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Re:‘George Eliot’ joins 24 female authors making debuts unde... by chrisseaton on Friday August 14, 2020 @06:48AM (#24156272)
Lots of women are called George. I know at least three and they’re different generations. If I heard someone was called George I don’t think I’d assume either way. I think that’s the whole point of why multiple female authors picked it as a pen name isn’t it?
Re:‘George Eliot’ joins 24 female authors making debuts unde... by awinder on Friday August 14, 2020 @08:42AM (#24157125)
...really? Georgina / Georgia / Gina are common feminine forms (US anyways). The point of picking George was to pick an unassailably male name so no one would question if the works came from a female brain.
Re:‘George Eliot’ joins 24 female authors making debuts unde... by chrisseaton on Friday August 14, 2020 @09:07AM (#24157388)
Maybe you're an expert on this subject and I don't know what I'm talking about, but I think the point was to pick an common ambiguous name, so people could assume it was male if that was their bias but that it was also female. Note that three of the authors in this collection independently picked George as a plausibly-male name. I don't think that's a co-incidence.
Re:‘George Eliot’ joins 24 female authors making debuts unde... by awinder on Friday August 14, 2020 @09:28AM (#24157657)
I’m not picking a fight I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t walking into expert level trolling. It’s not an accident at all, you’re right. But this was not some happy thing in the 1800s. They picked George because it’s historically a male gendered name, so that small men would know they’re reading men’s work and it’s to be taken seriously and not laughed at in derision.