Has the Glass Ceiling Been Removed
or Merely Moved?
I did a series on the Glass Ceiling in the Literature of Horror in 2015. These two pieces from the archives were part of that article. The first by Billie Sue Mosiman (June 5, 1947-December 26, 2018) addresses the subject of women writers hiding their gender behind a "male" pseudonym, while the second is a woman writer who uses a male name to avoid such practices of bias against women in the world in literature. I have left the two pieces as originally published to let them speak for themselves.
Anthony Servante
**********
LITERATURE’S GLASS CEILING
by Billie Sue Mosiman
Colleen McCullough died January 29th at 77. Despite having sold thirty million books, being a bestseller, and having a career spanning decades with some of the best Roman historical novels ever written, in her obituary they started out in the newspaper saying, "Though plain of face and overweight, Colleen McCullough, author of THE THORNBIRDS, wrote a lot of books." I was infuriated. If she'd been male and a bestseller and died would the obituary mention his looks? His weight? Hell to the no. This second class treatment of women writers must stop. McCullough could write circles around many males, but they have to mention her looks? It's shameful is what it is.
Some might say why stir the pot? It was one single obit writer so why not ignore the disrespect shown Colleen McCullough? (Number 1- it was SHOCKING disrespect. Number 2-that one obituary points to problems that haven’t gone away when it comes to the gender of the author.)
I’ll tell you why it shouldn’t be ignored. Because it was also so blatantly sexist that it shocked just about everyone who read the obituary. It’s as if women writers haven’t really moved an inch toward that glass ceiling if a woman who achieved so much in her lifetime as did McCullough can be remembered in an obituary in a newspaper this way.
I had to make the decision, back in the 1980s, whether to use my real name that left no question about my gender or not use it. I thought of using my maiden name as a non de plume and initials instead of a name. I pondered this well before I ever submitted my first stories and novel. Today nearly 35 years later women are still making this decision. Do men ever think about hiding their gender as writers? Certainly not in most fiction and that’s proof things have not changed in decades. Decades! Why must we hide behind fake names and subterfuge?
I decided, and not without much contemplation, that I would be brave and write under my own name no matter the consequences. I would stand tall and be myself. I would use my married name because my husband was so instrumental in me becoming a writer. His name deserved the credit, if there was to be any. I knew, yes, I knew it was going to make things harder for me. Billie Sue is very Southern, for one thing, and readers would have to get past that. Then it’s obvious I’m female by that name, strike two. Why was it a strike at all? Because I’d determined my chosen genres were suspense and horror. Both genres overlap and both are dominated by male writers.
You see, it’s all right a genre is dominated by men. Because more men write in those genres and more men submit work to editors in them than do women. Why wouldn’t they dominate? The point isn’t that more men publish works than women. The point is women have little power and have to strive harder. Women have to believe there is a little prejudice among editors leaning toward taking the work of men over women only because it’s traditionally been a man’s world in those corners of literature. Some women broke out and busted through the glass ceiling. Most didn’t. In horror I don’t know of many who ever reached the bestseller list beyond Anne Rice. She deserved it! She wrote a spectacular, classic novel with INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE. But where are all the others in the past three decades? Not one of them could reach that pinnacle.
In suspense more women made it than in horror. It was a pleasure to see it and made me believe one day it wouldn’t matter who wrote the book, man or woman. So in that genre, though dominated by men in the 1980s, has come a long way, while not so much in horror. It’s true not as many women write in the horror genre and not a majority of women read it. Still, believe me it’s easier for a woman just to take a male name and be done with it.
It’s not the lopsidedness that is still so dispiriting. It’s the notion that a woman, Colleen McCullough, could spend her entire life making money for publishers, and hold her place alongside the male writers of her time and still be sited for having a plain face and being overweight. This tells us a great deal about the ceiling and how it hasn’t budged a bit. It’s still in place, a thing to overcome, and denying it won’t make it go away.
