[Mark McDonnell]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for responding to #31. Lots of interesting points, though it sometimes feels a little like you're responding to a version of it that I don't really recognise. But just a couple of things, because I'm flagging now:

I also don't think that one member of a group can or should be expected to fully or accurately represent the group they are a member of. Though, I also don't know that that would be an argument for having no representatives from said group.

Neither do I! I'm sure you're not suggesting that I argued for, or even hinted at such a thing, but it sounds a little like you are.

And these characterisations:

All you'd need to accept is that, if you get, say, a bunch of upper-class, oxbridge-educated, heterosexual, white men, then on average they're prone to have a subset of life experiences, beliefs, tastes and interests that will influence/skew their choice of poetry even when reading it 'blind' and this in turn will skew the demographic of poets they choose to publish.

consider the claim that it'd be absolutely fine for all decisions about what gets published to be taken by straight, white, financially stable, able-bodied, neurotypical, Oxbridge-educated men, because they'd choose based on excellence only and their take on excellence would be an objective measure. Or, that all the poems ever published could be written by straight, white, financially stable, able-bodied, neurotypical, Oxbridge-educated men, and all readers will be perfectly catered to

Curiosity got to me and I googled 'poetry editor' of each place in this list, from the data you provided:

Acumen, Antiphon Poetry, Bare Fiction, The Compass, The Dark Horse, The Guardian, Gutter, Ink Sweat & Tears, London Grip, Long Poem Magazine, Magma, Modern Poetry in Translation, Mslexia, The North, OxfordPoetry, Poems in Which, Poetry Ireland Review, PN Review, Poetry London, Poetry Review, Poetry Salzburg Review, Poetry Wales, Prac Crit, The Rialto, Southword, The Stinging Fly, Tender, The White Review and The Wolf

This may surprise you, at least I'd be surprised if it doesn't given your characterisations above: Of the 29 journals, 21 have a female poetry editor, 12 have a male (4 places had joint M/F editorship). I didn't get as far as digging into their sexual orientations, class background, etc. Of those websites with pictures, though, it's true that there were very few black and brown faces. Two, I think, and one Chinese guy. Which is not great at all.

Still, seems to be female-friendly though, so that's something.