How to Suppress Women's Writing

"How to Suppress Women's Writing" is a book by Joanna Russ, published in 1983."How to Suppress Women's Writing" Russ, Joanna. University of Texas. 1983. ISBN 0292724454] Written in the style of an irreverent sarcastic guidebook, it explains how the author believes that women and minorities are prevented from producing written works.

The methods used that the book outlines are:
#Denial of Agency (deny that a woman wrote it)
#Pollution of Agency (show that their art is immodest, not actually art, or shouldn't have been written about)
#The Double Standard of Content (one set of experiences is considered more valuable than another)
#False Categorizing (women artists are categorized as the wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, or lovers of male artists)
#Isolation (the myth of isolated achievement: only one work, or a short series of poems are considered great)" [http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/exrushow.html How to Suppress Women's Writing] " : excerpts from the book]

Reception

Feminist scholars and scholars who write about civil rights generally received the book positively."From the Editor's Perspective: "The Feminist Critique: Mastering Our Monstrosity" by Shari Benstock Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Autumn, 1983), pp. 137-149] ["The Imperial Scholar Revisited: How to Marginalize Outsider Writing, Ten Years Later" by Richard Delgado University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Vol. 140, No. 4 (Apr., 1992), pp. 1349-1372] It is highly regarded by these scholars for its cutting humor and wit, as well as its disarming and novel presentation of the problems of sexism and racism in the arenas of art and writing."From the Editor's Perspective: "The Feminist Critique: Mastering Our Monstrosity" by Shari Benstock Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Autumn, 1983), pp. 137-149]

References