Women's Write

I listened to an interview with a female author earlier today. The topic of readership came up and she said she noticed many a man pick up her book, see her name (clearly female), put the book down and walk away. On one instance, she decided to give one of these men a book of hers. She asked him to read it and let her know what he thought of it. He responded after the weekend and admitted he enjoyed it. She wasn’t bad for a female writer.

About an hour ago, I read that a fairly recent survey by The Center for the Study of Women in Film & Television that showed only 15% of television writers are female -- down from 29% last year. This, despite the fact that women make up a substantially larger piece of the television viewership pie. Strange.

This makes me sad. I don’t believe there are fewer female writers out there, but maybe that we are taken less seriously. We are bucketed to write and consume a certain type of media and only that type of media. This is a chick flick. This is chick lit. Yes, there is that type of media out there. But it has extrapolated itself to be our sole defining factor. We can only write, create, be interested in stereotypical “female” concepts. Romance and fashion being the highest on that list.

It annoys me to no end to go to an action movie and see an ill-fitting romantic plot line sewn clumsily in. Strictly to appeal to the female demographic that was surely brought to this movie by a male. Next week, she’ll make him go see a romantic comedy to make up for it. I am tired of romantic comedies. Why are these the only movies made to cater to our sex? Sure, I know many women that like them. Nothing wrong with that. But aren’t we a little bored by the constant recycling of the exact same plot? The same plot we read in romance novels, also created for us? Surely, we wouldn’t mind an original idea every once in awhile.

Personally, I cringe at chick-anything. It annoys me. I used to think that maybe I had some sort of cynical view of love. Maybe I didn’t believe I could fall in love again and this is why I didn’t want it in my fiction. Maybe I was born with a defective “chick” gene. The one that comes along with the defining X chromosome. But I don’t believe this. In fact, there are a handful of movies and books that really move the girly in me. Not one of them could be considered a formulaic pandering to my gender. They are simply good, well developed stories.

I am interested in many non-chick things because I’m more than two dimensional. As are the rest of the womankind. It would help to have more females in the media industry, writing and creating their original ideas. Not assigned to write an episode centered around today’s love triangle. Not taken on by a publisher only when she writes the next generic book in the ever popular romantic fantasy genre.

There are great women writers who have transgressed these lines. I’ve heard their voices and read their words. But they are relatively and we, as women and as writers, should aim to change that. Prove that we are more than fluffy chicks.