‘Male writers get asked what they think, women what they feel’


Congratulations Eleanor Catton for winning The Man Booker prize this year!

Eleanor is young, only 28. Many older male writers are now jealous of her!
She said–

ELEANOR-CATTON

“I have observed that male writers tend to get asked what they think and women what they feel,”

“In my experience, and that of a lot of other women writers, all of the questions coming at them from interviewers tend to be about how lucky they are to be where they are – about luck and identity and how the idea struck them. The interviews much more seldom engage with the woman as a serious thinker, a philosopher, as a person with preoccupations that are going to sustain them for their lifetime.”

“People whose negative reaction has been most vehement have all been men over about 45.”

“One of those things that you learn in school about any kind of bullying is that it’s always more to do with them than it is to do with you. I don’t see that my age has anything to do with what is between the covers of my book, any more than the fact that I am right-handed. It’s a fact of my biography, but it’s uninteresting.”

“A sense of irritation from some critics – that I have been so audacious to have taken up people’s time by writing a long book. There’s a sense in there of: ‘Who do you think you are? You can’t do that.’ Something else related to that is to do with the omniscient third person narration of the book. There’s a feeling of: ‘All right, we can tolerate [this] from a man over 50, but we are not going to be spoken to like that by you.'”

We, women, who are writers know about these too well. Eleanor Catton’s critics remind me of my critics. I was at her age and was the youngest one when I won the most prestigious Bengali literary award Ananda, some older male writers in Bangladesh were so jealous of me! My critics were filthier and nastier than Eleanor’s critics. Once an old male writer filed a libel case against me because I took his masks off in one of my books, they were behind the banning of my books; in West Bengal, they even asked the government to ban my books, they finally managed to make my books banned, and then they did everything to threw me out of my home and my land only because my books were bestsellers and I was more popular than them and I did not respect lit-mafia bosses or bow my head.

It is a man’s world. Like other worlds, the literary world is also dominated by men. Women-writers are still treated as sex objects or as inferior beings. Most men prove that they are selfish, jealous, mean. They have really made themselves so small! Big hearted men are not afraid of being equal. But men’s good qualities are so rare now a days! They do not mind if women get an education, they do not mind if women get a job, but they mind if women get better jobs then men, and they get angry with women if women do better than men.

Eleanor! You go girl!

Comments

  1. Good says

    Being that 13 women have won the prize before her and a woman was the second winner of the prize ever, it would appear that her age is the thing that may bother some older writers. Her perception of what is asked of men as opposed to women is just that; her perception and if accurate, a man could just as easily complain that no one cares how men feel.

  2. Jonny Vincent says

    They do not mind if women get an education, they do not mind if women get a job, but they mind if women get better jobs then men, and they get angry with women if women do better than men.

    It’s nice that the opinions of the judges validated her. She must have been uncertain about the quality of her work, to need the self-appointed judges to judge her so favourably. She can now build from this illuminating experience safe in the knowledge that she does, in fact, Know Best – that she doesn’t need to listen to anyone ever again, now that her mother has given her the confidence to hide behind the mask of deception, to need to conceal her blemishes (real or imagined) from those who might make her feelings hurt with MEAN WORDS and stuff.

    Truth isn’t nice when s

    • Jonny Vincent says

      …truth isn’t nice but that is not the fault of truth. Women will be treated like equals when they take off the paint that conceals some things and advertises others (like the need to conceal). You can’t conceal a craving for the approval of others when one doesn’t approve of oneself. Or their mothers didn’t approve of their true Self? Men are generally approving of them in the setting where the paint is better suited, or at least, it would appear so.

      In an academic setting? To be taken seriously, women could be less obvious about their priorities, if they pleased. Does she want to be sexually desirable or does she want to be respected for her intellect? I know, her mother said she could have her cake and eat it, but no.

      Her mother was her worst enemy, harshest critic, insane and deluded to boot. Obsessed with deceit and images and appearances and shame. Miserable and confused about whether children existed to please her or themselves.

      AND THAT’S THE TRUTH.

      • No One says

        Does she want to be sexually desirable or does she want to be respected for her intellect? I know, her mother said she could have her cake and eat it, but no.

        Indeed… Why should she be able to be attractive AND be respected for her intellect? There are rules about this sort of thing after-all.

