[LMB] Why LMB just doesn't count

[Marna Nightingale]

Beth Mitcham wrote:

> While wandering around panels at Norwescon this weekend I was told
> repeatedly that Lois McMaster Bujold just doesn't count.  And by different
> people each time! 

... Isn't this in _How to Suppress Women's Writing_ somewhere? *checks* 
Oh, look, right there on the cover: "She wrote it, but she's an anomaly".

I think about 1/3 of the intro I wrote for Ethan of Athos was on this 
approximate topic, actually. I'd repost that bit here, but a) I have no 
idea if I have the legal right to do so and b) I have no idea where the 
actual file is, because that was two computers ago, and all I have handy 
atm is a scan of the pages.

As long as we're sharing "weird things people have said to us about 
Lois" stories, though...

Right after Mirror Dance came out, at a con where she was GoH. Pleasant 
young man in his late teens.

"... But she looks like somebody's MOTHER!"

So I told him she was. Didn't seem to help.

Also, if hanging around fandom, especially slash fandom, has taught me 
anything of general redeeming social value, it is that when someone 
complains about women not writing realistic men, it's good to ask that 
person who they think DOES.

If their answer is, to take a far-out example, EE Doc Smith, you may 
wish to consider the possibility that they mean "doesn't write men the 
way I want to think men are".

Marna, considering taking to suggesting in public that William 
Shakespeare transcended the limitations of his gender just to watch the 
fun. That could be even more amusing that referring to Thomas More as 
"Martyr, not a virgin" has proven ...