Author reports book rejection because he is just plain too white and male

Submitted by Mastodon on Thu, 2018-08-23 20:09

Article here. Excerpt:

'I got some bad news this week. I discovered that I’m a ‘privileged, white male’. It was my agent who broke it to me. We were talking about the trouble he’s having in finding a publisher for my book — a work of non-fiction — when the following exchange took place.
...
Agent: You’re a middle-aged, privileged white man. You’re out of fashion — and so is your book. Publishers think you’re too male. Too white. Things are difficult for writers like you at the moment.
...
At that moment I realised that my pose of high-minded neutrality was no longer an option. I’ve always sat back and watched the carnival of contemporary identity politics pass by with a mix of amusement, a touch of condescension and the occasional recognition that maybe these people have the odd point. But overall, it didn’t really affect me. Until now.

Clearly my live-and-let-live liberalism is old-fashioned in the current war of words. Yet must I rise up, get off the fence and rush to the defence of my particular identity group with the cry of, ‘Old white guys of the world, unite! We have nothing to lose but our privileges!’?'

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Comments

A word-for-word transcript of his convo with the publisher? Was his phone recording the convo using the Voice Memo app or something?

This is a bit too well-scripted an article to strike me as reflecting an actual event. He is far too care-free in his relating to be convincing. Frankly, I call bullshit.

But it's a fun read.

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Submitted by Matt on Sat, 2018-08-25 03:43

Well, nothing ends racism and sexism like more racism and sexism, now does it?
While we're using this "logic" why not start putting out house fires with flamethrowers?
Same mentality. :-/

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Submitted by ErikaLancastor on Sat, 2018-08-25 18:05

For my money, feminists are the most sexist people out there.

Feminists claim men hate women. They call it "misogyny." In my experience, most men have the opposite problem: they put way too much importance on female approval and affection.

I suspect feminists knew the latter was true, so they knew men would dread being called "misogynists."

It worked.

That allowed feminists to be uber sexists while nobody noticed.

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Submitted by el cid on Sun, 2018-08-26 15:38