[Catherine Chandler]

Janice -

I can't remember previous sonnet bake-offs, but, although 3 out of 4 of the "winners" of last year's were women (there was a tie for second between Kate & Nemo), of the 13 finalists, 8, or 61.5%, were men. The "winners" were chosen by the membership.

All I can say, and maybe I'm wrong, is that, despite all the steps forward women have taken over the last half-century or so, they are still tied up with the cooking, the washing, the cleaning, and the primary care of their children, and often their elderly parents, while sometimes still holding full-time jobs.

Though they may have the desire and the talent to write gorgeous poetry, they simply don't have the time or, more importantly, the energy.

[Nicholas F.]

Hi everyone,

Since I don't have the math skills to compile stats, and I'm too new to have seen less measurable trends, I'll just bring up something Wendy said in another thread (but don't let this derail the other conversation if there's more to be said!):

"I'd have bet dollars to donuts that Carthage and Cassandra were written by females....which is not a slight to anyone's masculinity or anything."

Personally, I'm pretty happy about this! I've considered abbreviating my first and middle initials for the very same reason (i.e. not to be like Eliot, though I could think of worse folks to be compared with ). I'm not too proud to show how green my horns are when I say that, before I learned a little bit about her, I didn't know Stallings is a woman. I thought, "A. E. Stallings...hmm, good stuff."***

I think I've written poems that would suggest I'm male (and maybe Alicia has written poems that clearly indicate she's female, though you all would know better than I do!), but there is something fascinating about the voice a poem assumes. I wrote "Carthage" as man dealing with First Massive Heartbreak, but I'm pleased to know that it does more than speak to my personal experience alone.

All that said, I do wonder about the absence of women. TDE can get pretty vicious, and I know the women can hold their own there. But maybe they wisely watch as the men beat the Bejaysus out of each other to no end. It's certainly not a question of ability. Sloughing eons of mistreatment may not be as simple as voting laws would make it seem.

Nick

***edit: Before I read Hapax, I'd seen her in journals.

[Maryann Corbett]

The subject we've turned to here--the presence or absence of women on the boards--is big and serious and worthy of discussion. We've had the discussion before, I think. And I know it's natural for conversations to change direction and hit on Big Things.

That said, we've now landed in a spot that's more about Eratosphere itself than any broader poetry-related subject. And conversations of that kind, even if they're perfectly comfortable and calm, seem to me to belong someplace other than the Distinguished Guest board.

So while I don't want to do anything so heavy-handed as moving the thread, I would invite those of you who want to dig into this subject to start a thread specifically for it, either on GT where more people will probably see it, or on Eratosphericals.

[Donna English]

Originally Posted by Nicholas Friedman

All that said, I do wonder about the absence of women. TDE can get pretty vicious, and I know the women can hold their own there. But maybe they wisely watch as the men beat the Bejaysus out of each other to no end. It's certainly not a question of ability. Sloughing eons of mistreatment may not be as simple as voting laws would make it seem.

Nick

We women are just way too busy inspiring you men to write poetry about us.

oops! Sorry Maryann, we cross-posted

Donna