New women's book shop

[ChristinaXYZ]

Rare Birds Books have announced they will be opening as a bookshop in Edinburgh selling new books. The tweet says they will be "entirely dedicated to women's writing" but in answer to the inevitable, 'Will you be trans inclusive? Would appreciate an explicit statement on this!' they say, 'Yes, definitely!'.

Whilst this is neither a 'rights aren't pie' moment as presumably they will stock thousands of books so there should be plenty of room for all. It is also not a safe-guarding issue like single sex spaces often are. So why am I bothered I am asking myself?

It think the crux is these two questions that I would ask them on twitter if I was not on there under my work/real name:

1. Will this mean including transwomen, or transmen or both. Because, 'transmen are men', no? What will you be doing about writers who lived very much like a man and you may call trans now, important writers like Radcliffe Hall. Will RH be excluded? If not, is that not transphobic?

2. Will you stock the works of brave crusaders for women's rights (might wait for a hopeful 'yes' on that before continuing) like Selina Todd, Kathleen Stock, Helen Joyce, Jane Harris, JK Rowling, etc?

And finally - I think in the end the whole thing is disputable - a mis-described trade.

If anyone on twitter does tax them over it, I would love to see the responses.

twitter.com/rarebirdsbooks/status/1412477317176336387

Rhannion

Lighthouse Books is the first one that comes to mind. Very open about their TWAW beliefs, which they have a right to hold.

www.lighthousebookshop.com/

Yes Lighthouse have the right to hold that view, however they also lobbied to stop women speaking at Edinburgh University

One rule for them, another rule for us.

It's absurd

@PurgatoryOfPotholes

One rule for them, another rule for us.

It's absurd

Quite!

@vivariumvivariumsvivaria

I'd be glad to see that shop, Rhannion. And I have money to burn on exactly that sort of thing. Will you post on here to let us know when it opens?

I certainly will and would be looking for staff too! To answer the question about Radcliffe Hall , or perhaps a book about James Miranda Barry for example, as both of those were born women I would stock them, however I would be more interested in nonfiction books, unlike this new bookshop which appears to be only sticking fiction.

Stocking not sticking!!! Need my reading glasses on!

Hey, looks like Rachel Rooney has a new poetry book out for kids!

@TeaAndStrumpets

Plenty of Abebooks sellers are UK based. Agree they are brilliant. Centralised billing system, just register and they handle the sale for you every time, like Amazon.

They are Amazon - well owned by.

www.biblio.com/ is independent and has loads of UK and US sellers.

@SmallPug

And note, they haven't come back enthusiastically about that yet...

And still haven't replied, days later. Funny that.

@vivariumvivariumsvivaria

I think the market for hypersensitive woke bookshops is fairly saturated in Edinburgh.

@Rhannion

Yes Lighthouse have the right to hold that view, however they also lobbied to stop women speaking at Edinburgh University

A cookhouse against free speech! Wow. If they lobbied for someone to be denied free speech, I wonder if they would lobby for their books to be banned/censored/burned too.

Not cookhouse, book shop.

I think a cookhouse SUPPORTING free speech would have a lovely atmosphere

@TeaAndStrumpets

I think a cookhouse SUPPORTING free speech would have a lovely atmosphere

I'd eat there!

Oh yes. One of those where they teach you how to cook and then you eat it.

Women round a pot, stirring and plotting and cackling, sharing songs, stories and poems. John Knox would be horrified.

Sounds amazing

This might be an unpopular view here, but I don't really see the need for a women-only bookshop really. Women kind of dominate ficton and you can get their books in every bookshop and online. If they were stocking rare/out of print/indie women's writing then maybe that would be good. Likewise, if they were going to be a feminist bookshop, that would be good too. But as it is, it's just another woke business selling the same books you can buy anywhere. I don't see the point. They're not doing anything for women.

On a related note, I feel the whole idea of 'women's writing' seems to be just another way of trying to put women in the corner. There's really no such thing as women's writing as a general category. There's feminist writing, and women's commercial fiction, and a lot of crime genres are dominated by women, too. But they are so unbelievably diverse, it's reductive to lump it all together as women's writing.

Just an FYI re twitter - you can set up multiple accounts. I have 4. One for work, one for complaints, one for general stuff with friends/family and one for activist stuff.

Info on how to do it at uk.pcmag.com/social-media/132816/how-to-create-and-manage-multiple-twitter-accounts

@beastlyslumber

This might be an unpopular view here, but I don't really see the need for a women-only bookshop really. Women kind of dominate ficton and you can get their books in every bookshop and online. If they were stocking rare/out of print/indie women's writing then maybe that would be good. Likewise, if they were going to be a feminist bookshop, that would be good too. But as it is, it's just another woke business selling the same books you can buy anywhere. I don't see the point. They're not doing anything for women.

On a related note, I feel the whole idea of 'women's writing' seems to be just another way of trying to put women in the corner. There's really no such thing as women's writing as a general category. There's feminist writing, and women's commercial fiction, and a lot of crime genres are dominated by women, too. But they are so unbelievably diverse, it's reductive to lump it all together as women's writing.

I agree with most of what you say actually. Let's not put ourselves in the corner nor see ourselves as second. We don't need another category for writers because male/female differences.

If there are women's bookshops though I just wish they would not mis-use the word woman.

As someone else above has said a free speech book shop makes far more sense.

A free speech bookshop would be amazing! It would be burned down within days if one opened in Edinburgh :(

What is their stance on female authors who used male pseudonyms to get published and taken seriously?

@beastlyslumber

This might be an unpopular view here, but I don't really see the need for a women-only bookshop really. Women kind of dominate ficton and you can get their books in every bookshop and online. If they were stocking rare/out of print/indie women's writing then maybe that would be good. Likewise, if they were going to be a feminist bookshop, that would be good too. But as it is, it's just another woke business selling the same books you can buy anywhere. I don't see the point. They're not doing anything for women.

On a related note, I feel the whole idea of 'women's writing' seems to be just another way of trying to put women in the corner. There's really no such thing as women's writing as a general category. There's feminist writing, and women's commercial fiction, and a lot of crime genres are dominated by women, too. But they are so unbelievably diverse, it's reductive to lump it all together as women's writing.

I suppose shops like Lighthouse have a place if that's what one is looking for. They can carry a greater range which is far more easy to find than general bookshops.

Having looked at Lighthouse's website and its hectoring tone I'm fairly certain that I'll never set foot in it.

Not sure what about my post makes you relate it to Lighthouse? They are super woke as far as I can tell. I went in there once about eight years ago - never again!

Speaking of books... do search for ‘rainbow monkey library’. It is not an April fool...

I dunno, I think this is fine really - it's a business tbh they can do what they like. Nice to have a bookstore that make a conscious decision to sell books written by women. If there are some trans authors in there so what.

@beastlyslumber

Not sure what about my post makes you relate it to Lighthouse? They are super woke as far as I can tell. I went in there once about eight years ago - never again!

I was trying to think of a justification for hiving off women's writing. I suggest if one is particularly interested in the sort of left- wing hectoring that Lighthouse specialises in it keeps it one place.

Personally I don't even see the need for women only writing prizes- far less women only bookshops.