A Matter of Principle and Practicality
I have decided, that as of today, I will no longer support any publisher or editor of erotic anthologies, who engages in gender discrimination. I will not submit to them, purchase them, link to them or publish excerpts in my podcast. This might look like rallying cry. It’s not, and for this reason I will not list the publishers and editors to which this applies. It is simply a statement of preference, one I’m posting because I was asked to by a friend.
If you are involved in the erotic publishing world you’ve seen calls for submission roll by with gender-based provisions. Some of them explicitly state that only female-identified authors may apply, regardless of the ostensible gender of their pseudonym. Some are more ambiguous, and leave the possibility of submissions under a female name as an open question. None of these calls for submission openly state that men are welcome to submit, as long as a female pseudonym is used.
In many situations, the authorial persona behind stories is itself fiction. In the case of the “Castle” mysteries (a spin-off of the television series) it’s obvious that the author is a fictional character. In the early days of speculative fiction, female authors often published under male or non-gendered pseudonyms in order to navigate a publishing world which was very male-dominated.
But it’s not 1965 anymore. We live in a more enlightened age, when the idea that any given gender is incapable of achieving something is to be challenged, not used as a marketing angle. I know that my fiction appeals to women, at least enough of them that the majority of my feedback comes from them.
Ultimately, these anthologies help to perpetuate the idea that a male sexuality is threatening or even dangerous, and that people of all genders need to be protected from it. Protecting men from other men’s sexuality is a subtle form of homophobia. Protecting women from it is no better. I have no problem with the editor wishing to maintain a particular tone in all the stories in the anthology they are editing. I also understand that seeing a male name on an author will color the reader’s perception of that story. But to state that men are not welcome to submit to an anthology, that they should not even try, is wrong.
Furthermore, as a podcaster, it is difficult if not impossible to conceal my gender. I like to promote the anthologies where my stories are accepted. If I write under a female pseudonym, if I’m required to keep my association with that pseudonym secret, then I can’t do that, and I feel less valued as an author for it. I have better uses for my time.
And so, for reasons of both principle and practicality, I have decided that I do not need to have business relationships with these editors and publishers. I hope that they understand that I am not trying to coerce what is a largely economic decision. I really don’t care whether they change or not. Instead, I will hope that the world will come to judge stories based on their contents, rather than prejudices arising from the gender of the author.
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I agree. It insults both writers and readers.
In recent years, anthologies have opened up to a wider range of sexuality. If straight readers can survive reading about women kissing, they can survive man words.
Good policy.
Well said. The exclusion has always bothered me. I want to read stories written by good writers and storytellers, without regard to who they are in real life. Remember in English classes when the teachers would claim that the author was totally separate from the work, and that we had to say ‘the narrator’ instead of ‘the poet’ when discussing poetry? I think the author is always part of the work … but that’s all the more reason to include as many as possible. Besides, a woman can learn a lot, reading erotica written by men … 😉
I agree with your stance completely and regina said it well, we females can learn alot from male erotica writers. I read somewhere a quote “The hand is no differant from what it creates.” I can’t remember who said it, and it may not be completely acurate but still if there is NONE of the author invested in the fiction then it is hardly believable or enjoyable. Forcing men to pretend they are women for the sake of getting published devalues their work greatly, atleast from my perspective, and the same of women who had to ‘play’ the male part to get recognised and published. Why on earth people find male sexuality so virulent is beyond me. Honestly, it’s something we all have for the most part created culturaly anyway, so lets not punish the men for it, huh? Life would be rather dull without that vaguely animalistic energy (i hesitate to call it violence) that comes from straightforward male sexuality as i percieve it. Being mostly female mentaly(gender confused but more educated about females than males)i may be misjudging but even so, as a (mostly) female I find male sexuality and behavior in general nessessary, as are all other behavioral patterns (that don’t lead to absolute destruction).
Fair, equal, and dare I say exhaustive representation of viewpoints is what makes fiction for me, and erotica is no exception. If we are all expected to see the world as women do then why on earth did men DOMINATE the literary feild for so long?…..ok ill stop rambling now, sorry.
[…] been waiting for this for TOO long. I wrote about this topic a few years back. Every time a certain anthology comes up with its annual call for submissions, the topic makes […]