In case you begin to lose hope...

If you ever start to feel that there is no hope in the world for woman kind and that despite all the advancements that women have made, we still have not made it, we have women such as Moira Allen to look to. You can read more about her and other women like her on WOW! which stands for Women on Writing. It's a great website that reminds us that women are making great strides in leveling the playing field in areas such as writing. On this website women give advice on several different areas of writing, many in which they are experts. This advice is given to men and women alike and is not directed toward one gender specifically. With a name like Women on Writing though, it seems to me that not many men would be inclined to visit this website or follow these women's advice. The website is not decorated in pink or "girly" by any means but I still do not seem many men running to check it out. These women offer valuable advice to any writers though and it might do some men good to hear it.

Final Paper!

Women, Words, and Writings

Words and language surround us everyday. It is the basis of communication between humans. How would we interact with other people without talking? The written word therefore has played an important role in human history. Through literature people have recorded events, important and seemingly insignificant, throughout history. Considering all this, it seems illogical that half of the human population would be excluded from such an important part of life for centuries. Up until the 20^th century, women authors were not recognized or acknowledged and were often even discouraged. Many women were forced to use pseudonyms in order to be published and many hide their identity even today. Still now women writers often do not receive the same recognition men do. As in many career fields women often find it difficult to reach the top of the writing industry. Even after women began to earn a hold in the literature department, many subjects were off limits for women. Some of these subjects include sex and politics, areas of life that affect everyone, women just as much as men. Looking back on history, it almost seems as if half the story is missing.

The first women author known of in history is Enheduanna and wrote about 4300 years ago (Binkley). Although Enheduanna is well established in history, she is not often a poet commonly known to people. Most of the work of early women writers was often ignored or lost through the ages.

We know of only a few women who wrote in the ancient world, when education was limited to only a few people and most of them men. This list includes most of the women whose work survives or is well-known; there were also some lesser-known women writers who are mentioned by writers in their time but whose work doesn't survive. And there were probably other women writers whose work was simply ignored or forgotten, whose names we do not know (Lewis).

Moving forward in history to the medieval ages more women entered into the writing world but still remained largely under represented. Women often did not receive the opportunity of education and remained illiterate. The few that did receive education were limited to nobility and upper classes. A women’s education often focused on becoming a wife and mother (Pomona). There were a women though, who were able to make their mark in history such as Christine de Pizan and Marie De France. Despite the fact that we know these women’s names now, very little is known about either and neither achieved fame like that of Renaissance writers such as Shakespeare, Dante, or Machiavelli even though they wrote close to this time period. History books often teach the name of writers such as John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson but few women who wrote during the Enlightenment are that well known. Finally, in the 19^th century came the first wave of feminism and many women expressed feelings that emerged during this time through writing (Sattelmeyer). Many more names of women writers of this era are known today such as Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, Anne Bronte, and Emily Dickinson just to name a few. These women still struggled though and no one considered them heroines at the time. Today, women have a come a long way and in most countries receive an equal opportunity to education as men. Despite these great advances women still do not receive equal treatment in the work place. Not only in jobs involving writing and literature but all across the market. One specific example, seen in the Virginia Quarterly Review shows that byline ratio of men to women was 5:29 in the 2006 issue (Clark). Although great strides have been made with women’s involvement in literature, there is still much work to be done.

When women’s writings first began to be circulated in public many women received much criticism and could not publish their work under their own names. Women instead used pseudonyms or pen names in order to put their work out there.

The majority of women writing in the late 19th century had at least some of their work published under a male pen name. Writing was a male profession, and women could not contribute. The brave women who used their own names were called "petticoat authors," "scribbling dames," and "half-men." In order to get published and be taken seriously, many women wrote under male pen names (Niemi).

