A female writer quits the SFWA because she believes it isn’t sufficiently feminized:
It began with issue #200 of the Bulletin—all right, #199 if we want to get technical. It began with the Resnick and Malzberg
Dialogues, a long-time feature of the publication. It began when two
men sat down to have a dialogue about editors and writers of the female
gender. How fantastic, I thought, because I, being a writer and an
editor and female, had a keen interest in such things. I love reading
anthologies such as Women of Wonder (and its sequel) and seeing
how women impacted and contributed to this forward-looking and -thinking
genre I love. I hoped they might include the women who inspired me and
introduce me to many I hadn’t yet discovered.That’s not what I found. I found a dialogue that seemed more focused
on how these “lady editors” and “lady writers” looked in bathing suits,
and that they were “beauty pageant beautiful” or a “knock out.” I am
certain no condescension was intended with the use of “lady,” but as the
dialogues went on, I felt the word carried a certain tone—perhaps that
was a fiction of my own making. As I listened to these two men talk
about lady editors and writers they had known, I grew uneasy. Something
wasn’t right…..And now, apparently, we who voiced complaint are having another finger leveled toward us, saying how dare we?
How dare we voice a contrary opinion—surely we want to silence all
thoughts that are unlike our own! Surely we want to strike these men and
their dated notions from all records!Because we ask to be respected and have our point of view respected
does not mean we wish to obliterate the point of view of another. Because we ask to be treated with the same thought you would give a
person of your own gender, a person of a different gender, a person of a
different religion, a person of your own religion, a person of your own
race, a person of a different race, does not mean we seek to tear down
anything you believe, follow, or espouse.
This woman isn’t content with the ruination of both the organization and most of the science fiction publishing houses, now she wants to put limits on the opinions expressed by the old lions of the field, eliminate the very sort of artwork that helped make the old SF publications popular in the first place, and be held immune from criticism for her fascism.
She is, plain and simply, lying. She clearly wants to silence all thoughts that she finds insufficiently respectful. She does wish to obliterate a masculine point of view that she finds offensive. It is women like her, and their gamma male allies, who have devastated science fiction, who have driven most of its male readers away from books and toward games, and who are responsible for the genre’s declining sales and inability to replace the classics of previous decades. This is little more than an attempt to silence the remnants of the SFWA’s old guard.
As we learned yesterday, I am unpublishable by the present standards in the publishing industry. But I am far from the only one, very far from it. I am no Heinlein or Herbert, perhaps more akin to a Resnick or Malzberg, but it should be abundantly clear that none of these four men could get break into publication today, that their perspectives are intrinsically offensive, and none of them would be able to successfully navigate the maze of scalzied manboobs and feminist fascists who have infiltrated the genre and now control the editorial gates at the professional magazines and publishing houses.
Neither should it be any surprise to observe that the genre is dying, just like every other male-dominated endeavor that permits, or is forced, to allow the “equal opportunity” that somehow always ends with women telling men what they are allowed to think, say, and do. It is the same pattern we have seen play out again and again and again. But I think Ms Tobler is to be congratulated for leaving the SFWA and I think her action shows that she is an admirable role model for many SFWA members.
Dear Ms Tobler,
Congratulations on quitting the SFWA. I’m sure it was a real shock to learn that the old lions of the field are not inclined to immediately adjust their thinking to your liking upon demand and I’m sorry you had to experience such palpable horror.
Now, if you will please take the rest of the feminist fascists who believe romance novels in space, necrobestiality, and rehashed Regency romances are science fiction with you, thus permitting the real SF writers to get on with the business of writing actual science fiction for readers who enjoy it, you will do a great service to both SFWA and the field of science fiction.
Best regards,
Vox