Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Mslexia has caved

14 replies

gendercritter · 20/09/2018 15:35

Mslexia is a women's magazine which (in my opinion) has huge importance in the publishing industry. They only publish female writers and have launched or boosted the careers of many a struggling writer. They offer regular opportunities to get your work in print and hold lots of competitions to help writers get noticed.

They are very firm that they don't publish anything by men. They've written about that here Basically, there is concrete evidence that 'there is still an imbalance in the way women writers are published, reviewed and perceived.'

Publishing is very hard to break into and so I've always loved that Mslexia has held firm that they're female only. A lot of women find therapeutic value in writing and writing is a very good career for women who are maybe sahm's or who want to work from home having been out of the workplace for a while.

Except now in the t&c's of an upcoming competition they've announced that anyone can enter if they identify as a woman.

I am so angry and disappointed.

OP posts:
HollowTalk · 20/09/2018 15:40

That's disgraceful! Are they mad?

RichardLongcross · 20/09/2018 16:26

Didn't they pull Lionel Shriver as a judge recently? That was probably a sign of things to come.

R0wantrees · 20/09/2018 16:38

From June 2018:

OP wrote:
m.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jun/13/lionel-shriver-fired-contest-judge-after-criticizi/

"Writer Lionel Shriver was just interviewed on BBC R4 Today programme after being dropped from judging a writing competition (it was at about 8.50). She had criticised Penguin Random House's new quota model for publishing saying We can safely infer from that email that if an agent submits a manuscript written by a gay transgender Caribbean who dropped out of school at seven and powers around town on a mobility scooter, it will be published, whether or not said manuscript is an incoherent, tedious, meandering and insensible pile of mixed-paper recycling. Good luck with that business model.^^ As a result, the magazine Mslexia that was holding the competition dropped her as a judge.

In the Today interview the Shriver said she supports "women" writes. The Mslexia rep mentioned that Shriver was discouraging "groups of women" (or similar) from writing. In fact the rep said a LOT of good things about Shriver, her writing her work etc, strange considering they were dropping her. The sole reason she seemed to be dropped was due to "groups of women" issue.

Got me wondering if transactivists had petitioned and Mslexia dropped her for fear of being labelled anti-trans. Maybe not, but anybody know?"
thread
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3277496-lionel-shriver-groups-of-women

David Aaronovitch included this in an article about the importance of freespeech:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3277408-David-Aaronovitch-comment-in-Times

gendercritter · 20/09/2018 17:37

Yes that's correct. I don't know if pressure was put on Mslexia, I suspect they were just a step ahead and want to be seen as being woke.

She wrote this article in The Spectator in response. ('Millenials aren't taking offence, they're hunting for victims')

OP posts:
ThinkIveFoundYourMarbles · 20/09/2018 19:21

I was reading the Writers' News section in my favourite creative writing magazine recently. It would seem that most literary zines for female writers are now actually nothing of the sort.

ThinkIveFoundYourMarbles · 20/09/2018 19:24

Some examples:

Mslexia has caved
Mslexia has caved
Writersblock2 · 20/09/2018 19:39

That’s a real shame as I really thought they were a valuable group.

Mumsrights · 12/12/2020 09:49

Honestly, don't see the issue or what has changed. 'People who identify as women' I.e. women. What's the issue with women submitting to a women's only magazine?

LajesticVantrashell · 12/12/2020 09:57

Because @Mumsrights, men can identify as women. If it were really for women, it wouldn’t need to include the word ‘identify’.

MichelleofzeResistance · 12/12/2020 10:05

Any place or group specific that they are for females/women become a target for activists. Just to name anything for women is stating that it is uncaptured and defiant; this is a campaign to erase anything at all that remains suggesting that woman/female means anything but a chosen identity. They will have been intentionally campaigned at. Knowing too the pressure and drama and emotive anecdotes that are piled onto any group that resists, it's hardly surprising such tactics work.

Not classy. Not respectful of females. Not kind.

nauticant · 12/12/2020 10:07

Did you really register just to revive a 2 year old zombie thread so you could scold women Mumsrights?

Barracker · 12/12/2020 10:10

Someone has resurrected this zombie thread from 2018.

I can't imagine for what motive, but it would be a shame if older threads went poof because they were dragged out of the archives.

MichelleofzeResistance · 12/12/2020 10:13

Sorry, not enough coffee yet this morning and fell for that one hook line and sinker. Blush Stupid of me.

CatsCantCatchCriminals2 · 12/12/2020 11:11

Zombie, zombie, zombie, zombie nation..

New posts on this thread. Refresh page