Masculine Concerns about Feminist Kool-Aid
By David Gilmour, a professor at University of Toronto, said this:
“I’m not interested in teaching books by women. Virginia Woolf is the only writer that interests me as a woman writer, so I do teach one of her short stories. But once again, when I was given this job I said I would only teach the people that I truly, truly love. Unfortunately, none of those happen to be Chinese, or women. Except for Virginia Woolf. And when I tried to teach Virginia Woolf, she’s too sophisticated, even for a third-year class
. Usually at the beginning of the semester a hand shoots up and someone asks why there aren’t any women writers in the course. I say I don’t love women writers enough to teach them, if you want women writers go down the hall. What I teach is guys. Serious heterosexual guys. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Chekhov, Tolstoy. Real guy-guys. Henry Miller. Philip Roth.”
Belle Waring offers her own opinions on some of the most important male writers of the modern era. There’s something here for everyone. Belle’s great posts, some really thoughtful comments and some some really unfortunate ones. One thing this whole kerfuffle makes certain, though, is that the more we discuss this stuff, the more evident it becomes that we desperately need feminism.
The title of this post refers to the first iteration of the Gilmour interview I read (which I can no longer find), wherein he talks about “masculine concerns.” I always cringe when people say “I love X, but it just so happens that no one who makes the X I like is black or a woman or gay” or whatever. I suppose that when it comes to art, either stuff resonates or it doesn’t. So, ok, you only like white guys who write. I think that’s extraordinarily unfortunate and may be indicative of some flaw in you, but…well, ok. I guess. But could someone explain to me what “masculine concerns” are? I’m baffled. It’s not jock itch, is it?