There's no "all" in anything that I've experienced, but there
is a general commonality ... marketers and advertisers use it
and the Neilsons reflect it as well. Well, in literary
circles they're still debating if women can write even write
literature in the sense of such works as Moby Dick, War and
Peace, etc., and they have quantified the differences in the
perspective of male and female readers. Does everyone agree
on this? No. Since when is there ever a majority agreement on
matters that are purely subjective? Can women write works of
literary merit? Of course. Is the perspective different from
that of their male counterparts? Of course and it's never
more obvious than in literature.
I find it to be nonsense not to be able to see the difference
between men and women its so obvious to me when I read ...
maybe its nothing more than intuitive, I don't know. Is it
quantifiable? The only way to scientifically test this is to
get a 100 men and a 100 women (that's an arbitrary
number
... whatever a fairly conclusive sample would amount to) and
have them all write independently to a well-defined and
outlined story line.
Last year there were some very thought provoking articles in
Salon.com, The Atlantic, Harper's, etc., that covered this
topic from a less subjective view.
Part of the problem is that it's politically correct for
women to state their female uniqueness while it isn't
politically correct for a man to do the same about women.
Another part of the problem is the misconception that
difference or a lack of an ability is somehow a determinant
of inferiority instead of uniqueness or simply difference.
Equality doesn't demand that we're all cookie cutter
identical beings where our sex has no influence upon our
views ... you can strap-on the largest rubber phallic device
made and you'll still never know what it feels like to have a
penis any more than I would know what feels like not have one
by squeezing it between my legs and hiding it away where it
can't be seen ... cut it off and I still know.
volente Deo,
Anthony Dauer Alexandria, Virginia
"The dead are heavy, after all."
-Will Christopher Baer, "Penny Dreadful"
Hard-Boiled Noir Discussion
Hard-Boiled-subscribe@egroups.com
> From: Jess Nevins
> Sent: Saturday, May 27, 2000 8:51 AM
>
> But to say that there's such a thing as a "female
voice" or a
> "female perspective" is...well...how shall I put
this?
>
> If you say that there's a "female voice," then you
say that all
> women are going to write and speak and feel in that
way. You
> say that there is something essential and innate
about a woman,
> and that it doesn't matter what culture she's from,
or upbringing,
> or religion, that she's going to write and speak and
feel in the
> same way.
>
> This is nonsense, as far as I'm concerned. It flies
in the face
> of centuries of literary efforts, philosophical
writings,
> and artistic creation. How do Sue Grafton and
Sojourner
> Truth both have the "female voice"? How do Virginia
Woolf
> and Andrea Dworkin both share the "female
perspective"?
> If there's such a thing as a "female voice," then it
has to be
> shared by everyone, or it's not really the "female
voice," is
> it?
>
> I'm still waiting for you to tell me just what the
"female voice"
> and "female perspective" is, by the way.
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