Sexism on the Shelves?
YA Author Rae Carson (whose Fire & Thorns trilogy is awesome, by the way, go read it) recently tweeted a photo she took of some potentially sexist bookshelves she saw while on vacation.
Rae gave me permission to re-post the photo here and she also told me a little bit about her experience (the bookstore shall remain nameless to protect the potentially sexist).
Photo by Rae Carson
Rae said (over email):
“It was a used bookstore, with a small selection of new books. As used bookstores go, I would call it average-sized–smaller than a Half-Price Bookstore, larger than a specialty store. The owner said they have been doing ‘a lot of organizing’ and that separating ‘the males and the females’ made it ‘easier for customers to find their favorite authors.’ They did this ‘only for popular books’ though. Sci-fi & fantasy and YA and other unpopular (?) genres were still fraternizing.”
Rae goes on:
“It was very frustrating from a discovery standpoint, because I went looking for a few vacation reads, and I wanted to BROWSE, DANGIT. But I had to browse two separate sections. I don’t understand how separating them makes it easier to find books–John Grisham still starts with a G-R-I no matter what section he’s in… ”
And here’s the kicker:
“The owner was a woman.”
Hmmm. My own knee-jerk reaction is that this is, in fact, good ol’ fashioned “separate but equal” literary sexism (and, sadly, it’s really nothing new). I don’t personally seek out authors by gender – I enjoy just browsing the shelves and stumbling on new titles and authors. By separating the males from the females, these booksellers are decreasing the potential for discoverability. But maybe they don’t necessarily care about that? Maybe they know that their regular customers will make a bee-line for their favorite authors anyway? It’s hard to say. (It’s also problemactic that sci-fi/fantasy/YA fiction is considered unpopular in this store, but that’s an issue for another post.)
So tell me: what do YOU think of all of this? Is this a “Shelfgate” situation, or is it just a matter of a bookshop trying something “different” in the interest of good customer service? Tell me your thoughts in the comments.
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