Sex sells... even books

Two hundred years ago, female writers like Jane Austen or Charlotte Brontë masked their gender on their works in order to have any chance to be taken seriously as writers in a male-dominated literary world. While Jane Austen published anonymously “by a lady”, Charlotte Brontë veiled her gender completely, writing under the pseudonym “Currer Bell”. 



At this point in the ongoing process of women’s emancipation, we would assume that women should not have a problem with authenticity and authority as writers anymore. However, the contrary is observed by organizations like VIDA: Women in Literary Arts that track representation of women in contemporary literary writing and their “unreliable“ critique as they are still primarily associated with fiction, written and read predominantly by women. But is it only women that face problems concerning their gendered voice when it comes to sales as it appears that now it is the market that determines a writer’s worth rather than their literary talent?

In 2014, the book review site Goodreads carried out an investigation which revealed that readers tend to prefer their printed evening entertainment written by their own gender. If we consider the fact that roughly half of the population are female and, consequently, the other half male, we should lean back in our armchairs and relax because there should be same number of writers and readers of both genders - if there was not the fact of an enormous majority of women reading fiction - preferably by women. But do not be fooled: Only because an author’s name on your new book seems to indicate it’s written by a woman, this does not necessarily mean we are dealing with a female writer.

There are several examples of male (and female) writers that use gender-neutral pseudonyms or even a name of the other gender in order to reach higher sales numbers -so we can say that gender certainly matters. It is very likely that a male writer’s female protagonist’s voice might be not taken as seriously as if the same character would have been created by a woman.

It is argued, whether authors like JK Rowling and EL James might have chosen their gender-neutral initials on their book spines hoping to reach as well boys and young men with their manly Harrys or Christians - or not. Of course, it is only speculation whether their bestsellers would have been more or less successful if it listed Joanne Kathleen Rowling or Erika Mitchell as the authors. We can also simultaneously ask if EL James seriously thought that Mr Grey’s “soft grey eyes“ would have attracted more men by only using her name’s initials. Moreover, after the tremendous success of The Harry Potter mega-series JK Rowling started using a male pseudonym for the “after-Potter-works“.

As we can see, there is much to be discussed about authorship and sales figures through the lens of gender.  Sean Thomas aka Tom Knox aka SK Tremayne is quoted as saying “Does it help to be identified as a woman, or to have no gender at all? […] And given that every ‘debut’ novelist wants to give themselves every possible chance, why take the modest risk that using a male name might bring? Why not just use initials? Get rid of gender altogether?”

Will "getting rid of gender" solve any of the problems surrounding gendered readings of literary texts?

Do we read the author or the story? 

Is there a problem in women only accepting female writers narrating female voices?
 
For further reading:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/31/male-writers-hide-gender-sell-more-books
http://www.vidaweb.org/about-vida/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/warren-adler/why-do-women-read-more-no_b_5830852.html
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/25/readers-prefer-authors-own-sex-goodreads-survey

A Ravenclaw's Report

This past weekend, December 5 and 6, the German ComicCon took place in Dortmund in the Westfalenhallen. On approximately 20 000 square meters, 30 000 comic, manga and film fans met for two days to celebrate each other and their respective fandoms. And believe me – they had a blast. Two halls, 20 star guests from the realms of TV and cinema, more than a hundred different booths and thousands of costumes made sure of that.

Of course this wasn’t San Diego Comic Con. Or Dragon Con. Or any of the gigantic American conventions that take place every year. And it wasn’t the first German convention of that kind, either. Last year, fans of Star Wars were able to see their favorite actors and characters at a convention in Essen. For years, both Ring*Con and HobbitCon, being more specifically about fantasy (especially J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbit and Lord of the Rings), have been organized in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia. But the German ComicCon was the first to offer this kind of fair for comic, film and TV fans from all kinds of genres here in Germany. And the fans embraced it wholeheartedly.

It all began on Saturday morning, at 9 sharp. That is, for those with the VIP tickets. The smallfolk was allowed in half an hour later, but it seemed that the organizers had not anticipated a crowd that size – at least not right at 9. Because when I arrived (together with my sister and my partner), the line was ENDLESS. We got off the subway and had to walk back to the station before because the line was so long. It took us an hour to get in; fortunately it did not feel like an hour, though, because we were so excited.

See? And that’s only from our perspective, when we were almost inside.

