Feminists, Books, Stats, and Links

Lots of stuff going on around the internet lately, and not all of it is good.  Here's my roundup.

First, over on VIDA, the Count is up: a numerical representation of all the women published in major magazines.  Now, as a young adult writer, it's always killed me that women seem to make up all the conferences I go to, the critique groups I belong to, the agencies and publishing houses I deal with.  And yet by far and away, the award winners and the writers reviewed in People are men.  Now I'm not saying People is the arbiter of literary merit by any means, but still.

And the Count is totally depressing.  There is one publication on there (mostly lit mags) that has more than 50% coverage of female writers, and the rest are woefully less.  Seriously?

I cannot explain this trend.  I'm saddened by it, I'll do my part to blaze a trail of literary greatness that earns the kind of awards that young girls can look to, can point to, and say "I want to do that too.  I CAN do that too."

Because I think that's what we have to do–aspire to greatness that, in and of itself, inspires others to achieve the same.  Glass ceilings and such be damned.

Second, I ran across this collection of statistics that, actually quite encouragingly, lead me to believe that the true gatekeepers of children's fiction are not the bestsellers on Amazon or the flashy marketing on the Disney Channel, but rather the librarians that really know their books.  Librarians love books, and frankly, authors love librarians.  And if they are the ones who hand a child a book–a decision not influenced by cash incentives or product placement or cover art but rather by the content between the covers–I'd say that children's literature is in a pretty encouraging place.

Third, there was a big bruhaha over Bitch Magazine's list of feminist books, then caving to reader pressure and removing books from that list, but frankly I'd just be cribbing from this post if I summed it all up here, so you should just go check out JJ's Blog. Read through to the end because I really dig her own "feminist" list.

Fourth, I just read that Angie Frazier's new MG novel is a Kids Indie Next Pick (which essentially means its featured by independent booksellers and gets her a lot of genuinely well deserved publicity, which is AMAZING!!!) and I couldn't be more excited for her!

All in all–I'm a big fan of women finding their own success and their own feminist power.  I love to see other women being AWESOME.  And I'm not saying men can't have their own, but too often I see girls that hold it in, don't say what they mean, don't go after what they want.  In books and in life, I think women should root for each other, support each other, and celebrate their awesomeness.

And as for my two feminist choices, my childhood idol heroine was definitely Alanna from Tamora Pierce's SONG OF THE LIONESS series.

But as a writer and a twentysomething, my choice is the awesomely badass, sexually liberated, so hot it's literally a problem Fire from Kristen Cashore's book of the same name.

And that's all, folks.

xx