers dull. One: there are so many good books written by female hands, they probably haven't even heard of. Two: this is a punch in the face for housewives who like their domestic lives: they are being called dull by those two writers who probably have housecleaners and do not know how an iron or hoover works, let alone how to raise children, or how much effort you have to put in that. Three: they are bloody arrogant drawing a line between female and male writers, giving themselves all the credits. Men...!