While I was reading about Black Swan on TNR this AM, I also found this related piece by Ruth Franklin in which she says:
“The VIDA statistics made me wonder afresh about the ways we define ‘best’ and ‘most important’ in a field as subjective as literature, which, after all, is deeply influenced by the cultural norms in any given age.
As a member of third-wave feminism, growing up in the 1970s and ’80s, I was brought up to believe we lived in a meritocracy, where the battles had been fought and won, with the spoils left for us to gather. It is sobering to realize that we may live and work in a world still held in the grip of unconscious biases, no less damaging for their invisibility.”
Kudos to Ruth AND kudos to The New Republic. They’ve been very bad about including women columnists in the past, so it’s nice to see they’re finally taking steps to correct that!