Mary Ann Evans, better known as George Eliot, was one such woman who had to hide her identity when writing. While at first her articles were all anonymous she provided her editor a name incase people asked questions and soon enough they did. When she revealed her identity to a few close friends the information leaked out and she received much criticism. Despite these bad reviews though, Evans had already established a large base of readers (Niemi). Sadly though, the name that went down in history was George Eliot and not her true name of Mary Ann Evans. Pseudonyms were much more common during the 19^th century than today, but despite many advances of equal rights and such women today will still take a pen name. One example of a well known author who did not publish her books under her real name is J.K. Rowling. Although essentially she kept her real name, her publisher discouraged her from using Joanne because younger boys might be discouraged from buying her books if they were written by a female. Women have written masterpieces as great as any man but may not have received recognition or are forced to hide the fact simply because they were born a woman.

Pseudonyms were also used by women for other reasons as well. Certain subjects have been considered off limits for women in the past and even today. Louisa May Alcott, the author of books such as Little Women, wrote under her own name and also under A.M. Barnard.

Barnard's stories were full of sinister characters and romance. Louisa called these her "blood and thunder tales." Why would an already respected author choose to use another name? Louisa was afraid of what her friends and family might think of her racy writing. It was OK for women to write moral stories like Little Women, but it wasn't OK to write about the darker side of life (Niemi).

It took a long time for it to become socially acceptable for women to write and even after centuries certain areas were still not acceptable for women to discuss openly in their writings. Sexuality is one of these areas that women have been greatly criticized for covering. More recently, the well known author Judy Blume, received much criticism for some of her books that addressed puberty, menstruation and sex. Three of her books, Blubber, Forever, and Then Again, Maybe I Won't have even been banned (Barry). These books although covering sexual ideas, were written for kids and did not contain racy or even shocking material. Abby Lee, another female author who wrote about sex in here writings also wrote under a pen name. Her blog, “Girl With a One Track Mind” went deep into many of her sexual experiences. When her true identity was revealed she was called several things including, “a sex addict who is morally no better than a prostitute.” Women have often had to limit themselves to certain subjects of writing, frequently including areas very pertinent to their own lives.

Women make up half the world’s population and for years history has been written without their input. We are truly missing half of our history. Women have made great strides throughout the world’s past and have come a long way from not even receiving an education. Women today are taught to read and write and receive many more opportunities to excel in literature than they did in the past. Although many women still use a pseudonym to disguise their identity it is much less common than it was in the past. Women often would not be published if they used their female name, and despite the fact that this is not the case now, many women still use a pen name to not lose a large male audience. Also women often take pseudonyms to write about subjects they might otherwise be criticized for writing about. Despite restraints and setbacks women have put their voice out there through writing. History has overwhelmingly been dominated by men but men have also had the power to write history. Slowly but surely women are gaining the power of words and through that the power to write history.

What a Bitch

After reading the article from "Bitch Magazine" I was left thinking more about the label "bitch" then anything else. So naturally the first thing I did was Google the word. Not surprisingly the first thing that came up was "Bitch Magazine" but also there was the Wikipedia entry for bitch. Although Wikipedia is not even close to a reliable source it still shows what people define the word as. Also going to dictionary.com and looking up the word closely matched Wikipedia's entry.
Both entries began with the actual definition of the word: a female dog. But both also had the definition as a "malicious, spiteful, domineering, intrusive, or unpleasant person, especially a woman." It seems to me that domineering does not necessarily have to be malicious and if a man is domineering is it spiteful? Along these lines, Wikipedia went on to say that if a man is called a bitch it's in a making them subordinate. So calling a woman a bitch makes her domineering and unpleasant but calling a man a bitch makes him subordinate and weak? These two definitions seem awfully contradicting.
Bitch can be heard and seen everywhere. Songs and tv shows often don't even beep it out anymore; it is slowly becoming more and more okay and accepted to use. I still cringe when I say it and writing in this blog over and over was a real...tough and unpleasant thing. The word bitch is so integrated into our language is it possible to remove it or at least take it back to it's original and true meaning?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitch

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bitch

"Oh, if you knew my dreams! My vaulting ambition…"