        • Jonny Vincent says

          Indeed… Why should she be able to be attractive AND be respected for her intellect?

          You’re saying she cannot be attractive without smearing cosmetics all over her face to conceal her natural face? You’re a misogynist.

          There are rules of logic that prevent women who obsess over their appearance to the point of needing to artificially ‘enhance’ their natural features being taken seriously by anyone with an intellect. You either need to impress with a fake image or you validate yourself without needing to manipulate perception seeking external approval.

          Nothing about this is complex. If you value deceit, you are not credible. You cannot have your cake and eat it as well.

      • smrnda says

        Did it ever occur to you that when it comes to appearances, women are probably trying to please themselves and don’t care about you or your opinion of them? You seem to be assuming that anything a woman does when it comes to appearance is ALL ABOUT MEN.

        I mean, why can’t people both be intelligent and try to look nice by whatever aesthetic they want?

        On ‘concealing blemishes,’ is a balding man denied the right to wear a hat since that might be ‘deception?’ Are clothes deception? Am I somehow not deserving of respect for doing my job if I wear a colorful scarf or a nice hat? It seems like you just want to attack people’s appearances by assuming that there’s some ulterior motive. Don’t want to pretend to be a psychiatrist, but ever heard of ‘hostile attribution bias?’ It’s not all about you. If you have a trouble respecting women who choose to wear make-up (I don’t but my vision is too bad for me to notice) isn’t this just a personal prejudice of your own with no relevance whatever to anyone’s merit?

        Is it possible for you to make a single post without rambling on about mothers and deception?

        • Jonny Vincent says

          Did it ever occur to you that when it comes to appearances, women are probably trying to please themselves…

          No, it has absolutely never occurred to me that someone who obsesses over their external appearance is trying to please themselves, but only because my mind is serviceable. It’s quite telling that you have conflated obsessively seeking external validation with pleasing yourself, but I know who eroded your Self and why she needed to.

          You seem to be assuming that anything a woman does when it comes to appearance is ALL ABOUT MEN.

          With cosmetics, the vast majority of the psychotic pressure for women to imagine they need to conceal their true Self comes from pathetic, petty, judging women; haters who disapprove of everything because they are exclusively focused on tearing down everyone they can in order to feel superior.

          HuffingtonPost: For Women, Going Makeup Free Is More Stressful Than First Date, Job Interview

          Two-thirds of British women surveyed said that heading to the office bare-faced caused them more stress than public speaking, going on a first date or enduring a job interview. 70% of those polled said that they wouldn’t want their colleagues or bosses to see them bare-faced. 91% of women would rather cancel a first date altogether than go without makeup on. 31% of women said that they wouldn’t even exercise at the gym without touching up their faces. 16% put on makeup just to answer the door.

          44% of American women feel unattractive when they don’t put makeup on. Over 25% of young women start wearing makeup at age 13 or younger — roughly the point at which their self-esteem drops.

          An earlier study released last November indicated that one in three bosses think their employees wear too much makeup.

          It’s not men who want women to wear makeup. I never wanted to be raped by unattractive girls made to appear otherwise by skills of deception perfected over a lifetime. It’s the shamed children of slut-shamed mothers who destroyed this world. Above, in bold font, I have highlighted some truth that hints at how this species was reduced to sub-worthless leeches who prey on children with lies, violence, fear and shame for the children’s sake (of course). As if a child ever needed to love a mother. In nature, it’s the other way around.

          Girls are convinced not to compete by mothers who condition them to believe they have an entitlement to leverage suffering into being taken care of. It’s what girls are led to believe they deserve, by virtue of remaining slut-shamed. No one deserves to suffer but women who exist to create suffering with suffer and it’s a demented world of insanity where logic that simple could be esoteric. Slut-shaming is a trap that perpetuates itself. After obsessively competing to make credulous men their johns, slut-shamed women wake up on the wrong side of 30 to discover men don’t want to carry their leaching sleaze anymore. They cannot please themselves, make themselves proud, take care of themselves or love themselves because they’ve been presenting a false image to the world. They breed children who they bully into suffering to please them.

          Slut-shaming women are purging honest girls from the field of competition for their male slaves. What women do to girls with shame is the emotional equivalent of genital mutilation (excision). In the Muslim world, mothers occasionally throw acid on their daughter’s faces for their crime of being a human girl. In the West, women occasionally slut-shame a girl to death. RIP Amanda Todd. All the honest girls are dead. They’re made to conform to evil by women who hate women for being women.