Women get together (at conferences, online groups, and Facebook) and talk. Women hide out in private groups and discuss this problem. No one knows what to do about it except to write the best fiction we know how and keep on competing with one hand tied behind our backs.
To be honest I had no trouble selling a new suspense novel a year to publishers in New York, but then I had high-powered agents pushing things through, and I was gaining a reputation for writing smooth, clear prose that needed little vetting or editing. Without the help of the agency (William Morris Literary Agency), I’m not sure I could have had it so easy. The agent believed in me and once I got nominations for prestigious awards, I was able to write and sell novels.
I don’t know today how female writers not using a male’s name will fare because obviously male writers who have had it easier to publish will be the first to be asked to anthologies, the first to sell to publishers, and the first to reach the audience who reads genre fiction. It’s almost imprinted in the readers’ minds that if the book was written by a man, it must be good. If it was written by a woman, who knows? It’s a risk, or so they think because tradition has it women writers are weaker writers of suspense and horror. That’s emphatically not true, of course, but the perception has been there for 35 years, at least.
Is there sexism in certain genres? You betcha. Is there sexism in all genres? Sure. Ms McCullough didn’t write suspense or horror.
How do you change a perception? You write as well as the boys and you submit to the same venues. You knock it out of the park and see if anyone, no matter the gender, can catch up. You work harder, longer, and with as much dedication as you can muster. When you’re passed over, remember it might be the work, not the gender that hinders you. Be fucking realistic.
But sometimes...sometimes it’s because you’re just a female and you’re bumping your head on the glass. If you’re female I’m hearing a hallelujah. Go out and do it, Ladies. Forget your gender, go beyond your gender, get to the nub of what storytelling is all about and in another 35 years the prejudice might disappear. That is my hope for the future of literature and for all female authors. One day you won’t be sitting wondering whether you should use a male name or initials. One day all women will go forth with the names given to them at birth, you know those frilly, girly names like Billie Sue.
P.S. I loved every novel about Rome Colleen McCullough ever wrote. Not a single thing about those books can be called “feminine.” She was simply a superb writer.
Anthony: What name shall I use for you in this interview?
Colleen McCullough died January 29th at 77. Despite having sold thirty million books, being a bestseller, and having a career spanning decades with some of the best Roman historical novels ever written, in her obituary they started out in the newspaper saying, "Though plain of face and overweight, Colleen McCullough, author of THE THORNBIRDS, wrote a lot of books." I was infuriated. If she'd been male and a bestseller and died would the obituary mention his looks? His weight? Hell to the no. This second class treatment of women writers must stop. McCullough could write circles around many males, but they have to mention her looks? It's shameful is what it is.
Some might say why stir the pot? It was one single obit writer so why not ignore the disrespect shown Colleen McCullough? (Number 1- it was SHOCKING disrespect. Number 2-that one obituary points to problems that haven’t gone away when it comes to the gender of the author.)
I’ll tell you why it shouldn’t be ignored. Because it was also so blatantly sexist that it shocked just about everyone who read the obituary. It’s as if women writers haven’t really moved an inch toward that glass ceiling if a woman who achieved so much in her lifetime as did McCullough can be remembered in an obituary in a newspaper this way.
I had to make the decision, back in the 1980s, whether to use my real name that left no question about my gender or not use it. I thought of using my maiden name as a non de plume and initials instead of a name. I pondered this well before I ever submitted my first stories and novel. Today nearly 35 years later women are still making this decision. Do men ever think about hiding their gender as writers? Certainly not in most fiction and that’s proof things have not changed in decades. Decades! Why must we hide behind fake names and subterfuge?
I decided, and not without much contemplation, that I would be brave and write under my own name no matter the consequences. I would stand tall and be myself. I would use my married name because my husband was so instrumental in me becoming a writer. His name deserved the credit, if there was to be any. I knew, yes, I knew it was going to make things harder for me. Billie Sue is very Southern, for one thing, and readers would have to get past that. Then it’s obvious I’m female by that name, strike two. Why was it a strike at all? Because I’d determined my chosen genres were suspense and horror. Both genres overlap and both are dominated by male writers.
