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| Writing at the HJ |
Though ten books is a very small sample, there are a number of differences between those fairy tales written by men and those written by women. Argamona, Koppelb, Fine and Shimonib (2003) concluded after an extensive study of contemporary works that the writing style of women is ‘involved’ while men’s writing is more ‘informational’. Put simply women’s writing develops relationships between reader and writer while men’s writing references concrete facts such as place and time to build context. Interesting research to be queried and challenged. Male fairy tale writers do not seem to have the same concerns about the worth of their book while female writers seek approval and acknowledgement and their approach is self-deprecating, perhaps to deflect criticism and also indicate their awareness of social expectations for female writers. The women writers humbly offer their stories to their audience. Which of these is the male writer?
‘AUSTRALIA! Hast thou no enchanted castles within thy vast domain?’ Is there not one gallant youth, ready armed to do battle for the fair ones, sleeping 'neath the spell of wicked genii? Come, youngsters, draw up your chairs. Come, mothers, ye who live your romantic girlhood o'er again in that of your children. Form up, gentlemen, fathers, hard men of the world, whose brows are wrinkled with care and worry, take rank in rear of your fair helpmates. Merchant, lock thy safe, close thy ledgers; horny-handed sons of toil, throw aside your implements of trade; gather near. I am going to draw aside the magic curtain which hides the great continent, marked on our map UNKNOWN.’ Atha Westbury
The following little story was written for the amusement of my own children. At the suggestion of several friends, I have ventured to publish it, not with sundry misgivings as to the results of my temerity. I cannot be blind to its many imperfections, nor do I expect the public to be. I only appeal to their kindly hearts, and (as it is a first attempt) beg them not to critise it too severely. Desda.
A fascinating and fun website Gender Genie takes a piece of writing and can, theoretically, tell if a male or female has written it based on an algorithm developed by Moshe Koppel, Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and Shlomo Argamon, Illinois Institute of Technology. Gender Genie was inspired by a NY Times articles ‘Sexed Texts’ which explored the differences in the ways males and females write. I put my PhD writing and my blog into Gender Genie. Interestingly I write my PhD chapters as a male but my blog as a female.
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