Women's fiction WH Smiths hmmm?

[planetpotty]

Heard an article on radio 4 yesterday stating WH Smiths had been written to and asked to remove the shop sign (the ones that stick out from the shelves showing different sections) showing "women's fiction" as it was highly offensive to women to pigeon hole them with the fluffy kind of titles found there. WH Smiths agreed to remove the signs!
I understand the argument but personally think
think this is going too far and also am a bit peeved I will now have to ask the shop assistant for the books that men probably wouldn't read??!!
Interested to see what others here think and if I've totally missed the point.

[Himalaya]

I'm not sure if it's Smith's but there is some place I've seen the mags filed under Women's Interest and Men's Interest with The New Scientist and The Economist filed under men's interests (because women shouldn't worry their pretty little heads about such things...?) that makes me go grrrrrrr. I think next time I will complain.

As for 'women's fiction' it just show them up as not a real bookshop, they only sell books by genre. I guess they will change it and call it romance? Contemporary romance? Something to separate chick lit out from mills and Boon etc....

[GothAnneGeddes]

Milly - The vampire lovaah genre is actually called urban fantasy/paranormal romance < face of shame>

I'm very pleased they've gotten rid of "Women's fiction". It's a small step, but an important one imo.

[Keylime]

yes the only place for 'women's fiction' is where they celebrate published female writers. A Virago section would be great.

[WoTmania]

I agree with keylime - the independent bookshop in the village my parents live in has such a section, 'Women's Fiction' - all the virago books.
I think this is a good thing (in the OP) I don't like women's fiction I read fantasy/sci-fi/almost anything but romance.

[Keylime]

I used to have loads that I bought over years from a second hand shop during my teenage years. Due to their brilliance I years spent the intervening lending them to friends...one way to reduce the collection. Oh well never lent Wiila Catha might read that tonight:)

The decline of the independent bookshop and market power of the super market/w h smiths/richard and judy etc can't have been a good thing for decent books or women writers outside of Chick Lit or TT genres. Can't see a Virago section in the local Asda any time soon.

[TrillianAstra]

I wouldn't like a section on "fiction written by women" unless the only other section was "fiction written by men". It makes it sound as if (for example) crime written by women is not a legitimate part of the crime section and needs to be put somewhere else.

[Keylime]

Know what you mean but the genre texts by women stay where they would ordinarily be. The women writers section has work that would not be often published under the generic confines that dominate literature and originate with the canonical texts written mainly by white males.

A woman's publishing house or section seeks to redress the historic power imbalance and allow space for woman writers traditionally excluded thus they publish contemporary texts and ones previously unpublished for generations.

[WoTmania]

I read something recently about how men tend to only read stuff by men (unless they are tricked the fools by either a male sound name, think Robin Hobb, or the J.K Rowling hting of initials only) where as women tend to read either/or.
I think it's quite interesting and the term 'women's fiction' is downright insulting, as if it's written specifically for woman as our poor little brains can't handle anything else.

[Himalaya]

Keylime... But on the other hand, the rise of Amazon, social cataloguing - 'people who liked this also liked that', reader reviews, etc... mean it's much easier to find a wider range of books, accross and outside of genres - just not in WHSmith and Asda....reasons to be cheerful

[jenniec79]

That thing with the Women's/Men's magazines really bothers me - I had a subscription to New Scientist years ago, and now only have time to read it occasionally, but hate that I have to search past Zoo and Nuts etc to find it!

Books - my local bookshop is a Waterstones, and doesn't seem to do this anyway(magazines usually WHS!) I have to ration how often I go though - might be a crime novel, the latest Pratchett, classic, history, science-fact, chicklit, cookbooks...but overall they seem to get a far larger share of my cash that they should!

[WoTmania]

surely new scientist should be under, urm....Science?

[Keylime]

You are right himalaya ... Still bah humbug, the wonder of a good bookshop:)

[BecauseImWorthIt]

Actually, Keylime, R&J has been very good for fiction - it's got a lot of people reading/reading more, which is great. And they don't pick just cupcake-type books. They do have a fair proportion of 'lighter' reads, but also pick more serious and, I suppose, more 'literary' authors. Julian Barnes is one that comes to mind.

[planetpotty]

Having read the repplies it seems LOTS of women are bothered and do find the term "womens fiction" offensive and insulting.

Thanks for all the repplies and I do look at this differently now - whilst I would not myself have written to WH Smiths to complain about it and im still not offended by it, and TBH would probably never even given it a second thought. I understand more where the woman who did write in was coming from and why Smiths have listened to her.

Personally I think rather than womens fiction they mean chick-lit but they cant put that on the sign so I hope its replaced with something like Light fiction.

Thanks everyone :)