Should We Force Boys to Read Women Authors?
Jacqueline Maley of the Sydney Morning Age published a story recently which flagged, much like News Corporation flags a sensationalist headline, that we (you and me) should force boys to read women authors.
How exactly are you going to ‘force’ them? Hold a plate of Brussel Sprouts to their head?
Men read far fewer books than women and as for fiction, it’s not even a blip on their radar.
For the last 20 years or so, female authors have swamped the fiction market. Creative writing courses are packed to the gunnels with women who want to tell their story to a female readership.
A few men might pick up a wife or girlfriend’s novel while waiting for the cricket or footy to come on TV but by and large, they don’t give a fat rats. I’ve blogged about the reasons ad fin.
Maley writes the problem is the ‘underlying assumption that they (women authors) speak only to the female experience, whereas male authors are universalists, who describe the human condition in a more profound way.’
Huh? Who said that? No one thinks that. There have been some great male writers who wrote about universal themes and ditto women. Name the source. Brain fart material.
I think Maley was trying to say what this woman said in the link below.
Literature written by women may have a therapeutic effect on other women, especially those who are grieving or depressed. That’s literature as therapy. It was only a matter of time.