Male writers to be named and shamed in new literary prize
Sandi Toksvig leads festival panel to find the worst examples of male authors’ descriptions of women
FROM “depressed breasts” to a derrière like “the rumps of mountain sheep”, male writers have not always got it quite right when it comes to describing their female protagonists.
A new literary festival is to showcase the excruciating worst of the “truly awful writing about women” to be found in the English language, as it pokes fun at literature’s unnerving obsession with the female form.
An event chaired by Sandi Toksvig will be entitled “Her Breasts Preceded Her into the Room” in honour of the “deathless prose” organisers say has been offered by male authors.
The result of a search for the best – and inevitably worst – examples of egregious attempts to capture the thoughts and feelings of female characters, it will see four writers and publishers answer the question “Can men write women?”
Toksvig, the comedian and broadcaster, said she was looking forward to “seeing if we can find the finest example of truly awful writing about women”.
She said: “Writing any character can be tricky, but some writers create women who aren’t just unlikely, but anatomically impossible.”
The event is being held at Primadonna, a Suffolk festival founded by 17 women who promise it will be neither “anti-men” nor “patriarchy-bashing”.
Its experts include Luke Jennings, the author of the Villanelle novels which were adapted into the television show Killing Eve, widely acclaimed for its intriguing female protagonists. He will be joined by Michael Donkor, shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize; Naomi Paxton, an academic who has a comedy alter ego, Ada Campe; and Lisa Milton, the Harpercollins executive publisher at HQ Stories.
Kit de Waal, the author and cofounder of the festival, said there were many brilliant examples of classic novels by men that “depict women’s lives in all their complexity and nuance” that show it can be done.
However, she said: “There is no excuse for men to badly write about women’s lives. Most men grow up surrounded by women, work with women, have women in their family, watch women on TV and film – not always a good barometer, but still – read about women and some even have relationships with women. Why then should they not be able to depict women as real people with the same hopes, fears, ambitions and desires that men have?
“It could just be that some men are not good writers, full stop. We hope it will inspire men to think again about how women appear on the page, particularly when ... alluding to sex.”
The event shares some similarites with the annual Bad
Sex Awards, which has seen some of Britain’s most famous and successful authors lampooned for their attempts at romantic or erotic prose.
Catherine Mayer, co-founder of the Women’s Equality Party and the festival, said much of the conversation would be “tongue-in-cheek”.
Referring to literature that uses the weather to “reflect and amplify mood”, she said: “There’s a whole section of male writing where breasts do the same. They droop; they are depressed; they seem to be capable of pointing to things. We’re not actually saying men can’t write women – we have two men on the panel.
“But my point here is the men who write that kind of stuff, they are lacking imagination and possibly talent.
“Although women buy more books than men and get more books published than men, they earn less than men, and they’re much less likely to be taken seriously.”
Primadonna Festival is at Laffitts Hall, Suffolk, from Aug 30 to Sept 1.