Once inside, we got rid of our jackets and the real fun began. We went past a weapons’ check where the cosplayers (for those who don’t know, this is the term for the people who dress up as certain characters) could have their weapons approved – and some of them had GIGANTIC weapons! Then we entered the first hall. The place was overcrowded. Booths after booths with narrow paths in between, and hundreds of costumed and un-costumed people strolling past them. It was difficult to get oriented at first.

First, we went past the booths of the manga and comic artists. They sat there and drew, had artwork on display, and you could buy a drawing of you (or whatever you like) from them. Unfortunately, my knowledge of German or European comic artists is lacking,  so we did not recognize anyone. They had some pretty amazing artwork, though! The rest of the hall was filled with merchandise. A lot of it was actually in the Asian manga style, but you could buy Steampunk clothes and accessories, games of all kinds, old and new comic books, comic figures… the list could go on and on. And almost everything was covered – there was stuff from The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Marvel and DC Comics, Star Wars, Doctor Who, just to name a few of the most famous. You could buy Targaryen Christmas balls, tiny Lego figures of Luke Skywalker, comic books about X-Men or Fantastic Four or Wonder Woman from the last ten or more years, little plush dragons that you can put on your shoulder, posters, buttons, and, and, and.

 A gigantic money making machine, yes. But also a place where all the nerds, all the people who would like to be someone else sometimes, all those who identify with characters from all kinds of works, can finally step out and be this character.

Because at ComicCon, when you dress up at a character, people see you as that character. See this guy? 

He cosplayed as Thranduil, the king of Mirkwood in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel (and Peter Jackson’s movies) The Hobbit. I have no idea what his name is, because everyone called him “Your Highness”, or “King Thranduil” or just “Thranduil” (depending on how much of a fangirl/-boy you were). From Middle Earth, Galadriel also roamed the halls, alongside Gandalf, Fili, Kili, and quite a few Bilbos.

 From Star Wars, there were many Stormtroopers, I saw a Padmé Amidala, some Darth Vaders, a few Reys from the upcoming The Force Awakens, and a myriad of Jedi Knights of various alien races. There were Spider-Men, Iron Men, big and small Captain Americas, Black Widows and an enormous number of Deadpools, eagerly anticipating the new film. Thors and Lokis were there, and both in their male and female versions. There were Batmen and  Wonder Women, but the majority of DC cosplays seemed to focus on the Joker and Harley Quinn. I saw two or three Cerseis (from TV show Game of Thrones/ novel series A Song of Ice And Fire) and one immensely realistic Khal Drogo. After a while we started a fun little game called “How many Daeneryses are there?”, because there were many, and all of them so beautiful and different that you could tell them apart enough from each other to count them And there were many people (including me) who simply donned whatever they had from the world of Harry Potter.

That’s my Ravenclaw-self with an amazing Captain America. Nearby him was also a replica of Thor’s hammer, Mjölnir. Of course I tried lifting it! But yeah, probably not worthy. There was also a (rather bad) replica of the TARDIS from Doctor Who, and of course we had to take photos with it! This was all in the second hall, together with much more merchandise, and a stage, where a cosplay contest took place! It was utterly amazing to see all those great costumes on stage, even though I didn’t know half of them (as they came from Asian manga culture). All the hard work that those people put into their costumes! I don’t know if this comes as a surprise to you, but most of the cosplayers (even those of male characters) were female. There was an astonishing Petyr Baelish (or Littlefinger) who only looked different from the original character with regard to height, and you wouldn’t have known he was actually a female body in a male costume if you had stood directly in front of her.

Oh, and the star guests! Look who attended this con!

It’s Sylvester McCoy, from Doctor Who and The Hobbit! He played the seventh Doctor, and the wizard Radagast the Brown from Tolkien’s stories. I got his autograph, and he was so lovely to all of his fans. I am so grateful that I got to meet him.

German ComicCon 2015 was one of the best weekends of my life so far. And although there were many little things that could be improved for next year, I think most of the visitors had a great time. It’s a commercial machine, of course, and everyone is aware of it – but nowhere else do you meet so many people who share the same enthusiasm, the same passion, the same love for something that is often disdainfully called pop culture.

See you next year.

What is the effect of these conventions on the sales of the books of their respective fandoms? How do they work together, how do they diverge? 

Do these conventions remain a part of the book/comic book/cultural production industry or do they take on a life of their own?

Have you ever been to a trade fair or a convention? What were your experiences? And if you could dress up as any character, who would you be?