tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post2862560087479831031..comments2023-12-15T02:38:55.020+10:30Comments on Still Life With Cat: Code for 'we don't care'Kerryn Goldsworthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-25351935884879930672009-11-08T22:07:17.868+10:302009-11-08T22:07:17.868+10:30Kerryn, I absolutely agree -- though it might chee...Kerryn, I absolutely agree -- though it might cheer you a little to check out the gender ratio of Best Australian Stories this year. 16 women to 10 blokes. I had no quotas in mind, but have to admit I was surprised, and pleased, to see the result when I did a quick add-up at the end. DeliaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-77367222060165407742009-11-07T07:49:52.638+10:302009-11-07T07:49:52.638+10:30Interesting response to this from Salon Media
http...Interesting response to this from Salon Media<br />http://www.salon.com/books/publishing_news/index.html?story=/books/feature/2009/11/05/pw_10_best<br /><br />Interesting in the sense of 'sigh'. <br /><br />Gains for the equality of women have only come about after waves of militancy - suffragettes gave us the vote & changes to property and marriage laws; the 70s and 80s lead to anti-discrimination laws, opening up of the academe. But the push back that has followed each wave of advancement so often has meant the principle stands but inequality still is overtly or subtley the lived experience. <br /><br />Advancement of civil rights and breaking down of prejudice is never a neat linear projection, but the stubborn resistance to examining and expunging sexism still shocks from time to time; in its pettiness such as the PW list or the grand cruelty of genital mutilation. <br /><br />The continuing absence of women from either the gatekeepers panels and the resultant lists of worthiness isn't accidental; but is it in the new world of unmediated net-based information a straight win-win for the patriarchy? I suspect that's part of Miller's ambivalence about WILLA - the authority of Salon or PW is being undermined, however minutely. Each post, each comment is a rock thrown by a suffragette; a slogan painted on a wall; a bonfire at Greenham Common. <br /><br />We know the beliefs and attitudes that underline the PW list - we need to keep pointing out the bleeding obvious, undermine its assumed authority, and provide alternatives. Over-running the valhalla.Bernicenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-80998705848895120012009-11-06T20:40:07.986+10:302009-11-06T20:40:07.986+10:30OK, so this isn't about a writer, but all is n...OK, so this isn't about a writer, but all is not lost. This comment from the female 80 year old winner of the Dobell prize for drawing warmed the cockles of my 57 year old heart:<br />"The big drawing kept coming down off the wall and falling on my head, and I've got this little gang who help me carry this drawing and they say I must reduce the scale in the future," she said.<br />Here's to the future Pam Hallandal.<br /><br />Seriously, why not demand proportional representation on such things as judging panels, number of female/male writers put forward for prizes? Could work in women's favour, given that we outnumber the sausage sizzlers (aka charred embers with little to offer to the taste buds). In a word, b.ll.cks to we don't care.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-40060837231148015912009-11-06T13:02:27.191+10:302009-11-06T13:02:27.191+10:30Interestingly, if I were to name the top half doze...Interestingly, if I were to name the top half dozen or so Australian litblogs (non-group, non-MSM) there would only be one male on the list. <br /><br />Perry Middlemiss<br /><br />[And in case anyone is thinking I'm picking myself here, this tag is just an identifier. I have to sign my name as I can't get my Google login to work.]Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-82955163215532762022009-11-06T12:15:15.396+10:302009-11-06T12:15:15.396+10:30i just posted a link to this post on my facebook t...i just posted a link to this post on my facebook thingy and the security words were 'defied speaking'lisettehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07121249032097526446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-92023494396746635852009-11-05T23:21:35.138+10:302009-11-05T23:21:35.138+10:30Oh dear, oh dear , oh dear. What can we do about ...Oh dear, oh dear , oh dear. What can we do about it? <br /><br />Everytime 'The Monthly' comes out I check the ratio, male to female. In fact, I find myself checking this ratio regularly, everytime I look at an anthology of fiction, essays and the like. <br /><br />It is all so subjective and gender biased, plus plus plus. <br /><br />Yet elsewhere - in fact everywhere I go in daily life, every conference I attend, whether literary or psychological - the room is full of women, with the odd token male. <br /><br />In the media and in the literary world, the men still get most of the significant Guernseys and women, with a few exceptions, fade into the background to organise events, make the tea, coffee and cakes and offer applause. <br /><br />Still in daily life, I think men - again at the risk of generalizing - are undergoing a kind of crisis.<br /><br />At a conference recently I met a man, Michael, who talked to me about his observation that women, many women in their fifties and sixties seem to be coming into their own. <br /><br />Their children have grown, their familial responsibilities have begun to ease up and they can now begin to find new interests, new ways of fulfilling their lives, lives perhaps to some extent that were held off during the years before. <br /><br />Men, on the other hand, hit sixty and they go into a decline, both physical and emotional. They feel that their best years are behind them. Whereas, Michael observed, women are now beginning to find their best years.<br /><br />It’s a terrible generalization and I can think of many exceptions and yet it resonates with my own observations.<br /><br />All these women, intelligent, articulate and fired up to explore new ideas and consider their own identities in the light of these new ideas – educated and bright women, who are interested in new horizons, but still we hit the so called glass ceiling.Elisabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04015624747225433940noreply@blogger.com