An Open Letter to the Women's Fiction Prize

[MoonCatcher]

... To be found here, makes many good points
wildwomanwritingclub.wordpress.com/2021/04/06/open-letter-to-the-womens-prize/?fbclid=IwAR2StGkT2WlQhu1T9AUsQp7JIcmZfDOA8eAd3QqFQIe31B6Q9E8Rz96RSDQ

There's a really twattish article about it in the Guardian today. As you might expect.

wildwomanwritingclub.wordpress.com/2021/04/06/open-letter-to-the-womens-prize/

Archived;
archive.is/x1dYc

Its a very good letter, I'm not surprised the Grauniad didn't actually print any of it. The crux of the article is;

''Originally, the Women’s Prize was established to recognise the contribution of female writers who were overlooked by other major literary awards. The founder launched it in response to the all-male shortlist for the 1991 Booker Prize..''
''There are several major UK literary prizes open to both sexes. We object to being asked to accept that Detransition Baby belongs in the category of fiction by women. The moment you decided that a male author was eligible, the award ceased to be the Women’s Prize and became simply the Fiction Prize.''

Excellent letter.

It's not a women's prize any more when it is turned into a virtue signal to a male born person that they are included and valued in their identity. It just means no one in the situation has any respect for female people and the needs and issues specific to females.

Add categories. Stop mugging women for what little they have.

The tone of the Guardian article was really belittling the women writing the letter for daring to have an unpopular opinion

www.thebookseller.com/news/womens-prize-condemns-bullying-over-peters-nomination-1252575

Bookseller article.

Lots of people ordering Peters' book to make a point. Hope they read it.

Last year the Womens' Prize got flak for asking a non-binary writer for proof of their legal sex. Or gender. Who the fuck knows:

www.thebookseller.com/news/womens-prize-confirms-entrants-must-be-legally-defined-female-1221015

And a response to the Women's Prize response:

wildwomanwritingclub.wordpress.com/2021/04/08/follow-up-the-the-open-letter-to-the-womens-prize/?fbclid=IwAR0XnDEuafZCdfqVf2AqB0P3PhZzjUOwhsOGU9isrJHRKbnsnsxdKO9vvlk

@ArabellaScott

www.thebookseller.com/news/womens-prize-condemns-bullying-over-peters-nomination-1252575

Bookseller article.

Lots of people ordering Peters' book to make a point. Hope they read it.

"Bullying"

I thought Peters liked a bit of humiliation anyway? Makes them feel all womanly, doesn't it?

Better than my (mentally composed) letter...

Dear woman’s fiction prize people

‘You arseholes’

Yours etc

I dunno, toffee, it has a certain je ne sais quoi.

The best push back is to buy Kathleen Stock's book, Material Girls and Helen Joyce's Trans.

From what they're written about it (I've not read it) it sounds very much like an extended version of that MN classic 'when a man tells you what he's like, listen' so will probably fight our case for us anyway.

YY. I think it will be interesting to see people earnestly reading and defending it, especially if it wins. I think it might give some pause for thought.

There are loads of people in publishing Twitter genuflecting. I say people but it's actually all women. Really surprising to see. Of course we've no idea who disagrees as they'd be mobbed.

Publishing and the book world are the hugest cheerleaders for TWAW. I suspect because its largely the province of privileged people. Plenty in the field agree with feminists, but say nothing. I suppose it's seen as kind of career hari kiri.

But - what on earth is the point in writing if you can only write what is sanctioned & approved? Maybe that's why so much contemporary writing is as dead as a doornail. No risks taken. No boats rocked.

And as we've seen, your compelled speech only protects you for the moment. Tomorrow the demands will be higher.

ArabellaScott I know they are. I work in publishing. It's a shit show. I just thought more people were bystanders and it was a minority championing it but it seems that even grownups who should know better are happy to chant the mantras.

@SmallPug

ArabellaScott I know they are. I work in publishing. It's a shit show. I just thought more people were bystanders and it was a minority championing it but it seems that even grownups who should know better are happy to chant the mantras.

I've noticed that, while almost all younger women in publishing have 'pronouns in bio', very few men have, unless they're younger LGBT+ themselves.

IvyTwines2 this is definitely mostly being championed by women and yes they're the ones with pronouns in their bios.There are more women in publishing of course, but it's still very much women driving this. It's all extremely privileged and superior, whilst looking like it's all about being kind and inclusive. Men aren't wasting their time on this bullshit. Patriarchy 2.0 is working very well indeed.

I’ve just set up an online academic account for DS. It’s for school kids - it asked for preferred pronouns... arghh. There was no open box and only 3 options. Very bad show I thought.

That's terrible toffeebutterpopcorn - so there's no option but to add them? I would be writing to whoever is in charge of that to complain. Fuck pronouns.

I am happy for people to buy the book. I read Lolita; doesn't make me pro paedophile. I read Will Self, even though I don't like his personality. Unlike many who support this particularly extreme mainstream trans rights agenda I am not into censorship and think challenging your beliefs is important (note to mods & monitors I don't mean "trans people" - many supporters of this are not trans).

What is ridiculous, from having read reviews, is if we were to write much of the stuff in Peters' book on this forum, we'd be deleted. It seems to be about a lot of the things that concern feminists and yet we are told either don't happen or are so rare as to make us evil for associating them with trans people. And yet the same people who would scold us and try to get us banned from this platform are lauding this book.

I'm hoping a great deal of people will read the book, Wendy. I think it might be very revealing.

WendyTestaburger I agree - I'm not for censorship at all. I wish I could be as optimistic ArabellaScott - the way everyone in publishing is lauding it, the penny hasn't dropped even slightly.

@ArabellaScott

I'm hoping a great deal of people will read the book, Wendy. I think it might be very revealing.

Sadly, having seen the way so many young women ignore or excuse the thousands of death and rape threats emanating from the anime-avatar brigade identifying as 'trans', and even ganged up against those writers who signed a letter condemning the death and rape threats made to J K Rowling, and despite that display of aggressive misogyny these young women continue to press for the removal of single-sex safe spaces in theatres, galleries and other public buildings, especially in the arts, I don't think Peters' portrayal of 'woman' as a submissive BDSM category is going to shift any of their mental gears.