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May. 9th, 2013 08:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
la_samtyrCoverflip: Maureen Johnson Calls For An End To Gendered Book Covers With An Amazing Challenge
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/07/coverflip-maureen-johnson_n_3231935.html#slide=2421899
Yesterday, author Maureen Johnson had a great idea. She tweeted "I do wish I had a dime for every email I get that says, "Please put a non-girly cover on your book so I can read it. - signed, A Guy" - and so came the idea for a challenge for her 77,000 followers. A challenge that she called Coverflip. Below, she explains more.
You are informed about a book’s perceived quality through a number of ways. Probably the biggest is the cover.
(Other messages include: blurbs (who they are from), comparisons, review coverage, store placement, and categorization.)
And the simple fact of the matter is, if you are a female author, you are much more likely to get the package that suggests the book is of a lower perceived quality. Because it’s “girly,” which is somehow inherently different and easier on the palate. A man and a woman can write books about the same subject matter, at the same level of quality, and that woman is simple more likely to get the soft-sell cover with the warm glow and the feeling of smooth jazz blowing off of it.
This idea that there are “girl books” and “boy books” and “chick lit” and “whatever is the guy equivalent of chick lit”* gives credit to absolutely no one, especially not the boys who will happily read stories by women, about women. As a lover of books and someone who supports readers and writers of both sexes, I would love a world in which books are freed from some of these constraints. Click here to read more about the perceived differences between 'girl' and 'boy' books.
Which is why yesterday, I proposed a little experiment on Twitter. I asked people to take a well-known book, then to imagine the author of that book was of the opposite gender, or was genderqueer, and imagine what that cover might look like.
There were hundreds of replies within 24 hours. Here are just a few of them.
ETA: Also, you might want to consider this as well:
7 Underappreciated American Novels
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-f-gura/underappreciated-american_b_3239492.html#slide=2426926
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/07/coverflip-maureen-johnson_n_3231935.html#slide=2421899
Yesterday, author Maureen Johnson had a great idea. She tweeted "I do wish I had a dime for every email I get that says, "Please put a non-girly cover on your book so I can read it. - signed, A Guy" - and so came the idea for a challenge for her 77,000 followers. A challenge that she called Coverflip. Below, she explains more.
You are informed about a book’s perceived quality through a number of ways. Probably the biggest is the cover.
(Other messages include: blurbs (who they are from), comparisons, review coverage, store placement, and categorization.)
And the simple fact of the matter is, if you are a female author, you are much more likely to get the package that suggests the book is of a lower perceived quality. Because it’s “girly,” which is somehow inherently different and easier on the palate. A man and a woman can write books about the same subject matter, at the same level of quality, and that woman is simple more likely to get the soft-sell cover with the warm glow and the feeling of smooth jazz blowing off of it.
This idea that there are “girl books” and “boy books” and “chick lit” and “whatever is the guy equivalent of chick lit”* gives credit to absolutely no one, especially not the boys who will happily read stories by women, about women. As a lover of books and someone who supports readers and writers of both sexes, I would love a world in which books are freed from some of these constraints. Click here to read more about the perceived differences between 'girl' and 'boy' books.
Which is why yesterday, I proposed a little experiment on Twitter. I asked people to take a well-known book, then to imagine the author of that book was of the opposite gender, or was genderqueer, and imagine what that cover might look like.
There were hundreds of replies within 24 hours. Here are just a few of them.
ETA: Also, you might want to consider this as well:
7 Underappreciated American Novels
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-f-gura/underappreciated-american_b_3239492.html#slide=2426926
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no subject
Date: 2013-05-09 02:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-11 02:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-10 09:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-11 02:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-10 09:51 am (UTC)Something funny about the "coverflipped" books, though - the first title is "A Game of Thrones", with its latest cover. I own an older copy, which I bought back in the day (despite the tacky 1990's cover!), and it's got a horrible cover with (presumably) hunky Ned Stark on a fantasy horse, worthy of a cheesy fantasy romance. So... it didn't always come with a respectable cover. Or think of that old LotR cover with the random ostriches, all in pastel colours! It's not just gender; sometimes it's genre, too.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-11 02:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-11 10:08 am (UTC)What the scan doesn't show: It's not grey... it's silver.
So... yeah. Today's "girly" was the late 90s "boy's own"?
EDIT: See also: Original cover for "A Clash of Kings"; original cover for "A Storm of Swords". In the 5 years between that and the next novel, tastes seem to have shifted completely -- that, or the books made the leap from "trashy genre" to "srs literature". Possibly both.