On gender blindness and the importance of awareness

Or why male is not a default category

In Venezuela, there is a Poetry Festival organized by the government (the “World Poetry Festival”, it’s called). It’s now in its 11th edition, and every year since its third edition, it has one or two, sometimes three, “honored” poets which become the center of the event. So far, the event has had fourteen “honored” poets.

Only one of them has been a woman.

Since everything in Venezuela seems to have the need to be politicized, I feel somehow obliged to give an example from the other side of the road. A short story contest, which has been run by the newspaper “El Nacional” by almost 70 years now, is considered even today to be the most important award for short stories in the country, even if it holds almost only a symbolic value. In those almost seven decades, only six times a woman has won the award.

I am not accusing the juries of this contest of outright sexism, of course. I would be crazy to say such a thing, given that the writers participate under a pseudonym, and more than once has a male writer won using a female pseudonym. But it would also be crazy to claims that such statistics, in both events, are just a coincidence.

Regarding the first event, I once heard a (male) poet, one of the organizers of the Festival, say when prompted with this question, that there were no female poets of value to be honored during such an event, and that this inexistence wasn’t his fault.

This week, in Sweden, the Stochkolm Internet Forum was held. I wasn’t there, but I followed the comments that were being made via Twitter. At some point I read this:

https://twitter.com/jilliancyork/statuses/471204309691301888"> Fucking white men joking about how too many women are speaking. - Jillian C. York (@jilliancyork)

I went a bit deeper and checked, and yes, this was an actual comment from a panel moderator. He pretended it to be a joke. However, usually in these events, from each ten persons speaking, there is one women.

Nobody ever complains that there are “too many men speaking”.

I recently made a remark on how the panels at every conference ever are made up by five men and maybe, if there is luck, a woman. But, you know, we are over half of the population in the country. If this is pure chance, maybe, sometimes, we should see a panel made by five woman and one man, and that is not to talk about gender issues?

But no. And this is not a post to trash about how men dominate everything and exclude us from debate, and this is not a post to speak about how male voices in literature are assumed as the default, neutral voices, and female voices are that, female, and that is how “chick lit” exists but there is no such thing as “bro lit”.

(Because all lit is bro lit, y’know)

No, those are topics for different rants, this one is not about that. This one is about how nobody, including we, women, sees something strange when we go to a forum and all the speakers are men, no matter what the subject is, let alone complain. This one is about how nobody sees it’s weird that from over sixty winners of a prize, only six are women.

Under one of every ten. Does this mean that no women are writing, or at least writing well? Does this mean that no women participate in the contest? Rest assured it doesn’t.

(Disclaimer one: This happened to me on the last forum I spoke at, held by my good friends at Espacio Público, where I was the only women amongst six men. Even though I knew that the organizers were everything but misogynist, I did make it a point to remark that fact and make people at least notice it.)

So, I want to make it clear right now that no, you, white men, do not represent me, and your view doesn’t include mine, because your view is not a default, it is the view of a white man with all the privilege that means. Men are 50,6% of the world’s population. White men represent about 1/12 of it.

You are not a default category for me to be subsumed and invisibilized into.

It is we that need to start by at least noticing it. And if it’s the case, we might not wait for someone to invite us, but take the place in the world that corresponds to us. Follow the example of Renata:

I have decided that every time I see a men only panel on a topic of my area of expertise, I will invite myself or a peer to the stage. Renata Avila (@avilarenata)

Disclaimer two: I have collected the figures in this post by myself. If there is any factual mistake, I will correct it if you point it out, but it will probably be a very small one. I do have the lists that I collected and I would be thrilled to share them with you if you ask for them.

This post is also published at Medium.