You see, it’s all right a genre is dominated by men. Because more men write in those genres and more men submit work to editors in them than do women. Why wouldn’t they dominate? The point isn’t that more men publish works than women. The point is women have little power and have to strive harder. Women have to believe there is a little prejudice among editors leaning toward taking the work of men over women only because it’s traditionally been a man’s world in those corners of literature. Some women broke out and busted through the glass ceiling. Most didn’t. In horror I don’t know of many who ever reached the bestseller list beyond Anne Rice. She deserved it! She wrote a spectacular, classic novel with INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE. But where are all the others in the past three decades? Not one of them could reach that pinnacle.
In suspense more women made it than in horror. It was a pleasure to see it and made me believe one day it wouldn’t matter who wrote the book, man or woman. So in that genre, though dominated by men in the 1980s, has come a long way, while not so much in horror. It’s true not as many women write in the horror genre and not a majority of women read it. Still, believe me it’s easier for a woman just to take a male name and be done with it.
It’s not the lopsidedness that is still so dispiriting. It’s the notion that a woman, Colleen McCullough, could spend her entire life making money for publishers, and hold her place alongside the male writers of her time and still be sited for having a plain face and being overweight. This tells us a great deal about the ceiling and how it hasn’t budged a bit. It’s still in place, a thing to overcome, and denying it won’t make it go away.
Women get together (at conferences, online groups, and Facebook) and talk. Women hide out in private groups and discuss this problem. No one knows what to do about it except to write the best fiction we know how and keep on competing with one hand tied behind our backs.
To be honest I had no trouble selling a new suspense novel a year to publishers in New York, but then I had high-powered agents pushing things through, and I was gaining a reputation for writing smooth, clear prose that needed little vetting or editing. Without the help of the agency (William Morris Literary Agency), I’m not sure I could have had it so easy. The agent believed in me and once I got nominations for prestigious awards, I was able to write and sell novels.
I don’t know today how female writers not using a male’s name will fare because obviously male writers who have had it easier to publish will be the first to be asked to anthologies, the first to sell to publishers, and the first to reach the audience who reads genre fiction. It’s almost imprinted in the readers’ minds that if the book was written by a man, it must be good. If it was written by a woman, who knows? It’s a risk, or so they think because tradition has it women writers are weaker writers of suspense and horror. That’s emphatically not true, of course, but the perception has been there for 35 years, at least.
Is there sexism in certain genres? You betcha. Is there sexism in all genres? Sure. Ms McCullough didn’t write suspense or horror.
How do you change a perception? You write as well as the boys and you submit to the same venues. You knock it out of the park and see if anyone, no matter the gender, can catch up. You work harder, longer, and with as much dedication as you can muster. When you’re passed over, remember it might be the work, not the gender that hinders you. Be fucking realistic.
But sometimes...sometimes it’s because you’re just a female and you’re bumping your head on the glass. If you’re female I’m hearing a hallelujah. Go out and do it, Ladies. Forget your gender, go beyond your gender, get to the nub of what storytelling is all about and in another 35 years the prejudice might disappear. That is my hope for the future of literature and for all female authors. One day you won’t be sitting wondering whether you should use a male name or initials. One day all women will go forth with the names given to them at birth, you know those frilly, girly names like Billie Sue.
P.S. I loved every novel about Rome Colleen McCullough ever wrote. Not a single thing about those books can be called “feminine.” She was simply a superb writer.
*********
The Glass Ceiling in the House of Horror: The Invisible Authors
Compiled and Formatted by Anthony Servante
Anthony: What name shall I use for you in this interview?
Rowan: You can use ‘Rowan Morrison’ as my name
Anthony: Can you give us a bit of a general biography: what genres do you write about, for instance?
Rowan: I write all kinds of genres though I learn toward darker stuff, horror and crime. But I write humorous and light genres as well. I don’t like being pigeonholed too much but horror is where I started when I first got published.
