Confessional storytelling has historically been assigned to female creators. Whether in lyrics of songs or novels, this kind of intimate storytelling is ‘women’s work.’ Except it isn’t. Women creators have been stigmatized with these labels while men creators have dodged that stigma.
Why?
That’s the way the system in the writing world and the ‘real’ world has worked. Back in the 1990s, I earned first place at a writers conference for my novel-in-progress, Deadly Little Secrets. That conference awarded prizes in ‘fiction’ and ‘women’s fiction.’ I snagged the women’s fiction prize. At that time, I accepted the division and I don’t know why, but I did
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Historically, women authors publishing in legacy publishing houses tended to be slotted in the ‘category romance’ genre. They could climb up to ‘Romance’ without the ‘category,’ which meant they earned more per book, but that usually took publishing multiple novels in ‘category.’ Women authors in ‘category romance’ were the lowest paid/book authors and they had to produce 3-5 books/year to continue publishing for these imprints.
Legacy publishing is only a century old-give or take- and it was established and run by men. For a solid history of how this industry established itself and flourished, read Max Perkins: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg. Brilliantly written, this bestseller started life as A. Scott Berg’s dissertation. The ‘Genius’ authors in Mr. Perkins stable were men…maybe one woman as I vaguely recall, but men dominated his list and included Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Thomas Wolfe.
Inequity is real. Stigma is real, too. We know this now, and why I’m forever grateful to creators who push back. If you are a creator, I highly recommend watching Taylor Swift 30+ minute video on this writing life. Here’s a link. She delivers LOTS of craft as she tells this story aimed at the writing community.
