As pointed out in email: " There are girl cooties on my space ship–on women writing hard SF"

[james_davis_nicoll]

I really dislike playing the gender card, but when someone chucks a whole packet of cards in my face, it becomes harder to ignore.

OK, something happened and I’ll be really brief about it. The discussion went like this:

Me: I heard you are interested in hard SF
Publisher: yeah, we are, but… *looks uneasy*
Me: … if it’s written by a woman?
Publisher: yeah, I hate to say that, but yeah

Comments

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

the link doesn't work.

[pbrim.livejournal.com]

Your link is broken -- I'd like to see the article.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

It should work now.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Any good guesses as to which publisher it was?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Absolutely not.

[fridgepunk.livejournal.com]

If only publishers had some technique by which they could mask or mislead readers about the sex of the writer.

Alas, no such method has ever been created and I guess we'll just have to believe that that conversation totally happened, *le sigh*

Also: do these fools not know how much those race and gender cards are worth? I mean sure, since Obama got into office and WotC did that massive print of "race" cards to try to cash in on demand (which is why white people keep tossing them around willy-nilly as they have), but a mint "gender" card on eBay will go for 100s if not 1000s of dollars, easily! If someone just tossed a load of gender cards in my face I'd fucking pick that shit up.

Christ, these authors love to whine about how little money they get, but if they're just gonna let sizable financial opportunities literally slip through their fingers like that just because they're too proud and/or stiff to bend down and pick up those rare as fuck cards...

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

She said in the comments that she didn't want to do initials. I totally believe a publisher would shy away from a spaceship book by someone named Patty.

[(Anonymous)]

I'll have you know that Jack Patty is a fine chessplayer and computer programer and ... oh. Never mind.

William Hyde

[agent-mimi.livejournal.com]

I just wandered over to her Twitter and she implies that initials and "gender neutral" names were suggested. Her Twitter (back to April 30) is actually a hell of a lot more informative than that blog post was.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

those evil evil Girl Cooties that can even exist in the vacumn of Space!

[(Anonymous)]

most people are not aware that cooties are a species of tardigrade, they're nigh indestructable.

[drcuriosity]

It seems to me that she has made a healthy, measured response to an unhealthy, broken situation. That alone is enough to make me wish her all due success, and I'll be looking for some of her work to read.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

+1.

(This kind of shit makes me very angry.)

[michaelgr.livejournal.com]

Too measured. None of us, of course, were present when the anonymous editor told her that they aren't looking for hard SF written by women; but it doesn't sound as if it was statistics and numbers that were the cause - just plain old bias bordering on misogyny. Gathering evidence to convince him of his error sounds pointless.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Note that I've heard similar stories in the past from female SF authors in the UK ... and the editors in question were also female. It suggests there's systematic bias in the industry at all levels.

[agent-mimi.livejournal.com]

I'd love to get behind Patty on this, but prefacing her experience with sexism with multiple paragraphs dismissing sexism ever happens... yeah. Sounds very much like "sexism happened to me and it was real; when it happens to you, you're just blaming your lack of luck and persistence on external factors."

Also, I notice that in her paraphrased conversation, she jumped immediately to suspicions of sexism after two paragraphs telling us she never jumps immediately to suspicions of sexism. Someone in comments says she had an "outburst" on Twitter, too.

Yet I can't help but feel that if someone else had an outburst, she'd scold them for "agitating out loud" and "pointing fingers and crying, 'sexist'" unfairly.

EDIT: Oh, I see in comments she says "Women are to blame just as much as men" for sexism in the sciences, because they don't have the right interests and instead talk about "girlie things."

Is anyone actually reading what she wrote?

LAST EDIT (and sorry James for the multiple email notifications you get on edits!) -- I'm not saying she deserved sexism, by the way. Just that she was the victim of sexism while also being sexist herself, and enabling of the system that perpetuates sexism. Figured I'd better clarify that.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

This

I dunno how not to see "In short, I really dislike playing the gender card, but when someone chucks a whole packet of cards in my face, it becomes harder to ignore." as "It's different when it happens to me."

There's a whole lot of "I'm a tough broad and feminists are whiny" packed into that blog post. I can't say I'm impressed with the lack of interest in solidarity, fixing things. She could start by admitting that the faceless (presumably feminist activist) women she accuses of "playing the gender card" were *right*. And she's wrong to use "playing the gender card" as some sort of mallet to bash people she sees as complaining too much.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I think this is actually the first time I've seen the usage "playing the gender card," and I'm hoping it doesn't become more common. I've only ever seen "race card," and I'm very, very, VERY tired of that (in fact have been known to mutter that there is no such thing, which may be going a bit far).

[agent-mimi.livejournal.com]

She is indeed rocking the "exceptional woman" trope pretty hard.

Re: Your avatar: I just caught up on Oglaf last night! I'd left off at the "fucktopus" so I had a lot to read. NSFW but (or should I say and) an absolute joy of a comic.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Time for Oglaf to get a Hugo nomination?

I AM A DOCTOR

[agent-mimi.livejournal.com]

Yeessssss...

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Best fan artist, Loncon.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

+1.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

Oh, my. Oh good heavens. If we're used to seeing the annual Hugo flamefest now...

Yes, yes indeed. Let's try this.

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

Let me check.. yup! Got lots of marshmallows, chocolate bars, and graham crackers laid by. I'm ready!

[autopope.livejournal.com]

I'm up for it!

[kgbooklog.livejournal.com]

How would you nominate it? Single update? Everything so far? Everything from the appropriate year? Invent titles for the larger arcs?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not familiar with this author. Any recommendations?

William Hyde