Anthony: Did you originally write under your real name? If yes, was it a bad experience? Can you elaborate? If no, why didn’t you bother to use your own name?
Rowan: I used my own name to start with and then I started to use genre-specific names just to distinguish them because the majority of readers don’t like to cross genre borders at all.
Anthony: Why then did you choose to use a pseudonym for your books?
Rowan: As I mentioned, it started as a way to distinguish genres, but for the darker stuff I’m writing at present I use a male nom de plume.
Anthony: Please describe the factors which led you to use a nom de plume.
Rowan: An awful lot of men won’t read a book with woman’s name on it, even men who write in the same field unless the woman is 1) already famous or 2) conventionally attractive. They don’t review books and the writers in the genre don’t share news for female writers (e.g. RTs on Twitter or sharing links on Facebook) like they do for males.
Anthony: Was there any one example or experience that exemplifies why you use a male moniker or a non-feminine name or initials to hide your gender?
Rowan: There’s not one experience, just an accumulation of many. Being at cons and seeing all male groups drink together. Listening to guys in the darker genres sneer at “chick lit” and romance as “girly” while they tell homophobic and misogynist jokes. It’s the kind of male bonding that leads to blurbing each other and inviting each other to submit to anthologies.
Anthony: How successful have you been with your pseudonym?
Rowan: It’s hard to tell as it’s still rather new. I had a publisher contact me to ask to look at my next novel. That’s never happened before.
Anthony: Is it an “old boys’ club” in your genre of writing? Or do you feel readers prefer male writers over female writers? Can you give an example?
Rowan: Yes, because the genre I mostly write in now is seen as dark and tough; there are still all-male anthologies which boggles the mind in the 21st century. It’s not even all actively anti-women, it’s just that most men are not friends with women, so when they help their friends they only help men. Women are just invisible to them.
Anthony: Can you discuss the essay by Billie Sue Mosiman? Feel free to add your thoughts to it, whether you agree or disagree, and cite specific passages.
Rowan: On the whole I agree with what she says. The McCullough obit may have been a misguided attempt at humour but it just emphasises how slapping down women remains the norm for many men. The era of the big publishers and the high-powered agents is never going to be a norm for people in the smaller genres, so it’s a different world. I rankle a bit at “go beyond your gender” which comes across as buying into the same assumption that what men write about is universal but what women write is only of interest to other women which is bullshit. Google Jennifer Weiner and Franzenfreude.
Anthony: Since we were children, we were taught girls should play with dolls and boys with guns, girls wore pink and boys blue. I’ve always believed these were and still are a factor in how males view females and how females view themselves, as the “weaker” sex, the baby makers, not the bread winners. Can you elaborate on this conditioning children receive from their parents who probably received the same conditioning when they were kids?
Rowan: I was the only girl with brothers. I became a feminist the day I was told I couldn’t do something just because I was a girl – when I could clearly do it. Pink was a boys colour as recently as the early 20th century. Blue was considered girlish. Most of our attitudes toward gender are taught and entirely cultural – and shift over time. I think the current frothing, virulent strain of misogyny has a lot to do with the erasure of lot of the inequality between genders. There’s a troglodyte minority who are terrified that they will have to prove themselves worthy of something and not rely on the mere fact of possessing a dick.
Anthony: How can we break the glass ceiling in the House of Horror?
Rowan: Men have to step up. Women are already writing great stuff. Men need to stop being such cowards and actually read women authors – in public even! I’ve edited anthologies: I’ve never had trouble getting a diverse group of authors and gender representation. Men always bellyache that there “just aren’t enough good stories by women” which is bullshit. They may not submit to your market because they see your anthologies never have more than a token woman or two. Consider blind submissions: as a recent study showed, male students get ranked higher on tests when their names are revealed. The cultural bias runs deep. Support women, not just your buddies. You won’t lose your balls if you praise a woman writer or a review her book.
Rowan: I write all kinds of genres though I learn toward darker stuff, horror and crime. But I write humorous and light genres as well. I don’t like being pigeonholed too much but horror is where I started when I first got published.