-Zora Neal Thurston


First and foremost, the article for this week's blog comes from "Bitch Magazine: Feminist Response to Pop Culture". Although this is not the focus of my blog, it is important to me to address this name. When I began reading some of the entries I agreed, with much of what several of the authors were saying, but the fact that it is called "Bitch Magazine" is somewhat disappointing. Why would a group of woman advocating for female equality and such use a derogatory term, especially one that is way overused and often in an incorrect manner? It seems somewhat pointless and just more "in your face" than necessary to use this as a name.
That being said, this article I read "The Ambition Condition" had a lot of insight into the world women writers are live in, a world despite how much we hate to admit it, is dominated by men. The fact is that women who seek success and ambition are often portrayed as spiteful and domineering. Many examples are given of movies such as the "Devil Wears Prada". Women writers who seek success through their writing, often don't admit it and make it seem as if it's something they just do on the "for fun". To put it bluntly this sucks. Why is a women who wants success in the business world categorized as a "bitch" or forced to choose between a family and a career?

The Ambition Condition

Women with Guns

I had never really given much thought to the idea of a gun being a masculine or feminine thing but then again I had also never given much thought to the ideas of guns. It really is though one more area where feminism is affecting women's lives. I imagine that even a few years back a women owning a gun would have been considered radical.
I have never owned or even held a gun and although I imagine it would be a weird feeling and I would feel pretty nervous. I feel like a guy who has never held a gun or been around guns would feel the same way. I'm not sure if this is really an issue of being a women or a man, but more of what you have grown up around.
The idea of women owning guns is empowering but maybe empowering in an unnecessary way. It seems that this only encourages the "man-hater" idea that many men have about feminists. Why do women feel it so necessary to make it socially acceptable for them to own guns? I guess this would lead to a bigger issue about people owning guns in general, despite gender.

Author discusses impact of women and guns

On a bit of a Side Track....

My favorite part of literature is that it really affects all parts of our lives. Maybe because I love language and hate math, but I am a strong believer of the fact that you really could not get through live without words and you might be without numbers.
Getting back to the point though, this woman author addresses women's issues in her book This is How We Do It: The Working Mothers' Manifesto. The author, Carol Evans, is the founder of Working Mother Media. Just the title can bring hope and optimism to our day but one idea she mentioned is, with the recent election is that of Sarah Palin. Despite the controversy she brought to the election it definitely caught people's attention which is still powerful and. It also says a lot that women both on the left and right came together to protect her right to run.
More importantly though Carol Evans is a women writing about politics, even though this is not at all the main focus of the article. Politics has often been an area of writing that women tend to stay away from more recently though women have began to enter this area more and more.

Author sees brighter future for working women

What if Shakespeare had a Sister?

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln set a great example by having an event celebrating women writers. Yet it is still sad to think that it is necessary to have a "Women's History Month" and "Women's Week". I mean after all we don't have a "Men's History Month"'; our history is in general dedicated to men and this makes that just that much more obvious.
Despite my pessimism though this event is really a good thing. The fact that it was called "Shakespeare Sister" is especially interesting and amusing. With Shakespeare being one of the best writers and most influential people in history it really is curious to think what would happen if he had a sister. Obviously it is completely hypothetical to consider, and more in theory. If Shakespear thought like a girl, how would his poems, plays, and stories be different?

Shakespeare's Sister celebrates women writers

Finally Receiving some Recognition

The first thing that caught my eye about this article was the fact that it said "herstory", as opposed to history. I automatically thought awesome women in history!
I have often heard that the best writing comes from personal experience. It's easier to write about what you have lived through and know. A great example of this is Zora Neal Thurston.

Zora Neal Thurston defied racial and gender barriers and is claimed by many prominent Black woman authors as their literary mother. Hurston was married three times, smoked in public while wearing slacks and was raised in one of the few all-Black municipalities in the country, Eatonville, Fla.

The only book I have read by Hurston is Their Eyes Were Watching God and I would highly recommend this book not only because it describes many things Hurston actually went through but also because it's a good story. It displays also many things black women had to go through at the time. But books are finally coming out recognizing all of these achievements.

