Look! Poll!

[gnomi]

In a chat last night, someone said in passing that they thought that women writing under male names is deceptive. I immediately brought up the long tradition of this (such as George Eliot, to name just one). But then I wondered how many other people felt this way, so hey -- a poll!

ETA: Question 2 Option 4 should read "No - I'm a woman writing under a male name." The management apologizes for any confusion.

[Poll #717956]

Comments

[dpolicar]

Yes, of course it's deceptive.
Not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with that.

[farwing.livejournal.com]

That was my thought too...

[affinity8.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think it's deceptive to switch genders with your pseudonym. There are market reasons for it, especially in the romance genre, but I'd rather further the cause of women writing, say, hard sf, than women writing as men writing hard sf.

[twitch124.livejournal.com]

Twitch is a gender neutral stupid nickname I write under. I don't think this is deceptive, and if people ask my gender I tell them. But most Red Sox bloggers and message board denizens assume I'm male, and only about 10 have bothered to ask (8 female, 2 male).

[gingicat]

I think that if you're trying to persuade people that you have inner knowledge of the gender you're writing under, *and* you're not trans, then it's deceptive. Otherwise, it's simply a choice.

[smoagendash.livejournal.com]

I think there's a lot to be said for writing under a gender-neutral pseudonym. For example Carolyn J. Cherry became C.J. Cherryh, because (as her editor put it) hard SF readers weren't going to buy books by a woman named Cherry. What I like about gender-neutral names (or even just initials) is that it lets the reader fill in the blanks.

There are other good reasons. I assume everyone knows why Megan Lindhlom became Robin Hobb.

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

I assume everyone knows why Megan Lindhlom became Robin Hobb.
Her books written as Lindhom didn't sell, thus spoiling the 'brand'?

[seborn.livejournal.com]

Last night I was in another discussion about whether C. S. Friedman was male or female. The weird thing was that everyone seemed to have spent at least some time thinking about it, but none of us had ever bothered to look it up.

[ckd]

But authors that use two initials are always female. Just ask C.S. Lewis or E.E. Smith!

[csbermack.livejournal.com]

Did anyone look it up?

I vote female.

[42itous.livejournal.com]

I think when I read something I'm somewhat interested in the gender of the author, but it's not integral to my understanding of the text, with a small exception. If the text claimed something like "women are sexier than men," or "men are lazy slobs," the true gender of the author would be an important piece of information in understanding the text. If a male author says that women are stupid and incompetent, he can be accurately labelled a misogynist; if a woman makes the same statement, it's possible to read it as ironic or funny.

It's kind of like, black people can use the n-word but white people can't.

[madfilkentist]

I took "deceptive" to mean "dishonest," so I answered no. Obviously the mere fact of using a pseudonym is deceptive in a certain sense.

I've had a couple of SF stories published under the name "Gary McDonald." Since that's a permutation of my real name, I wasn't going for deep disguise, just trying to keep a little anonymity.

[gem225.livejournal.com]

Do you/would you write under a pseudonym?

I answered "no", but if writing under my own name would hurt Greg professionally, then I'd change and write under another name.

Is it deceptive for women to write under male names or men to write under female names?

I think that given the rampant sexism in our society, it's reasonable for a woman to write under a male name to get herself a chance to be read and published, and I don't find that deceptive in a bad way. I'm not sure how I feel about a man writing under a female name other than my gut reaction is that it's wrong, but I don't trust my gut today. It hurts too much. Stupid body, stupid cycle, but nice spring.

[buxom-bey.livejournal.com]

I don't care who writes a book, other than as an identifying factor, I only care if I enjoy the writing.

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

I've got a gender-neutral smut pseudonym so I can write any combo of genders without someone going, "Hang on..." I'll also admit, I use a smut pseudonym for the "Ohmygodwhatifmyparentsseethis?!?" fear.

As for deception, there are good reasons to deceive, and I'm all for people doing it if it's appropriate.

[csbermack.livejournal.com]

I think it's deceptive but irrelevant, most of the time. There's plenty of text out there where the gender of the author would matter, and using an opposite-gendered pseudonym on any of that would be wrong.

Most of that wouldn't be in the fiction aisle, though.

[tikvah.livejournal.com]

I would use a pseudonym for fiction written that has explicit sex in it or non-fiction about sexual issues, so that were someone from my vanilla life, especially family or friends of family, to stumble across it, my folks wouldn't take too much crap.

If I'm writing fiction or non-fiction about something very vanilla, I would probably use my real name.

As far as whether I would use a different gender with a pseudonym, I doubt I would go so far as to use a male name, but I would use a gender-neutral name just to mess with people's heads. I'm mean like that.

As far as whether it's wrong to use a different-gendered pseudonym, I'd say that depends on the intent. For most non-fiction, I think that would bother me. For fiction, that's different. If you're weaving a tale from the imagination, I think that extending the fiction to the nature/identity of the writer is acceptable, and can sometimes even enhance the fictional experience in some circumstances.

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

Would I write under a pseudonym, assuming I wrote at all? Yes, possibly. For the same reason that Carolyn Heilbrun wrote as Amanda Cross, to preserve my privacy in the world of academia. You know, until such time as I was renowned enough that everyone knew anyway.
*cough*

[violetcheetah.livejournal.com]

we actually had this discussion in my adolescent fiction class. the main reason for a female YA writer to use a male or gender-neutral pseudonym is the main reason give here for a female SF writer to do so: adolescent males will often dismiss a book written by a woman, especially one with a particularly feminine name. i'm female, but as a pretty ungirly teenager, i would do the same thing. i had an assumption that a female writer would write about boyfriends and makeup and getting your first bra and other gross stuff.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

"Maybe" if the writing purports to be autobiographical.

Otherwise, meh.

the Velveteen half of the Velveteen Thestral

[lisafeld.livejournal.com]

It's actually fascinating: my pseudonym is initials, and when I first got it, I would reply to fanmail as "Tom" to give it a personal touch and also to see if people would treat me differently if they thought I was a man. And people who liked my stories would then clam up and not volunteer personal information or continue conversations. When I started replying with just initials, however, people were quite friendly and would banter back and forth. I think the assumption was that if I were a man on the internet, I might be a predator, but if I were a woman, I must be harmless.