Bagging, Bitches and being Brave

It has become something of a national sport. No, make that International. Everyone seems to be in on it, even Michelle Grattan, a respected political journalist, and Germaine Greer. I won’t call her respected though she deserves some for her earlier work. But really? Drawing attention to our prime minister’s large arse? I can’t say that thought hasn’t gone through my mind, just as I have wondered about Hilary Clinton’s hairstyle (or lack of it, though lately it has been better) but I guess that’s inevitable when you have a high public profile. I think varying male politician’s need to lose weight or get a hair cut too.
But two things have me thinking on this a bit more. One, an ongoing pouring out of emotions from my fellow romance/erotica writers about the tendency for some authors to bag others. It seems that in the fight to get that extra book sale women (and this is primarily females) and giving bad reviews and dissing other peoples books so there is less competition.
Book reviewing is an interesting area as I have reviewed a number of books of authors I have no connection with which appear on Good Reads, and few of fellow Siren authors whom I don’t know personally but feel that they are in it with me and I like to be as positive as possible. If I can’t give three or above I don’t review it, but even then it can be tricky because in reviewing romance I have different criteria to say reviewing Gone Girl (ie ones that get International acclaim). It’s not that I want to can them either, but a four and five on the thriller scale is different to a four or five on the romance scale. That is largely because of different audience and interest in story (which I think is essential but isn’t always part of the romance genre). Cowboys aren’t really my thing, nor new age men that do the house work (I’m talking fiction here, not real life…) but it is very common in romance and I think that has to be taken in. When writing a review, having been on the end of a bad one, I always try to highlight the good things and if there were problems mention what could be improved. ‘Crap’ and getting personal has sent my fellow authors off crying and put them off publishing. This isn’t how to help the sisterhood nor to feel good about yourself.
The second thing to get me thinking was a launch I went to today of a networking website ‘Who Is She’ and. And it is International Women’s Day after all.
So first- at the launch Christine Nixon spoke. An ample sized ex-Chief commissioner of police who has weathered all the problems of being a woman at the top, and of a male dominated workforce. She was inspiring as much for her good grace as what she achieved. I loved the fact that in the midst of her worst crisis her mother (aged 88) told her ‘you can always come home you know.’ Christine is 58. Still, says something about being a mother and daughter – one of the more positive things that I don’t think need negate women as being powerful. I have a Chair in my academic discipline but I don’t want to be head of department, not because I am concerned about being torn down but because life it too short and there are other things to do. Some of women not being on boards etc may be because they have better perspective than their male counterparts, not because they are being discriminated against.
But it doesn’t mean that women are not being discriminated against, that perhaps they need to Lean In and be more confident (Sheryl Sandberg’s book). But how can they hope to be if submitted to the media barrage designed it seems to head any woman with any sense running from public office?
 At the launch I got a copy of Mary Crooks from the Victorian Women’s Trust’s book ‘A Switch in Time’. It is sobering reading. She follows the media coverage of global warming and our first female prime minister, with reference to how the media also address other powerful women.  Some (not all) of this media is women. She puts on one side of the page what the columnists say: “utterly dysfunctional…we don’t have a leader…incapable of addressing challenges.” On the other side is the Governor of the Reserve Bank stating how well our economy is going. This is on a background of our shock jock and cartoonists saying she (our PM) ‘this excuse for a woman’ should be taken out to sea and dumped overboard in a sack and ‘I’m over this lying cow.’ ‘Deliberately barren’ came from another politician, male. ‘A menopausal monster’ from a caller (this could be funny in Chick Lit I accept…).
This isn’t just in Australia. There is a ‘I Hate Nancy Pelosi’ Facebook page asking her to be hung, Sarah Palin has been described as masturbation material and Hilary Clinton stereotyped as a bitch. What we are told and shown fits the images the media choose and do not tell the whole story or give us the whole person. They just feed our paranoias and biases.
So rise above it and feel empowered by seeing beyond the gender biases, review books without ulterior motives and read media reports with a healthy dose of scepticism. Be brave and have your own opinion ... but be a bit kind too.