TIMOTHY OTTE
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My Privilege & the VIDA Count

2/26/2014

4 Comments

 
Let’s get one thing out of the way up front: I’m about as privileged as someone can be.

I’m cisgendered, straight, white, male, able-bodied, right-handed, average body type, employed… The Works. In fact, I’d be hard pressed to identify a way in which I am not privileged. Though I try to keep my privilege in mind as I move through life, I’m not always successful.

In 2013 I began keeping what I call a “Book Log” to document my personal reading. It wasn’t a New Year’s resolution or even a very conscious decision, but I’ve kept at it and plan to keep at it because the book reviews I write for
Hazel & Wren got easier to write. By the time I was writing a review, I had worked through my thoughts and feelings about a book already, so I could focus on crafting a review.

Another benefit of my Book Log is that I learned a lot about my reading habits, from what genres I read, how many pages I read, what publishers I tend to read, and so on. I also learned how many women and men I read, which is what 
VIDA looks at in their annual VIDA Count. I've been on board with The Count since I first heard about it a couple of years ago and I remember being surprised by some of the numbers initially thanks to my privilege. But I began paying attention and my magazine reading habits changed as a result. I began seeking out publications that featured and reviewed more women and I began questioning the judgment of publications that consistently had outrageous gender disparity.

W
ith that in mind, I want to share my own personal VIDA count for 2013. A couple of clarifications to help your reading of this data: I only noted books that I had read completely, not the dozens of books I only read selections from. The gender of an anthology editor was counted, not the authors represented, so while I read an anthology of Mexican women, the editor was a white man and was noted thus. Books read in translation, though there weren't many, were counted by the author of the original text.

Here it is:

Picture
Total books read: 57
Women: 24
Men: 33
People of color: 8
Poetry: 36
Fiction: 16
Drama: 3
Other: 2
Total pages: 10,447
Publishers: 29
Re-read: 4
I have no excuses to make about these numbers. I continue to be blinded by my privilege. One of the most disappointing numbers on this list, to me, is the dismal number of books I read written by people of color. Along with reading more women this year, I am conscious of the necessity of reading more books by people of color.

My book reviews for Hazel & Wren in 2013 fared better than my overall numbers at exactly 50-50, though I have to admit that was only partially planned. I wasn’t thinking about those numbers early in the year and only started really paying attention mid-year. (My reviews in 2012 were also 50-50, though those numbers are welcome but, again, unplanned.)

My reading habits in 2014 have changed to reflect the numbers I found from 2013. As I said, I continue to be blinded by my privilege, but I hope to continue to confront it also. I’ve been following the #readwomen2014 hashtag (and VIDA, of course) to make reading lists of women (here's another stellar list curated by Joanna Walsh), and I’m more actively following organizations like Cave Canem who support the work of people of color.

Another thing I should note regarding my reviews for Hazel & Wren: no matter what I do, every review I write will, ultimately, be filtered through my experience as a highly privileged individual. I recognize this. I believe that I am a better reader and writer because of my criticism and will continue to grow as a reader, writer, and person as I continue to confront my privilege in my reading and elsewhere. I hope that my individual growth is reflected in the reviews I write, and I hope that my own growth can help the growth of criticism and the literary world at large (Small Fries though I may be at present [relatively speaking]).

So how are you doing? Who are you reading? Men in particular, I’m asking you: what does your reading look like this year? What are you doing to change the gender disparity in publishing?

UPDATE: This piece by Stephen Burt complicates this conversation in important and wonderful ways.
4 Comments
Laura
2/26/2014 08:39:54 am

Great post! I have been having a gender-parity issue when it comes to children's books. It's quite easy to find books written by women, but surprisingly different to find books *about* women and girls. Almost every book my daughter has involves a boy protagonist. It's not only frustrating, but it helps to set up the sorts of disparities you're discussing - we're programmed from an early age to expect the perspectives of men and boys in our narratives.

(btw, hi, I'm Molly's friend from UW.)

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Timothy link
2/26/2014 10:17:03 am

Hi Laura! Thanks for reading! You're absolutely right that we're programmed early. I'm working on deprogramming myself and my friends. Being more aware of my reading lists is one way of doing that, especially since I spend so much of my life reading.

Unfortunately, I don't have much first-hand experience with books for kids as young as yours, but I did a quick search and there are a few resources that look promising, though still maybe for readers a little bit older than your daughter. Bitch Magazine has this post: http://bitchmagazine.org/post/books-for-the-anti-princess-girl-feminist (I especially like the coloring book title as I just told my brother this afternoon that girls are not chicks.) Bitch links to the Amelia Bloomer project that looks helpful as well: http://libr.org/ftf/bloomer.html

I do remember a book I read as a kid called KATY AND THE BIG SNOW about a bulldozer who comes to the rescue after a snow storm. A bit problematic since she's not a living creature, but still the hero.

I asked Twitter and the wonderful Kelly Barnhill (http://kellybarnhill.wordpress.com/) suggested the following:
THE PAPER BAG PRINCESS by Robert Munsch
THE DADDY MOUNTAIN by Jules Feiffer
PETRONELLA and THE SCHOOL FOR SILLIES by Jay Williams
DANCING NADINE by Arnold David Clapman (out of print: http://arnolddavidclapman.com/published_work)
WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON by Grace Lin
DANCING IN THE WINGS written by Debbie Allen and illustrated by Kadir Nelson
WHAT TO DO ABOUT ALICE? by Barbara Kerley
STAGECOACH SAL by Deborah Hopkinson

I hope all that helps!

Reply
Laura
2/26/2014 10:37:58 am

Wow, thanks! I really appreciate your research and your recommendations. The interesting thing about the lack of female protagonists in children's literature is that marketers have determined that boys will simply not read books about girls - which is unfair to both girls and boys, frankly. So in terms of deprogramming, I think you're right to ask "men in particular" who they are reading, since it is the buying habits of men that often determines what both men and women are offered in the marketplace.

Timothy link
2/26/2014 01:34:33 pm

Laura, you've hit on a lot of things I think about a lot. As a man and a feminist I think a lot about the ways patriarchy hurts men as well as women. Not being presented nuanced depictions of women in the media we consume feeds the problem—it's a feedback loop that takes a lot of effort to subvert. You're right, I think, that the male dollar is worth more (in so many ways), but it's not just the consumer, it's the people (usually men) at the top of the ladder who make decisions based on what's comfortable to them.

Which brings us back to the VIDA Count, which targets a niche industry to expose a microcosm of what's going on in every media industry. VIDA is doing to literary magazines and publishing what the Bechdel Test is doing to the film industry (though I think the film industry is a larger creature that will take a lot longer to roll over).

With all of that in mind, here's I got another response to my Twitter query, from a friend of mine from college, Anne Klenke. She suggested MY NAME IS NOT ISABELLA and ISABELLA: STAR OF THE STORY by Jennifer Fosberry. I have to say, I'm pretty stoked about all of these books with girl protagonists, even though I don't really have kids in my life in any way.

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    Timothy Otte

    is an art maker whose text has appeared in or is forthcoming from Denver Quarterly, LitHub, SAND Journal, the minnesota review, Sundog Lit, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Structo, and others. He was a 2014-15 Loft Mentor Series winner and is currently working on his first collection of poems. He is from and lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he works at Coffee House Press. His tweets appear whenever. Say his last name like body.

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