Hot chips, wine & amphetamines
Posted on | September 15, 2006 |
Yesterday, as part of the Brisbane Writers Festival, I went to a masterclass on how to sustain a freelance career. John Birmingham and Antony Loeweinstein took turns sharing their experiences in front of an almost entirely female audience. The turnout was interesting in itself, and I asked them to comment on it. I was particularly keen to hear whether they thought women in Australia had a harder time writing political non-fiction than men. Apart from the astounding fee we heard the ‘Lunch With Jana’ columns in The Bulletin used to get, I still struggle to name many women who share the ubquity of someone like Birmingham. Yesterday showed me why, in a few ways. He works bloody hard. He’s learned how to do it on his own terms (on which, see title above, which was apparently implicated in the entire fourth chapter of He Died With a Felafel in His Hand going missing). He’s a brilliantly gifted story-teller. Even listening to him speak ad lib felt like being allowed to enter another world for an all too short moment. He’s also got a vibe that’s just compelling to be near. It’s disarmingly assured and genuine and exciting, and his readers must feel that through his writing.
I couldn’t help but notice how much the advice he was dishing out on time management and discipline - including how much your writing routine and your ambitions are contextualised by having kids - corresponds with the problems my PhD students have been having adjusting to full time study. It made me think that doing a PhD is at least useful for learning how to gain that capacity to invest in yourself for a finite amount of time, something that wanna-be writers in today’s industry will still need to develop in spite of the temptation to blog. Because despite everything I’m going to see this weekend, including the very many young ladies who think that lipstick and a good haircut will help their book sell, good writing isn’t glamorous. It’s ugly and insular and it keeps you distant from people - even the people you share every other part of your life with, as Antony told us. It also hurts. Your body has to learn ways to forgive you for sitting down and tapping little things that long, every day, because if you didn’t you would feel wrong somehow.
The response to the gender question was that the publishing industry is highly feminised, i.e. women are over-represented in the bulk of the jobs, so gender isn’t really a problem. But I don’t think that necessarily answers the question of whether people are happy to read a woman writing political commentary. I guess there’s Michelle Grattan. A few great women in the Fin Review. Who else?
Both speakers also mentioned that if their own blogs were any indication, women tend to be less interested in talking about politics, although (as my chapter in Uses of Blogs argues) I think this depends on what you call politics. But now I’m talking in circles.
Afterwards, one of the other women attending came up to say that she found the gender thing interesting too, and I said that I thought men don’t bother going to classes to learn how to do something - they just go and do it. What does it mean that women would rather go to writers festivals than rant on a pundit blog? I’m still thinking…
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8 Responses to “Hot chips, wine & amphetamines”
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September 15th, 2006 @ 11:52 pm
“The response to the gender question was that the publishing industry is highly feminised, i.e. women are over-represented in the bulk of the jobs, so gender isn’t really a problem.”
So ‘gender’ is only a problem when there is an imbalance a certain way?
damn, it would totally be teh suck if you happened to be a freelance whatever guy in the publishing industry, right?
September 16th, 2006 @ 4:00 pm
My gut feeling is that the turnout to the workshop is also influenced by the context of the writers festival, which in my experience is dominated by women in audience terms. If it was a standalone masterclass there might have been a slightly different balance (not disagreeing with your argument that men just “do stuff”, but I think it needs to be taken into account.
Re: the visibility of analysts, you know the history of gender and the public/private - to me it just reflects that dynamic. “News” and “Politics” are both areas strongly coded masculine, and being back in Newcastle recently was interesting to hear the speculation in local media about whether new Labor appointment Jodie McKay would be “tough enough” for the job, being a woman. Yeah, second wave feminism has some work to do yet.
September 18th, 2006 @ 5:46 pm
Hmmm. Freelance female political commentators? What about Amanda Lohrey? I guess she’s not a regular columnist in a national daily though… (Or Judith Brett - but tenured academic so…)
I think it unlikely you wouldn’t already know, but this would be of interest?:
When Research Works for Women
Associate Professor Maryanne Dever
Director, Centre for Women’s Studies and Gender Research
Monash University
Dr Dever will present findings from a new Australian study on the conditions that foster high research performace for women. The insights and advice will be of interest to graduate students, ECRS and anyone looking for new ways to think about their research work.
Date: Thursday 21 September
Time: 2.30 - 4.00pm
Venue: SMI Conference Room, Level 4, Sir James Foots Bldg (47A), St Lucia
Map Location: http://www.uq.edu.au/maps/index.html?menu=1&id=264
To register, please email workshops@research.uq.edu.au with “When Research Works for Women” in the subject line.
More information on Research Week events
http://www.uq.edu.au/grad-school/uq-research-week-2006-events
The Equity Office
Room 820
Building 69
St Lucia campus
The University of Queensland 4072
07 3365 3052
equity@uq.edu.au
http://www.uq.edu.au/equity
September 18th, 2006 @ 6:53 pm
Girls on Politics:
http://www.reasonsyouwillhateme.blogspot.com
Best blog ever! has an awesome way of talking about politics that isn’t really heavy!
September 22nd, 2006 @ 2:30 pm
Agree totally Nikola!
Kylie, I did not see you at the workshop!! We have a copy of the study here in the CCCS if you ever want to take a look.
October 3rd, 2006 @ 4:46 pm
Thanks mel! I’ll check it out. You know, I really was going to go but I ended up getting on a writing roll and don’t give those up for anything!! I think it would’ve been very interesting. I’ll look forward to your thoughts about the project etc, if it’s not too cheeky to say so!? No pressure
October 9th, 2006 @ 4:28 pm
I disagree completely with the idea that Reasons You Will Hate me is an awesome way of talking about politics. I find its politics predictable and un-nuanced. It has no respect for ideas and people with which it disagrees - and it makes ad hominem attacks on conservative politicians and commentators based on gender, which I find outrageously anti-feminist. It appeals to people who want their own politics reaffirmed for them.
By the way, I do mostly agree with its views - but I think Reasons You Will Hate Me is a terrible advertisement for the young left.
November 8th, 2006 @ 6:37 pm
There is a reasonable number of women working in the Federal Press Gallery - its president is Karen Middleton of SBS/Canberra Times and Alison Carabine of 2GB is one of 7 others on the Committee. RN also has a couple of female journos in the press gallery, and until recently Caroline McGrath was their Chief Political Correspondent. There are also quite a few youngish women - ie in their early 30s - in the Press Galelry, like Mischa Schubert (The Age), Sam Maiden (The Oz), Stephanie Peatling (SMH), Patricia Karvelas (Oz).
A real political junkie will no doubt be able to fill in some more