Charles Coleman Finlay (
ccfinlay) talks about how Fantasy and Science Fiction doesn't publish many women, and noting that many women he respects tell him that they feel unwelcome. After talking with editorial assistant John Jospeh Adams, who agrees that not many women are published in the pages of Gordan Van Gelder's magazine, he figures that what is necessary is for 100 submissions by women to Fantasy and Science Fiction, in the hope that this will over turn the idea that the magazine is primarily a male playground.Well, to that, I say: Way to go guys. Way to organise them women.
It's not that I don't see the point, really, I do, but you got to admit that there's some irony in watching a white male who has been published in Fantasy and Science Fiction fairly regularly motivate the poor, downtrodden, and unwanted feeling women to submit. There's nothing like breaking down those social power structures, I find. Incidently, have I pointed out that I'm a white male who is pointing out the power structure of men and women, here? Perhaps I could have a nice chair put above everyone and I could look down upon everyone and say, "positions of power are a difficult thing to navigate. If you find an already dominate power figure to champion the cause of the minority, and to be their voice, what then are you truly accomplishing?"
Well, it's the blogsphere, and Finlay has his heart in the right place, so there's not much damage, I suppose.
For my money, however, I'd have to side with Nick Mamatas (
nihilistic_kid), who calls Fantasy and Science Fiction and the other big three fetish magazines: "F&SF is essentially a men's magazine. Given its price, its atavistic trim size, its choice of cover art, etc., it is no surprise that the majority of contributors are male. It, and the other "big three" magazines are essentially non-sexual fetish rags, designed for a very specific and ever-shrinking audience of die-hards. It's ironic that many women writers are banging their fists against these doors, or giving up, as magazines for women actually predominate on the newsstands."As Mamatas says, I'd be more interested in finding different markets if I was a female sci-fi author (go where the getting is good, as he says).
