WiHM: Sexism In Horror?

Back in January, the Horror Writers Association hosted one of their monthly roundtable discussions.  The topic that month was “Sexism in Horror:”

Sexism in Horror 

With so many brilliant female horror writers (think Anne Rice, Shirley Jackson, Daphne Du Maurier, Lisa Morton, Nancy Holder, Sarah Pinborough, Lisa Tuttle, Sarah Langan, Kaaron Warren, and many more), why is it that few of them–if any–ever appear on lists of the ‘best horror writers’? Is that the industry’s fault, or the fans? Is there sexism in the horror genre, a bias towards male writers, or is it just that there are more male writers? If a magazine gets 300 submissions for an issue and the majority is from males, isn’t it likely that the final Table of Contents will contain mostly men? Is that the magazine’s fault for not actively pursuing female submissions? And what if they’re then bullied into putting out a ‘women only’ issue; is that fair? If sexism is prevalent across the horror genre, what can be done about it, and where does the fault lie?

Click here for the details on the panelists and to follow the entire discussion in the comments.

I really liked that the HWA tackled this issue head on, and did it in the month prior to WiHM celebrations.

In fact, during this month of February, the HWA’s Blog is running a special series of guest posts by female and male writers on the topic of Women in Horror.

The conversation is more powerful and useful when voices from both genders can be heard.

Between the roundtable and the blog posts, I highly suggest you take a look at what the genre’s association is doing to help educate everyone on Women in Horror.