When I think about what V.S. Naipau said about w omen’s writing being inferior to men’s, and there being no female writer whom he would consider his equal, I want to scream. He stated that women’s writing was “quite different”, reflecting women’s “sentimentality, the narrow view of the world”.
I suppose I think that the time is long past when women writers were “lady novelists” and only wrote about “sentimentality, the narrow view of the world,” if that time ever existed.
My favourite author is Jane Austen. The depth of her understanding of people and her humour as well as her storytelling and her descriptions that she paints swiftly and sharply have delighted me for decades. She was an author who was also a woman.
I wish we could just laugh this off, but this person, V.S. Naipau, receives prizes for his work, even the Nobel Prize, and people listen to him. That’s why we can’t just laugh it off.
Thank you for writing about this! I have to admit, when I first saw the title I was all set to be outraged. I’m glad to be pleasantly surprised to discover that this is actually an anti-sexism post :).
Haha. I’m glad you were happily surprised. I feel so annoyed when people say to just laugh off sexist statements, since words spoken or written by influential people like him can do a great deal of harm.