In a recent NPR interview with David Greene, author Jennifer Weiner — whose bestselling fiction has often been derided by literary critics as “chick lit” — talked about her latest novel, the dearth of women in Hollywood writers’ rooms, and her ongoing feud with the New York Times, which hasn’t been very kind to Weiner’s books.
Weiner, a regular dinner guest on the bestselling list and a former showrunner for the ABC Family show State of Georgia would really appreciate it if the Times would feature great female authors with the same capital-S Seriousness it features great male authors. After a perusal of past Times issues, Weiner found just the teensiest discrepancy between the paper’s treatment of male and female writers:
I think I went through a year’s worth of The New York Times and found that of the people who hit the trifecta, which is two reviews and a profile, which is sort of the most love they can give you, it was 10 guys and one woman. And the women are still showing up in the style section, and they’re still showing up in profiles that talk about their hair. … I don’t know if it’s on purpose, I would hate to think that it is, but I just, I so truly and deeply believe that it’s something that needs to change.
So, memo to the New York Times book critics — stop asking for Jonathan Franzen to give you his fraternity pin and maybe focus a little more on female authors, like Joyce Carol Oates, who still saucily describes preternaturally large penises as “blood sausages.”