A friend once quipped that if she were writing a book, we’d be able to identify the villain because they didn’t like Jane Austen. That’s me, the villain!
College was the first time I had the unsettling realization that most volumes in my music and book collection (except my favorite childhood books) were created by male artists. What did that mean? Was I a bad feminist? Why didn’t I seek out women’s voices?
Obviously the patriarchy played a part if only because men simply get published more, especially in genres I favored. Lots of women are kick-ass rock guitarists — and there were some in my collection — but they don’t get the deals much less the fan base in dude-dominated hard rock. When it came to books my shelf was filled with classic literature, thrillers, and science fiction, also mostly men at that point in time.
Still, why didn’t I like Jane Austen, when women all seem to love her? Beyond culture I didn’t have a good answer. Today I read mostly women authors…but all modern, still not Austen or Brontë.
It took me a long time to realize it’s not Austen herself, it’s the entire era and specifically her genre, the novel of manners. Her stories centered on domestic life, with detailed descriptions of class and society as well the stifling expectations of conforming behavior.
Um, why would I want to spend time in that world?!
While I appreciate Austen’s wit and social criticism, her books are claustrophobic — being trapped in drawing rooms with social climbers obsessed with making matches and hindered by absurd misunderstandings because no one will say what they mean is definitely my idea of hell.
Beyond that, it also clicked that many women’s stories don’t appeal to me because women’s lives have historically been depressing. Their lives were (and often still are) unfulfilling and limited at best, filled with abuse and dehumanization at worst. When I read historical fiction, I have to alternate with contemporary stories because it’s enraging how few rights and freedoms women had.
It turns out the answer was simple, I simply don’t enjoy spending time in a world that is so determined to hold women down…our current reality is bad enough.