          Guardian: Twitter’s First Star

          Disappointingly, she finds that most of the negative comments come from women. Their most common jibe: “That I think highly of myself – like that’s a bad thing!”

          “They’re trying to shame me,” Oxford says, “and it’s all from women. Men don’t care. A lot of women are like: Oh she’s not fat, oh she’s cute, she’s funny, I hate her.”

          These wretched demons scream their putrid hatred at women who don’t conform to the gutter misogynist standards imposed by women onto girls. They also smear men to reduce them into imagine they need to carry a leech. But what is infuriating is that these haters will breed. Their children won’t stand a chance. This disease will breed until The End.

          Men do not slut-shame girls unless they’ve been lied to about how real women feel desire. Historically, working men have had no need to shame children into suffering to please them. Only needy leeches (mothers and priests) needed to blind children with love and make them ashamed of being humane. You imbeciles. Shame is all there is to shame. Feminism has failed women because men were never the enemy.

          The enemy of Humanity has always been women who hate women for being women.

  3. Amitava Ghosh says

    লেখা এবং লেখক এর মধ্যে লিঙ্গ ভেদ থাকা উচিত নয়।লেখা/লেখকের মুল উদ্দেশ্য মানব উন্নয়োন। নিজ নিজ উপলদ্ধি আর চেতনা লেখনীর মাধ্যমে প্রকাশ হয়।লেখার মধ্যে সত্যতা এবং সাহিত্য দুটোই অপরিহার্য।কোন একটাকে বাদ দিয়ে লেখা সম্পুর্ন হয় না।
    স্বাভাবিক নিয়মে নারী ও পুরুষের কিছু শারীরিক গঠনগত পার্থক্য আছে,তাছাড়া অন্য কোন পার্থক্য নেই।সম্মান ও গুরুত্বে উভয়ই সমান।শারীরিক গঠনের পার্থক্য হেতু পুরুষ একটু বলশালি হয়।এ জন্যে যদি কেউ ভাবে যে পুরুষ উত্তম আর নারী অধম তাহলে তো বিপদ।মানুষের মধ্যে লিঙ্গ ভেদে ফারাক রাখা ঠিক না।
    তোমার “নির্বাচিত কলম” বা “লজ্জা” প্রকাশিত হওয়ার পর সমালচনার যে ঝড় উঠেছিল তা আমি কম বেশি জানি।যারা তোমার সমালচনায় মুখর হয়ে ছিল তাদের সম্মপর্কেও আমার কিছু জানা ছিল।আসলে
    সযত্নে লালায়িত ভদ্রলোকের মুখোশটা যখন খুলে যায় তখন ভিতর থেকে কুতসিত স্বত্তা বেরিয়ে পড়ে।
    ধর্মীয় মৌলবাদের বিনাশ ঘটলে বক ধার্মিকদের পেট চলবে না।তথা কথিত লেখকদের অসত্য সাহিত্য রসহীন লেখা ফেলে পাঠক যখন তোমার সত্য সাবলীল লেখার স্বাদ পেল তখন ঐ সব তথাকথিত সাহিত্যিকরা ধরা পড়ে যাওয়ার ভয়ে ভীত হয়ে পড়ল।এই ত্রিভূজ তোমাকে নখ দা”ত বের করে আক্রমনে ক্ষত বিক্ষত করতে চাইল।সেই সময়ে তোমার সঙ্গে ছিল তোমার পাঠক কুল,যাদের বেশিরভাগ হয়ত পুরুষ ছিল। ভুল বললাম আসলে সবাই মানুষ ছিল।তাইতো?
    warm regards to Eleanor.Go ahead we are with you.

  4. wtfwhateverd00d says

    Interviewers that ask her about how she feels vs. asking men what they think.

    Were those male or female interviewers?

    Taslima, really enjoyed today’s tweet of yours seeking men with big dicks.

    https://twitter.com/TopComedyy/status/391122077614616576

    Killing Comedy ‏@TopComedyy 10h
    7 things a GIRL shud look for in a guy:

    Brave, Intelligent, Gentle, Devoted, Instinctive, Caring, Knowledgeable.

