TW nominated for the womens prize for fiction

[Kit19]

for fucks fucking sake!

"Peters’ longlisting comes after organisers clarified in 2020 that it was open to any “cis woman, a transgender woman or anyone who is legally defined as a woman or of the female sex”. “It’s a prize for women, and trans women are women, so …” said chair of judges and author Bernardine Evaristo."

I've emailed them to point out their error.

What error are you pointing out? That they haven't kept a prize for women just for women? Because if you think it's fine to identify as a woman but not as female then you're wasting everyone's time.

@toffeebutterpopcorn

Aren’t there special awards for that type of writing?

Isn’t there an award for bad sex writing in literature?

@newyearnewname123

I've emailed them to point out their error.

What error are you pointing out? That they haven't kept a prize for women just for women? Because if you think it's fine to identify as a woman but not as female then you're wasting everyone's time.

I have an issue with appropriation of the word female, which has a clear biological definition. I have slightly less problem with someone being male sexed and identifying as a woman, as long as they call themselves a transwoman, don't say TWAW and don't try to make me call myself cis. And no, I don't agree with women's prizes being open to anyone who identifies as a woman but my particular issue here is misuse of the word female.

The level of hate here is equally disgusting and sad. Go write a book if you should feel so inclined. Who knows, maybe you'll get an award too. Probably not however.

The level of hate that’s sad Connie is the one that’s directed at women. When women are unable to retain the category ‘woman’ for ‘adult human female’ then it has huge implications. Far beyond a writing prize even. But that’s not to say ‘oh it’s just a writing prize why does it matter?’ Well it matters because it’s a prize set up for an oppressed sex and it matters because £30,000 is a lot of money. It matters because there’s a woman who would otherwise have received all the publicity that the long listed authors have received, publicity that might translate into sales and contracts. Why does the loss for that woman NOT MATTER? Why? I don’t understand how THAT person’s achievements and prospects don’t count. Is it because she’s ‘just’ a woman?

If a straight person tried to enter The Polari Prize or a white person tried to enter The Jahlak Prize would this, in fact, be seen as hateful behaviour? Probably.
But when a trans woman applies for a Prize for Women (adult human females) this isn’t hateful but it’s applauded. Why?

Transwomen can apply for any number of prizes. Including The Booker Prize. Or the aforementioned Polari Prize. No one is stopping transwomen from applying for prizes. But THIS one is for women. Except it’s not now of course..

boatyardblues : literaryreview.co.uk/bad-sex-in-fiction-award

I'm still thinking about the 16th woman and how life changing this long listing could have been for her...

I’m still thinking about the 16th woman and how life changing this long listing could have been for her.

So am I. Is there any way of finding out her name, or the names of those who were nominated? I would buy as many of their books as I could afford.

Sorry if that’s been discussed already. I haven’t RTFT because the subject is so demoralising. The undermining of women starts to look systematic. We must not be allowed anything that’s ours. We must accept that anything we have can be rightfully taken by a man.

Thank god for the women who resist, and our allies who also dare.

thinkingaboutLangCleg there was some speculation when the long list was first announced that the woman who missed out was Monique Roffey for her book The Mermaid of Black Conch.

Thanks, YouSetTheTone. The Mermaid of Black Conch is now top of my shopping list when I head off to the reopened bookshops.

Peters, writing in 2012:

'sometimes I present myself as female. I don't think that I'm a woman. I just think that parts of my psyche are female, resulting in a deep-seated need to act that out. For me, crossdressing isn't something I do; it's something that I am. I shift the presentation of my body to match what seems to be a constantly shifting gender.

I don't think that I'm a woman. I just think that parts of my psyche are female, resulting in a deep-seated need to act that out.'

gawker.com/5933857/the-crossdressing-room

Just another slap in the face for women. We are just shit on the shoe to be wiped off whenever a man feels they need to feel important.

The shortlist has just been announced, and Peters isn’t on it.

It’s
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones

Congratulations to all this year's shortlisted authors.

Hurrah! Was just coming to post the good news myself.

How come? I thought the whole thing was that they were on the shortlist? Was it withdrawn?

It's a three stage process, IIRC.

First, 16 book longlist, then six book shortlist, then they select the winner.

Ah so this book was on the long list? Wait for the wails of ‘that’s no fair!’ then.

Got it in one!

I heard this announced on Front Row, BBC Radio 4, last night and John Wilson who hosted the show asked judge Bernadine Evaristo why the trans author's title hadn't made the shortlist. He didn't ask why any of the others had failed to make the shortlist. IIRC BE had a slight intake of breath and then pointed out that it was one of ten books that hadn't made the cut.

That comment by Peters in 2012, Arabella Scott, is breathtaking. That a male-bodied person who says they don't think of themselves as a woman but that they sometimes enjoy presenting as a woman should make a women's prize list of any kind is sickening.

@toffeebutterpopcorn

Ah so this book was on the long list? Wait for the wails of ‘that’s no fair!’ then.

If that book had made it onto the shortlist for any prize* it would have indicated very dire things about the current state of fiction.

*Bar, of course, this hugely entertaining award.

literaryreview.co.uk/bad-sex-in-fiction-award

Still, hoping that lots of people will now read Peters' book. I think it might be quite illuminating.

Am I not allowed to talk about sissification on here then, reading between the lines?

Will I be censored and deleted for writing about that deeply misogynistic male fetish and why that makes the book completely inappropriate for a womens' prize?

Will I be censored and deleted for writing about that deeply misogynistic male fetish and why that makes the book completely inappropriate for a womens' prize?

I hope not because it's blindingly obvious that it's unbelievably inappropriate that a book that enforces sex-role stereotypes and their sexualisation should be considered for a woman's prize.

Congratulations to the women on the short list.

I am mouth agape at the extracts upthread. Maybe I just haven’t been hit enough in my life, so I’m missing that essential womanly experience that is so formative? No wonder I’m womanning in such a sub standard manner.

Fucking hell. And yes, I know that writing something in fiction only means that the character thinks that and not necessarily the author. The salient point is that the women’s prize is supposed to uplift women and celebrate women’s voices, so any novel with such rank misogyny on display, fictional or otherwise, just isn’t suitable. And it shouldn’t need explaining!

Some subjects/words are prone to getting reported very quickly, and thus deleted. It's annoying, and can make discussion quite difficult sometimes, but can be very informative if you try and look at the subject overall.