Anthony: Did you originally write under your real name? If yes, was it a bad experience? Can you elaborate? If no, why didn’t you bother to use your own name?
Rowan: I used my own name to start with and then I started to use genre-specific names just to distinguish them because the majority of readers don’t like to cross genre borders at all.
Anthony: Why then did you choose to use a pseudonym for your books?
Rowan: As I mentioned, it started as a way to distinguish genres, but for the darker stuff I’m writing at present I use a male nom de plume.
Anthony: Please describe the factors which led you to use a nom de plume.
Rowan: An awful lot of men won’t read a book with woman’s name on it, even men who write in the same field unless the woman is 1) already famous or 2) conventionally attractive. They don’t review books and the writers in the genre don’t share news for female writers (e.g. RTs on Twitter or sharing links on Facebook) like they do for males.
Anthony: Was there any one example or experience that exemplifies why you use a male moniker or a non-feminine name or initials to hide your gender?
Rowan: There’s not one experience, just an accumulation of many. Being at cons and seeing all male groups drink together. Listening to guys in the darker genres sneer at “chick lit” and romance as “girly” while they tell homophobic and misogynist jokes. It’s the kind of male bonding that leads to blurbing each other and inviting each other to submit to anthologies.
Anthony: How successful have you been with your pseudonym?
Rowan: It’s hard to tell as it’s still rather new. I had a publisher contact me to ask to look at my next novel. That’s never happened before.
Anthony: Is it an “old boys’ club” in your genre of writing? Or do you feel readers prefer male writers over female writers? Can you give an example?
Rowan: Yes, because the genre I mostly write in now is seen as dark and tough; there are still all-male anthologies which boggles the mind in the 21st century. It’s not even all actively anti-women, it’s just that most men are not friends with women, so when they help their friends they only help men. Women are just invisible to them.
Anthony: Can you discuss the essay by Billie Sue Mosiman? Feel free to add your thoughts to it, whether you agree or disagree, and cite specific passages.
Rowan: On the whole I agree with what she says. The McCullough obit may have been a misguided attempt at humour but it just emphasises how slapping down women remains the norm for many men. The era of the big publishers and the high-powered agents is never going to be a norm for people in the smaller genres, so it’s a different world. I rankle a bit at “go beyond your gender” which comes across as buying into the same assumption that what men write about is universal but what women write is only of interest to other women which is bullshit. Google Jennifer Weiner and Franzenfreude.
Anthony: Since we were children, we were taught girls should play with dolls and boys with guns, girls wore pink and boys blue. I’ve always believed these were and still are a factor in how males view females and how females view themselves, as the “weaker” sex, the baby makers, not the bread winners. Can you elaborate on this conditioning children receive from their parents who probably received the same conditioning when they were kids?
Rowan: I was the only girl with brothers. I became a feminist the day I was told I couldn’t do something just because I was a girl – when I could clearly do it. Pink was a boys colour as recently as the early 20th century. Blue was considered girlish. Most of our attitudes toward gender are taught and entirely cultural – and shift over time. I think the current frothing, virulent strain of misogyny has a lot to do with the erasure of lot of the inequality between genders. There’s a troglodyte minority who are terrified that they will have to prove themselves worthy of something and not rely on the mere fact of possessing a dick.
Anthony: How can we break the glass ceiling in the House of Horror?
Rowan: Men have to step up. Women are already writing great stuff. Men need to stop being such cowards and actually read women authors – in public even! I’ve edited anthologies: I’ve never had trouble getting a diverse group of authors and gender representation. Men always bellyache that there “just aren’t enough good stories by women” which is bullshit. They may not submit to your market because they see your anthologies never have more than a token woman or two. Consider blind submissions: as a recent study showed, male students get ranked higher on tests when their names are revealed. The cultural bias runs deep. Support women, not just your buddies. You won’t lose your balls if you praise a woman writer or a review her book.
*********
