Cheryl Strayed and Pankaj Mishra Discuss Sexism in the Literary World

Posted on May 13, 2015

Bestselling novelists Cheryl Strayed (Wild) and Indian essayist and award-winning nonfiction author Pankaj Mishra (The Romantics: A Novel) wrote essays for The New York Times Sunday Book Review discussing how domestic themes in fiction are regarded differently depending on the gender of the author.

Ms. Strayed addresses gender bias in the literary world. She notes that "Writing by women is often presumed to speak specifically to other women." So if a woman writes about family relationships, her work is called "women's fiction" and only marketed to women. But if a man writes about the same dynamics, his is considered general fiction or literary fiction.

Ms. Strayed shares her frustration at the current state of affairs. She says there has not been one day in the past ten year that she didn't have to correct someone who thought she only wrote her books for women. She says her female colleagues say the same. She says they try to laugh it off, but it's not funny at all. She explains, "when an artist has to assert that her intended audience is all humans rather than those who happen to be of her particular gender or race, what she’s actually having to assert is the breadth and depth of her own humanity."

Mr. Mishra, who is British, writes that in the U.S., "the male myths of proud autonomy and self­-reliance have made for a hypermasculine intellectual and literary culture." He says that this macho culture gives authority to male writers, especially to "those who document men in full."

But he sees hope that things are changing for the better. As proof he cites the positive reactions to Shirley Hazzard’s The Great Fire, which he calls "a triumph of the moral imagination, as well as the works of Jennifer Egan and Rachel Kushner. He predicts that a new wave of women writers are beginning to be given the acclaim they are due.

It's a very interesting pair of essays that are well-worth reading.