tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29793018.post6740677619455468356..comments2024-01-31T04:29:38.858-06:00Comments on The Outfit: A Collective of Chicago Crime Writers: And the Winner Is...Sean Chercoverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00939494866272006802noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29793018.post-22135489352751544522009-11-11T14:54:10.660-06:002009-11-11T14:54:10.660-06:00Why?
I can think of a few reasons.
From a charac...Why?<br /><br />I can think of a few reasons.<br /><br />From a character standpoint, women are physically weaker than men (for the most part) which makes them a more interesting victim in fiction. Men are expected to fight and escape, while women, if they do escape, it's usually because of something other than brute strength which makes for a more interesting story.<br /><br />From an Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29793018.post-67034827269367101592009-11-09T18:51:09.085-06:002009-11-09T18:51:09.085-06:00Hi JN,
I'm very cautious about the whole &quo...Hi JN,<br /><br />I'm very cautious about the whole "desensitized to violence" phrase, working as I do in the video games industry where the entire medium is constantly under attack for that very thing, and the attacks are almost always baseless.<br /><br />Instead of becoming desensitized to violence, I'd say readers/gamers/viewers/fans of all types are becoming hungrier for Steerpikenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29793018.post-28483852349164210152009-11-09T10:11:20.792-06:002009-11-09T10:11:20.792-06:00Hi.
Love this blog and mysteries/suspense books.
T...Hi.<br />Love this blog and mysteries/suspense books.<br />Thank you for commenting on this topic which has bothered me for some time. Books, as well as TV and movies seem to just gratuitously add too much information/detail on violence against women. I personally am no longer watching such shows/movies and if a book starts to get into too much graphic detail, I just quit reading it. Those Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02230604711993382182noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29793018.post-35456154653616172802009-11-06T14:58:41.214-06:002009-11-06T14:58:41.214-06:00Dana, help, your right! Of course, I meant the la...Dana, help, your right! Of course, I meant the last three had been African-American--no, wait. I'll correct the post tomorrow.<br />Kevin, you may be right that women make more "appealing" victims than men--that society makes us want to protect women and rely on men to do the protecting. What troubles me is the way the graphic descriptions of women as victims keep getting Sara Paretskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17803185134430978343noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29793018.post-1719236112951678952009-11-06T14:05:48.123-06:002009-11-06T14:05:48.123-06:00Guys have regular fantasies about Saving The Girl,...Guys have regular fantasies about Saving The Girl, which I imagine must have some impact on the volume of these stories and the amounts they sell.<br /><br />What troubles me is that there may be some implication, in the abundance of such novels, that victimization of women may minimize the victimization of women in real life. "That it's done in books" may be okay when it comes to Steerpikenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29793018.post-12821265185561780572009-11-06T12:46:13.841-06:002009-11-06T12:46:13.841-06:00Sara, I've had this conversation a number of t...Sara, I've had this conversation a number of times with both writers and readers. The only thing that seems clear about it to me is that both men and women seem to react to women-in-peril stories differently than they do to men-in-peril stories. That's a huge generalization, of course, but what I mean is that "woman in peril" seems to be the sort of instinctive default of our Kevin Guilfoilehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08239157460247794910noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29793018.post-76324733406670047322009-11-06T11:46:32.845-06:002009-11-06T11:46:32.845-06:00I was at your Bouchercon panel where this was disc...I was at your Bouchercon panel where this was discussed, and the only way to keep this type of violence from showing up so often is for women to stop buying and reading this type of book. Publishers print what sells, and every stat I've seen most book sales are to women. There must be something about these kinds of stories that appeals to women, though the explanations I heard at Bouchercon Dana Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01350344882342624735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29793018.post-61284376481379199262009-11-06T09:17:37.121-06:002009-11-06T09:17:37.121-06:00Sara, this is an astute essay on a topic that a lo...Sara, this is an astute essay on a topic that a lot of people would probably like you to keep quiet on. I'm ashamed to admit that I've become desensitized to violence against women in fiction, almost because, as you pointed out, there is so much out there it's hard to avoid. A recent book I'm reading (R.J. Ellory's "A Quiet Belief in Angels") is so beautifully Laura Caldwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06396533460653770101noreply@blogger.com