Black Women writers are making Herstory

Being a Minority Among a Minority

Women have struggled throughout history to achieve what they have so far. These women that fought for suffrage and equal rights were usually middle class white women. Black women, especially lower class had even more barriers to overcome. Not only did they have to fight sexism but at the same time they had to fight racism. Despite these obstacles though several black women have become famous authors and wrote many widely read literature. Some of these women include Maya Angelou, Pearl Michelle Cleage, Beryl Gilroy, Opal Palmer Adisa, Sonia Sanchez, and Zora Neal Thurston. This article barely begins to show the achievements these women have made.

Black Women Writers-Licensing News

Vamos!

Growing up as a Latin American girl in the United States, I grew up very much a part of two cultures simultaneously. I know that in South America, Central America and most Latin countries have very patriarchal societies. Women in these countries have made several advances but it's still surprising yet inspiring that Latin American and Spanish women are making a stir in literature. Even though I have grown up amidst both cultures and can read and write in Spanish, I have never read anything by a Latin American women author. As I read this article I tried to think of women authors that I had at least heard of and could think of only one. Having lived in a bilingual house for eighteen years I find that pretty disappointing. This article gives hopes though that not only will these women authors be known but also widely read.

Latin American and Spanish literature at fore of conference

Women Writers on the Rise

Finally some good and up lifting news! Woman writers are making an impact all over the world. It's great to hear someone say:

"Publishers have realised that new women writers are really where it's at it right now. They're prepared to offer huge advances because everyone wants the new Zadie Smith. I can't think offhand of a young male writer who has made a comparable splash."

It really is true though many up and coming writers are recently woman rather then men. (I will look for specific examples for future posts.) This article focuses specifically on British woman that have become prominent in literature. It also provides the Orange Prize long-list which is a list of writers who are chosen by the Independent literary editor Boyd Tonkin. It's great to find that "Publishers have been forced to understand two things. Women writers can deliver big returns." but it's really too bad that it has taken this long for publishers to realize that. Another encouraging fact for up and coming women writers is the fact that more and more woman are becoming publishers and editors allowing more women to put their writing out there.

Women's literature: The next chapter

"Of course Turkish women are stronger than men"

Although we often think of the United States as such an advanced country and so far ahead with the idea of democracy and equality, we should take a second to humble ourselves. We have not had a woman president while many other countries have and there is still much racism while other countries have made more advancements in those areas. We often think that feminists are usually Americans but this is not true at all. Especially in areas of the Middle East where women are often mistreated and discriminated. Feminists can be found all over the world though, including Turkey, as seen in this article.

Taboo-free Turkish women writers strive to achieve equality

I know I promised good news in my last blog and this may not seem like good news but it is inspiring that woman in other countries are fighting for their rights. I don't think many woman writer in the U.S. would openly say "I'm the national bitch anyway in Turkey. I think they just want me to shut up," as Perihan Magden said.

More than Just a Silver Lining

Through out several of the readings and things we have done in class one thing I have constantly criticized is that many of the authors are often pessimistic and don't recognize how far women have come. Reading back on many of my blogs I thought I was often being guilty of the same thing and decided to look for woman authors who were succeeding and I knew there had to be many out there so look for those in the following blogs!
The first one I found, Margaret Atwood, mention previously in another blog, is probably most famous for her novel "A Handmaid's Tale". Atwood has one several awards and just recently most recently was awarded Prince of Asturias prize for literature. It's great to know that there are woman out there earning recognition worldwide.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jXe5OPa_aaRQCcQaMU-TxhEoj2Lg

The Power of Letters

With all the technology we have now days, are we really hurting ourselves more than helping? Maybe that statements taking it too far because technology has done so much in so many people's lives but it really is sad that we have lost the idea of writing a letter. Some of the first literature written by women came in the form of letters. Hand written letters provide a sense of intimacy that is just not available in emails. Maybe this is why letter writing allowed woman an outlet to write in. It was a private way of finally writing their thoughts down on paper. Emily Dickinson was a famous writer who wrote several letters. Although, writing from one person to another is a huge difference between writing for a public and being published it was definitely a start.

