tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24838881.post6390842099678596128..comments2021-01-17T16:05:49.183-08:00Comments on Magi Gibson : A leg-up for male poets?Magi Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03021067120365599011noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24838881.post-89375054201327593462017-07-05T02:09:31.405-07:002017-07-05T02:09:31.405-07:00This was a fascinating article and very well writt...This was a fascinating article and very well written. I have a foot in both camps. I was a young woman at the end of the 80's when misogyny was at it's most offensive. To make matters worse I worked on a press floor where I was one of two women. Our bodies and what our male colleagues wanted to do to them were routinely discussed in our presence. If we didn't find it funny or complimentary we were lesbians or frigid. Neither of which was particularly offensive to me. <br /><br />However, I do think everybody should have a voice and if we have to put on separate events for women then so be it. Men are entitled to be heard today even if their voices were solely heard in the past. I agree that it is a travesty that women are left out or included in small numbers in important anthologies. Even more sadly, the most enlightened seem to overlook their part in this. We have a long way to go because even 'nice' men slip up. After Donald Trump's offensive comments about women in an 80's video, I mentioned in a Facebook group that I had heard much worse and I was told that 'maybe I had mixed in the wrong circles'. The blame was placed firmly in my court amongst a group of 'enlightened socialist males'.<br /><br />So I don't know how we get there but I do know that we must keep talking about, discussing and debating this issue even when it becomes uncomfortable. Thank you for the article it was very brave and timely!:)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24838881.post-89486384129166398042017-07-04T16:45:33.587-07:002017-07-04T16:45:33.587-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12383526309109209066noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24838881.post-22450549947285168692017-07-02T05:22:31.002-07:002017-07-02T05:22:31.002-07:00I enjoyed reading - very informative. It's a s...I enjoyed reading - very informative. It's a shame female poets are sometimes shunned: you expressed yourself well.<br /><br />Thank you. Love love, Andrew. Bye.WordsPoeticallyWorthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05932809387878012226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24838881.post-70540635771586765242017-06-25T14:29:33.738-07:002017-06-25T14:29:33.738-07:00I know that painting well and have found it increa...I know that painting well and have found it increasingly offensive as time has gone by. It was clear that the role of women was to be MUSES to the 'real' oh so masculine poets. The late sixties, early seventies, when I was living in Edinburgh, studying and writing, were a time of great change. We were only just realising how we might need to assert ourselves as women and there was a lot of encouragement which perhaps gave us a false sense of equality. In some quarters at least, it has been a constant battle ever since. You're right about the imbalance in poetry readings, anthologies, and the undoubted fact that it so often goes unnoticed by men. I wrote much less poetry as time went by, but had exactly the same problems with theatre. After a horrible experience with the director from hell with an early Lyceum production, I had two well reviewed plays at the Traverse but made no headway at all after that until the late wonderful David MacLennan produced three of my plays at the Oran Mor. Then I entered the great silence. No response to anything, not letters, not emails. Nothing. Not even the courtesy of a rejection. But really extraordinary playwrights like Ena Lamont Stewart were shamefully treated by the literary and theatrical establishment here so what did I expect? Publishing is much better than it was. For a long while, a glance at the lists of the vast majority of Scottish publishers showed a very definite bias in favour of men with male interests being the norm. And recent research on reviewing, across the whole UK, indicates that male writers are still, heaven help us, consistently reviewed in newspapers more often than women. The online world and indy publishing has helped to redress the balance, and I'm more hopeful as a playwright turned novelist than I ever was.There are some fine small publishers out there and some fine writers who just happen to be women. Fortunately, I had always written fiction, long and short as well as plays, and that's where the future lies, for me at least. But my heart still sinks when young women ask me about getting into theatre. Your post elaborates some of the reasons why. Catherine Czerkawskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14554969254207924049noreply@blogger.com