On Writing: Who Killed the Male Novelist?
How the Publishing Industry Fell Out of Love With Men.
I have long found the Women’s Prize for Fiction , founded in 28 years ago to counteract perceived male bias in the publishing industry somewhat unnecessary at best, and absurd at worst. The same goes for the Lucy Cavendish Prize for Women’s Fiction, and the Mslexia Prize for Women’s Fiction, and probably lots of other prizes for Women’s Fiction (whatever ‘women’s fiction’ actually is, other than fiction that happens to be authored by a female) I’ve never heard of.
All these were set up, presumably, to counterbalance a level of gender inequality in publishing. But such inequality has long gone, and has, in fact, swung very far in the opposite direction.
I have usually kept quiet about what is turning out to be a glaring anomaly, mainly because I am male, and don’t want to be accused of sour grapes or misogyny or being a dinosaur and so on and so forth. And I will be. The riposte is usually predictable - either denial (increasingly untenable) or the justification that the inequality is payback for all the years of inequality that women suffered. Fair enough, I suppose. But I can only quote my late mother - ‘two wrongs don’t make a right.’ There must surely come a time for restitution to be phased out and for gender-neutral quality to take the lead. Or even, equality - as in roughly equal representation within the industry itself and the prize lists. Because excluding fine male writers is not only an injustice but also represents a decline in the offer of literature to future generations of men. Who could doubtless do with its civilising influence.
I don’t deny a readjustment was over due - 20 years ago. I myself came to prominence on the back of the so-called ‘Lad Lit’ wave of the 1990s, in which men were shown - paradoxically, given the label - as far more than just laddish stereotypes. Writers like myself, Blake Morrison, Tony Parsons and Nick Hornby all strove for a redefinition of traditional masculinity.
I have to admit that when I revisit the male literary big beasts of the past - Amis, Bellow, Mailer, Roth, Heller etc - I confess I find them dated ( although quite brilliant at the same time). And they are often misogynist, it’s undeniably true. So a reckoning was in order. But the reckoning has now been reckoned and it’s time to move on.
My time as a novelist is past, and I am beyond caring about this subject as far as my own career goes. I do, however, worry about other younger male writers - and readers for that matter. More girls than boys read fiction, and far more women than men (who overwhelmingly prefer non-fiction). One wonders why this is. Is there perhaps a ‘female’ slant to the books published?
Almost certainly. For at least a decade, and probably more, women have dominated the fiction industry. The situation may not be helped by the fact that the vast majority of those working in publishing these days are female - a 2020 diversity survey found that women made up 78 per cent of editorial, 83 per cent of marketing and 92 per cent of publicity roles (the report confirmed suspicions that the industry remains overwhelmingly white and middle-class)
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