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hmm the line of critique that goes “there are no/very few women in this book so it’s not feminist” sounds very crude and silly to me yet seems very popular. books with few woman characters can interrogate patriarchy. books with only make characters can interrogate patriarchy. no?
(*male) just seems like it matters less what a book’s overall “tally” is and more how it approaches and represents gender relations but i see this paint-by-the-numbers book discourse so much and it is so! shallow!
i also see works criticized for having a woman MC but few women in the supporting cast when the entire point was to illustrate how isolating and diminishing being the only woman in a mostly male environment can be. the bechdel test isn’t always right!
anyways hot takes like “ew no more books about men only” feel icky and essentialist and i don’t like it
look, none of this is to argue we don’t need books featuring more women. but while we’re doing criticism let’s be precise and careful in our critique! make better arguments! “women only spoke 21% of the time” is supporting evidence not an argument on its own