http://search.rdsinc.com/texis/rds/suite2/+SewXXEefEp5wFqA68h_w+9qW6xFqnwcMwNFqnh1cc/full.html

Women IN Literature

"THE MAJOR PLAYS of Tennessee Williams--who died just 25 years ago, in 1983--feature women at their core. But for all their centrality as the emotional focal point of these plays, paradoxically enough, these women are without power in the community they inhabit. It is the men who control events; the women are entirely dependent on the men and use them to achieve their goals. In A Streetcar Named Desire, the strangers on whose kindness Blanche DuBois has "always depended" are exclusively male strangers. In The Glass Menagerie, Amanda and Laura Wingfield depend on Tom for their very survival. And, in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, childless Maggie the Cat lacks any claim to the estate of her husband's family."

I have read both these plays and somewhat enjoyed them but reading this article makes me wonder what Tennessee Williams was saying and what was his point in doing so. I suppose people write about what they're living through though and the best writing comes from experience. (An even more interesting point in this article says that the woman in these plays are actually gay men in disguise. Even though I'm not sure where this comes from). Maybe men are criticized for how they wrote about woman in this time but it was simply their experience. This writing though may have just continued a bad trend and but there many men that have written about woman in much more derogatory ways, definitely look for that in future posts.

http://search.rdsinc.com/texis/rds/suite2/++ewX1FeHEp5wFqA68h_8q8n6wxFqnwcMwNFqnh1cc/full.html

Marriage or Old Maid?

M]arried life is the destiny Heaven has allotted to us, and therefore best fitted to awaken all our powers, to exercise all our virtues, and call forth all our sympathies. (19)

Catharine Maria Sedgwick, "Old Maids" (1834)

As slaves must be trained for freedom, so women must be educated for usefulness, independence, and contentment in single life ... as a mode of life in which one may serve God and humanity, and thus educate the soul, the great purpose of this short life. So considered, single life would not long be regarded as either "helpless, joyless, or ridiculous," and that dreaded stigma, "old maid," would soon cease to be a stigma, and in the lapse of ages possibly become obsolete. (2:214)

Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Married or Single? (1857)

These two quotes come from a woman who remained single her whole life. Ironic? I would say so. Many woman writer of this time period have confused messages. People are never sure if they were trying to be sarcastic in what they wrote and were actually advocating feminism or if they were really trying to put woman in "their place". Wikipedia, although not the best of sources says, "In her later work, Married or Single, she put forth the bold idea that women should not marry if it meant they would lose their self-respect." But doesn't this sound contradicting to both the quotes from either of her books?

http://search.rdsinc.com/texis/rds/suite2/+cewVo1eSEp5wFqA68h_8q8n6wxFqnwcMwNFqnh1cc/full.html

Judy Blume Says it All

Judy Blume holds the prize for a contemporary author who has been banned and censored the most. Blubber, Forever, and Then Again, Maybe I Won't are three of her books that have been banned. These and others have caused several controversies at schools, libraries, and between kids and their parents. Blume has always written children's books but covers topics that have been deemed controversial such as puberty, menstruation, and sex. Again it's these topics that women have been trying to write about for years, because it is very much part of our lives, and have been strongly criticized for. It happens all over to world, to authors in different countries, but may be more common in the United States. What is it that makes the world so ashamed or afraid of sexuality?
http://www.bostonphoenix.com/archive/features/98/05/21/JUDY_BLUME.html

Freedom of Speech...or Not?

Many people hold the freedom of speech as one of the most important freedoms yet despite this fact many works are still censored or banned. Although both men and women have much of their work banned or censored, since I am focusing on the study of women I have only provided examples of women:
Censored Women Authors
More importantly though then the disappointing fact that these authors were censored though is to ask why they were censored. Was it because of the subject matter? Was it because they were women? Or was it because they were women covering a certain subject matter? The following website attempts to describe some of the reasons why women may have been censored. Many of the reasons they list are reasons that a man would not be censored for.
http://www.wworld.org/publications/powerword1/7cases.htm

Another post about pen names...