    In short: B.I.G. D.I.C.K.
    Retweeted by taslima nasreen

    Ya know what I like to see in a woman?

  5. UJJAL says

    The people behind banning of Taslima’s books were close associate of the then communist ( ha ha…) Chief Minister of West Bengal state in India, Mr Buddhadev Bhattacharya and his close literary men. Among them was Late Sunil Gangopadhaya.

    Had Taslima gone and begged to Mr Buddhadev then then his communist (?) ego would have been satisfied which Taslima did not do. It did not take much time for Mr Buddhadev to come out of his communist mask and follow the same footsteps of the fanatic muslims in Bangladesh and chase Taslima away from Kolkata. He wanted to earn his muslim votes, simple. Irony of this bias action is also interesting, ALL muslim votes in Kolkata went againtst Mr Buddhadev and his communist (?) party and he himself also lost in his constituency.

    I blame Late Sunil Gangopadhaya and team less than Mr Buddhadev. Having sworn to democracy as a minister, his job was to protect and encourage an author, a doctor, a person with no criminal past, a lady from the position and award greedy oil mill literary personalities. He even failed to arrest the hooligans who vandalized the city for vote sake. ( Very recently the TMC government has withdrawn the case siting obvious reasons. The main accused has changed his political stand and is seen like a parasite behind many TMC ministers and leaders nowadays )

    I could do NOTHING and continue to remain as co-citizens with the hooligans and loose a learned brave lady who could have got many crowns for the State and Bengali community.

    Sorry Taslima.

  6. UJJAL says

    @ Jonny Vincent – If you do not want to see cosmetics on a woman or any person, don’t see it boss, simple. If you want to see something else instead, say it clearly and do not hide your heart behind a lietrary mask. We all understand simple and complicated english boss. No flowery jugglery of language required boss.
    Speak out and say what you want to see a woman like.

    As a normal straight person I want to see them beautiful and bold. Any problem boss ?

    ( haaa…haaaa… )

    • Jonny Vincent says

      Speak out and say what you want to see a woman like.

      I don’t want women to do anything for me at all. This is my beef. I want women to please themselves, to make themselves proud, to take care of themselves and love themselves because this world doesn’t need any more of their broken children. If you obsessively keep up appearances, you’re worthless. If you lie to impress, you are batshit. You’re not impressing anyone when you deceive them with illusions. The effect of an illusion is illusory. They’re not impressed. They merely appear to be.

      If you do not want to see cosmetics on a woman or any person, don’t see it boss, simple.

      It’s not really about me. I am the boss of me. I need humans to be the boss of themselves because I have no use for worthless, needy, malicious, deceitful little vermin slaves. They’re not interesting. They’re not entertaining. They’re not constructive. They have negative value. They exist to create suffering on which they feed.

      As a normal straight person…

      I see conformity is a valued trait of yours. How utterly pathetic of you. I once reduced myself that low. Lift yourself up, stop dragging others down to your level.

  7. UJJAL says

    @ wtf…. – while author and readers are busy in writing and understanding the write up, you are busy understanding the initials.

    Your writing contains self x-ray to expose your heart and brains.

  8. Jinat islam says

    Taslima sobcheye baro problem ei je se tar Samosamoik sob male writer er cheye chilo popular.Samosya aro jotil hoi jhokhon taslima tar popularity barate thake sathyo kotha bole ,puruser chul,chokh.chest er stutii na geye.tar subject chilo meye ar etike soap, perfume er matoi korei e deser purus babohar Kore eseche..mul sought ta kintu ekhaneii.taslimake e deser meyera jader kotha likhte gie se atmoghati tarao khubi bhalo najore dekhe na ,esob bole somaje status harate Tara chai na.Vidyasagor,rammohan tader pujoneo ei tara Jane.Begum rokea,toslimake pujoneo ble felle somaje nari ahikorta ba puruser cheye baro hoe jabe. Eekhon jodi society girl ra toslima pore bolte thake amar sorir ami takar binimoyeo debo na Aami swadhin deser swadhin nagorik.sarkar amai khete deben ami khawa porar janyo ebhabe assomanito habo na tobe ki hobe bhabun.toslima narijagoroner Kaj korchilo tai tar atwahuti e deser maite joruri chilo..etii mul kotha..

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