Letter from a reader on patriarchal crud
----- Original Message -----
From: COLLEEN C------
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 3:19 AM
Hello! You are undoubtedly a wonderful and positively influential resident of planet Earth. I think that it would be a good suggestion, however, to get some gender balance in your almanac. If you don't want to I don't blame you, after all you are a man. Just depends on what audience you want. All that dead white guy stuff is way too much. Even women quoted are 'so-and-so's wife' and all that patriarchal crud. Colleen
My reply
Dear Colleen,
Thank you for your kind comments.
I have long worked hard to do as you suggest. I constantly go out of my way to do so. The achievements of hundreds or thousands of women are recorded in the Almanac. I have sympathetic biographies of dozens of feminist activists. I have a page dedicated to a chronology of the history women's suffrage.
If you compared the Almanac with any similar online project (except specifically women's projects, such as Today in Women's History) I'm confident you would see that it has more of a skewing towards the kind of material that you suggest than most. You have to take into account how difficult it is to get female representation on the sorts of things that the Almanac covers. For example, I do as much as I can (in the time available to me) to recount the achievements of women inventors, scientists, poets, political leaders and so on. The plain fact is that, for example, most inventions have been made by men -- I can't fabricate material for inclusion, but you can send it to me. I'm always happy if readers such as yourself provide me with good items for consideration as Almanac inclusions.
You might like to use the search engine at www.wilsonsalmanac.com/search.html and let me know what women who you think should be listed, are not listed.
Regarding "dead white guy stuff": As to the matter of race, the same applies as to women. I think the Almanac is markedly multicultural, not by accident but by design. I sincerely would be interested to see an 'On This Day' website which is more multicultural, so I might learn from it. Of course, I can continue improving that.
Regarding people who are now dead, the Almanac has a strong historical bent so naturally many of the people in it are no longer alive. As to "so and so's wife" -- I would hope that I never wrote that unless it were relevant. For example, Mary Shelley -- an important English writer, and the wife of an important English poet. Nancy Reagan -- an actress and the wife of a US President. If I have failed to apply this convention in any case, it is an oversight and I am always pleased to be shown my error.
Regards,
Pip
[Note: Today's 'On This Day' in the Blogmanac will be feminist Emmeline Pankhurst. This choice was made independently of receipt of the above letter. I just got sick of doing Bastille Day year after year. Please, no letters of complaint from our French readers! Merci, and have a wonderful day.]
Tagged: feminism, history, biography
From: COLLEEN C------
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 3:19 AM
Hello! You are undoubtedly a wonderful and positively influential resident of planet Earth. I think that it would be a good suggestion, however, to get some gender balance in your almanac. If you don't want to I don't blame you, after all you are a man. Just depends on what audience you want. All that dead white guy stuff is way too much. Even women quoted are 'so-and-so's wife' and all that patriarchal crud. Colleen
My reply
Dear Colleen,
Thank you for your kind comments.
I have long worked hard to do as you suggest. I constantly go out of my way to do so. The achievements of hundreds or thousands of women are recorded in the Almanac. I have sympathetic biographies of dozens of feminist activists. I have a page dedicated to a chronology of the history women's suffrage.
If you compared the Almanac with any similar online project (except specifically women's projects, such as Today in Women's History) I'm confident you would see that it has more of a skewing towards the kind of material that you suggest than most. You have to take into account how difficult it is to get female representation on the sorts of things that the Almanac covers. For example, I do as much as I can (in the time available to me) to recount the achievements of women inventors, scientists, poets, political leaders and so on. The plain fact is that, for example, most inventions have been made by men -- I can't fabricate material for inclusion, but you can send it to me. I'm always happy if readers such as yourself provide me with good items for consideration as Almanac inclusions.
You might like to use the search engine at www.wilsonsalmanac.com/search.html and let me know what women who you think should be listed, are not listed.
Regarding "dead white guy stuff": As to the matter of race, the same applies as to women. I think the Almanac is markedly multicultural, not by accident but by design. I sincerely would be interested to see an 'On This Day' website which is more multicultural, so I might learn from it. Of course, I can continue improving that.
Regarding people who are now dead, the Almanac has a strong historical bent so naturally many of the people in it are no longer alive. As to "so and so's wife" -- I would hope that I never wrote that unless it were relevant. For example, Mary Shelley -- an important English writer, and the wife of an important English poet. Nancy Reagan -- an actress and the wife of a US President. If I have failed to apply this convention in any case, it is an oversight and I am always pleased to be shown my error.
Regards,
Pip
[Note: Today's 'On This Day' in the Blogmanac will be feminist Emmeline Pankhurst. This choice was made independently of receipt of the above letter. I just got sick of doing Bastille Day year after year. Please, no letters of complaint from our French readers! Merci, and have a wonderful day.]
Tagged: feminism, history, biography
Pip Wilson posted item above at 8:03 AM | Permalink
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