Thursday, April 29, 2010

Awesome



You really must read this article in the U.K. Guardian by Bidisha, because it faintly links to our recent knitting conversations:

Somehow, a decision is being made, probably subconsciously, about what is worthwhile and what is worthless. When I was judging the Orange prize last year we all noticed how major bookshops consistently stacked 10 men's books to every one woman's book on its "recommended read" tables – in whatever genre. In one bookshop, fellow judge Martha Lane Fox was told barefacedly by the sales guy that this was because men published 10 times as much fiction as women. But as everyone knows, chaps are heavyweight colossal conceptual geniuses of quite massive greatness and literary ladies are clever little fairies, handstitching our charmingly personal tiny tales out of skirting-board dust and featherweight neuroses.

But mostly I call Bidisha's piece awesome because that's what its tone is. She takes no prisoners, doesn't mumble, doesn't apologize for pointing out the invisible women.

We see far too little of that these days.