I guess it's just one of those things I'm very curious about. Although we are still on the subject of women with pseudonyms, this one is much more recent and from quite a different angle.
Many of you may have heard of "Girl with a one-track mind" but in case you haven't, "Girl with a one-track mind" is a blog (on this very site as a matter of fact) written by Abby Lee. Her blog won the "Best British or Irish Blog" in 2006 and 2007. For the longest time though, Abby Lee wrote under the name Zoe Margolis which is not surprising in any way because the blog goes deep into many of her sexual experiences. When her true identity was revealed Lee was traumatized and had to go into hiding for sometime. Many criticized what she was writing about because it was very explicitly sexual. Would it be different if she was a man? Women have often felt certain areas of writing off limits to them and sexuality is definitely one of these but could a man really write the same things without being criticized?

Focusing on A.M. Barnard...or should I say Louisa May Alcott

One of the most famous authors of the nineteenth century wrote under the pseudonym A.M. Barnard. This author, now known as Louisa May Alcott, wrote many novels but probably the the novel Little Women is the most well known. This book which I'm sure the majority of you have heard of tells the story of four girls and their family. Jo, one of the girls in the family is very independent and wants to find success in writing but her plans change when she gets married. This ending makes me wonder if Alcott wrote this ending to show how wrong it was for a woman to give up her dreams because she was getting married, or if she ended it like this because she felt that ending it any other way would be too controversial?
Alcott discussed many topics that would be thought controversial at the time though. She covered issues of divorce, the main character was usually a heroine not hero, and female independence. So was Alcott truly a feminist or was she just writing good stories?
http://www.enotes.com/feminism-literature/alcott-louisa-may

A well known woman who more recently wrote under a pseudonym is J.K. Rowling. Instead of using her actual name Joanne she went with her initials that purposefully made her gender ambiguous. Was this so that guys would still want to read her book? Or were there other reasons for her use of initials?
For whatever reason, it shows us that woman even today still take pseudonyms.

I guess I'm not the only one intrigued by pseudonyms...
http://nuggetoftruth.wordpress.com/2008/08/05/on-pseudonyms/

Maybe I Was Wrong...

I wrote my first blog amazed and proud of how far women had come in the area of literature, glad of that fact that women don't have to hide behind pseudonyms but now I see I may be wrong. Don't get me wrong women have come a long way from the restrictions they had but it may not be as far as I thought. Despite the advancements women have made, as a woman writer you can't help but wonder what you are losing out on just because of your name. There's always the possibility that you're not getting paid as much, published as much, or getting as much attention as you would if you were writing under the name of a man, especially in certain areas such as political writing, sports writing or other subjects that are normally male dominated. This concern extends farther than just writing too as Kirsten Anderberg says in her article she has always had jobs in male dominated fields.

http://users.resist.ca/~kirstena/pagewomenpseudonyms.html

"In the past, when women picked up a pen, they often picked up a pen name, too. "

Women have come a long way in all different areas of life. One such area where advancements are clear is in literature. In the past women could not publish their work under their name simply because people would not buy their books if it was written by a woman. Many great writers were forced to hide behind pseudonyms.

Today, women writers don't have to pretend to be men in order to get published. Any girl or woman (even one named Mudpie) can use her own name. Thanks to women like George Eliot and A. M. Barnard, girls and women can write what they want and be whoever they want to be.

Thanks to women such as Mary Ann Evans (George Elion) and Louisa May Alcott (A.M. Barnard) we can write and be published today. These women proved that they could write just as well as men despite the fact that they weren't men. They helped pave they way for so many women to come but their success did not come without a price. Both these women (and I'll go into more detail about each in later blogs) suffered criticism from friends, family, and the public for "writing books inappropriate for a woman".
Today we take what these women did for granted.

http://search.rdsinc.com/texis/rds/suite2/+cdehtTveoxbtqA68n+9hhnW+xFqnwcMwNFqnh1cc/full.html

Here's a list of just some of the many women who paved the way for women writers today with pseudonyms.

http://www.gurl.com/showoff/spotlight/pages/0,,670630,00.html