Dicklit©

Last night I didn't get much sleep on account of my husband waking me in the early hours for wild and passionate sex. As the day broke through, so did he...

At least part of that scenario actually happened. But that's not the most interesting thing about it, as most sex scenarios told in print are fictionalised in some part, if not all parts. Who cares whether it's true or not (it is true, but who cares? Other than him and me, of course -- at least I hope he cares...).

What is interesting, or more interesting about these words, is that being written by a woman, from a woman's perspective, although a man is centrally involved, if published beyond this blog they would almost certainly be classified as 'chicklit' and summarily dismissed to the back page of the book section, as trivial girly writing, while the guy writing is taken seriously as literature proper and given, as is the case here, in The Weekend Herald (NZ) magazine "Canvas", precisely ten times the amount of coverage. Two 'man books' and authors get two full pages and five 'lady books' and authors get barely half a page. And the injustice doesn't end there.

While the 'dicklit' books, as I will now refer to any book written by a man, are classic 'man' books, one with an all-male cast, the other with a surreal, mostly male cast, with one female character who is mute -- ah, if only! -- and plenty of darkness, pain and punishment, the 'chicklit' books cover a wide spectrum of topics, including one where the main character is a man who 'transitions' to becoming a woman. The 'dicklit' books in other words are narrower in what they deal with than the so called 'chicklit' books, yet because they are written by men, written with a dick, you might say, they and their authors are taken so much more seriously than the books written without a dick, or, you might say if provoked enough, with a brain.

I think for every derogatory sexist term invented to keep women in their place we need a counter male term, just as we need 'Ms' to balance "Mr' as terms or titles that promote respect. If we can't manage equal respect, and we really CANT, then equal derogation will have to do. So 'dicklit' it is for me, for all male authors until further notice, except for Dickens, which is a little ironic.